Wednesday morning, first period. A student erupts in the middle of class. “I want to die,” the 8th grader yells, within earshot of their peers. A paraeducator covers the class while the teacher walks the student down to the counseling office. A team of administrators documents the incident, does a suicide risk assessment, and writes a crisis center referral. The student’s parents soon come to pick them up.
A short time later at the same school, a teacher leads an SEL lesson about mental health. By the end of it, a student shuts down. She plants herself on the classroom floor, covers her face with her hair, and goes silent. The bell rings, and her classmates file out of the room. A counselor spends the next 30 minutes trying to convince the student to come to the counseling office. Once there, she admits to self-harming at home. She says it would be better if she weren’t alive. Another risk assessment, another crisis center referral.
Lunchtime is almost over when a 6th grader’s ex-boyfriend airdrops explicit photos of her to other kids in the cafeteria. Administrators intervene; because both kids are minors, they call the non-emergency police. The girl is embarrassed and panicking.
Toward the end of the day, a school security officer stops a girl in the hall for suspected vaping. When her mother comes to the school, she reveals texts she found between her daughter and another student about meeting in the school bathroom to exchange drugs. The police and the other student’s parents are called, and another referral—this time to a crisis center for substance abuse—is written.
All days don’t look like this, a staff member at the school shared with me, but enough are starting to resemble it to make it seem fairly routine. As U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says, the challenges today’s youth face are “unprecedented” and inevitably make their way into schools. Research shows that mental health impacts nearly every aspect of teaching and learning. Depression and anxiety, for example, have been linked to lower attendance, poor academic performance, and reduced concentration. As this issue of Educational Leadership emphasizes, schools have a crucial role to play both in terms of preventative work and trauma-informed practice.
Mental health impacts nearly every aspect of teaching and learning.
One key protective factor, several articles note, is strong relationships—connecting each student with a trusted adult with whom they can confide. In the school highlighted here, the positive rapport staff had built prior to that day was essential to de-escalating those incidences and connecting families with additional support. This year, the school brought in a social worker who provides direct therapeutic services to a small caseload of students.
When they make intentional connections, educators can better recognize when something seems off. If a student shows major behavior changes, like sudden withdrawal, as The Jed Foundation’s Tony Walker notes, “there’s reason for concern.” Educators aren’t expected to be therapists, but they can be the right person at the right time. As articles in this issue show, mental health matters for student learning and success. Helping students be well—and find joy—requires attentiveness, intentional structures, and compassion. Reflect & Discuss
➛ Has your school codified
a systemwide response to
student trauma?
➛ What trauma-inducing
triggers have you observed
in your own school or
classroom?
➛ How predictable are your
school and classroom
routines? What could you
do to make them more
predictable?
➛ When your school hosts health-related activities, like “wellness fairs” or workshops, does content focus on caring for mental health as much as physical health?
➛ Consider the idea of being an “emotion scientist” versus an “emotion judge.” Might an “emotion scientist” approach change how certain students’ behavior affects you?
➛ How could you talk with students about being an emotion scientist vs. emotion judge—and what might result if you did?
➛ Do you have negative feelings
toward teen social media
use? Did this article change
any of those perceptions?
➛ Do you talk to your students
about social media or
incorporate it into your
teaching in any way? Why or
why not?
➛ How do you see student autonomy as contributing to improved student mental health?
➛ What practices or policies has your school initiated to reduce student stress?
➛ Do you give students leeway in designing their own learning?
