Roman Gralak

With the school year in full swing, the thought of self care for high school students can be left behind. During the high school years, it can be a time of serious change in several different aspects of life. Changes in friends and school workloads can leave many in a time of uncertainty. Due to these factors, many students develop feelings of helplessness, anxiety and overall, sadness or stress. To their credit, leadership at school have identified this potential problem and tried to support students in this time. However, it is the true while the school has plans in place, they only seem visible this can be seen only during finals week. Sometimes if feels like the school treats student mental health as if it only is worse during specific times throughout the year, but mental health issues can happen anywhere, at anytime, to anyone. 

A study conducted by Pew Research Center 7 concluded that 13% of American teenagers stated that they had experienced depression, or had at least one major depressive episode within the last year. A study conducted more recently in by Mental Health America in 2022 stated that 15.08% of american teenagers have struggled with depression. That is a two percent increase within five years. In my personal experience, finals week is actually the most calm time of year. It’s always the two months before finals week that teachers are trying to get through all their curriculum for the first semester when i feel the most stress. Once in the month of September, I had felt so stressed to the point of crash-and-burn. I advocated for myself and talked to friends and family members about this experience, but I know that others are not as lucky as me to have a great support system. Sometimes people rely on school to be their safe haven and if that is disrupted in anyway it can cause severe distress within the individual.

To be fair, the school hastaken tremendous steps to improve mental health offerings within the last year. Which include on-site social workers, their “seize the awkward,” movement, and also by including calming activities in the library such as coloring pages and origami. By having these options within the school with easy access to all students to participate in, it allows for some students to feel more support. Although these are offered to students, many do not know about them. The school has QR codes posted throughout the halls to schedule a course meeting with their conselor, so why can’t we implement this in ways to support mental health. If one QR code was posted in each class room advocating for the mental health services avalible, I am sure students would take advantage of that in time of distress. Or even posters hung in the cafeterias, or commons stating that if you ar ein a time of distress, there are people within the school to talk to. 

Overall, the school should prioritize mental health awareness throughout the school year rather than just specifically during one area of time. Although the school is doing what they thunk is best at this moment, improvements can always be made to better CHS. 

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Kate Loper at [email protected].