Education Week - March 2, 2022 - 5

injury and suicide cases in children ages 5 to 17 were
up 45 percent in the first half of 2021 compared with
the same period in 2019.
Children are also affected by the pandemic's
damage to those around them.
" Every year, we have students who lose a loved
one, " said Teshia Stovall Dula, a counselor at Hull
Middle School in Gwinnett County, Ga. " But over the
last two years, we have had more students who have
lost loved ones and some kids have lost even more
than one family member. We have more grief. "
Dula paused her interview with Education Week
to greet a student who came to her door: " How can I
help you, sweetheart? " This was just one of the 400
students under her care.
Another issue Dula is seeing at her school is that
students' social skills are worse: " Kids seem even less
mature. "
She's doing more conflict resolutions and peer
mediation this year than any she can remember in the
past and she's been a school counselor since 1998.
Now that students are mostly back to learning full
time in person, some of the stressors driving anxiety
and depression among children and teens have eased.
But new issues are arising, tied to the ongoing effects
of the pandemic: Nearly half of school and district
leaders said in a December survey by the EdWeek
Research Center that their school or district is getting
more threats of violence by students than in fall of
2019. Two out of 3 teachers, principals, and district
leaders say students are misbehaving more now than
they did before the pandemic.
Educators in urban and suburban districts were
more likely to report an increase in student threats
and misbehavior.
Students see the toll firsthand
The early days of the pandemic were lonely and
scary for Katie Herring, an 11th grader at Pine Grove
High School. She missed her social life and worried
about getting sick or her loved ones falling ill.
" You can feel really alone. You can start to lose sight
of how loved you are, " she said.
But being back in the school building with
her friends daily doesn't mean the worrying has
stopped-especially after losing two schoolmates this
past fall to suicide.
" I was actually walking into a cheer practice,
and one of my friends told me, and it was the same
reaction as hearing about the first suicide: It is just
shock. ... You want to believe that it's a rumor, " she
said. " All of us cheerleaders, we just hugged each
other, a few of us were crying because we knew the
person. It makes you even more worried about your
friends. ... Even if they say they're OK, you have that
thought in your head, 'Are they really? Are they hiding
it from you?' "
That's why she got involved with her school's
Aevidum chapter, which helps students raise
awareness of suicide and reduce the stigma around
mental health in their school. That might mean
running campaigns to educate students and staff
on the warning signs of depression and suicide,
informing students of resources available to them
such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and
designating and staffing a table in the cafeteria set
aside for any student who needs someone to sit with.
The school's counselor, Alison Gimbi, is
encouraged by the results so far. A lot of students and
teachers are trying to open up more about mental
health, and it's changing the stigma around the issue.
" Students are coming into the counselor's office
more because they are more comfortable talking
about it, " Gambi said. " We don't just get the kids
after something is already a problem. It's helped us
do prevention, not just reaction work. "
Nationally, student demand for school-based
mental health services is up. Nearly 9 in 10 teachers
and school and district leaders surveyed by the
EdWeek Research Center in February said that the
percentage of students seeking school-based mental
health services has increased since the fall of 2019.
Nearly half said they do not have the staff needed
to meet students' mental health needs.
And neither do their surrounding communities,
which are also stretched thin by a metastasizing
mental health crisis.
That's the case in Pine Grove, said Janicelli, the
principal.
" I think if you called right now and said, 'I need
to see someone,' it might be a six-month wait, " said
Janicelli.
School counselors and psychologists are referring
students to specialists outside their schools, which is
standard practice, only to have parents come back to
them and say they can't get their child in anywhere.
" I am seeing more kids experiencing crisis
symptoms and anxiety and self-reported and
diagnosed PTSD, " said Amy Cannava, a school
psychologist at Wakefield High School in Arlington,
Va. " I think it's overwhelming our mental health
practices in the area, but I want to scream back, I
am overwhelmed, too. You have the ability to turn
people away. I don't, nor should I. "
Cannava currently serves around 2,500 students
with the help of another full-time psychologist and a
part-time psychologist as well as school counselors
and social workers.
" I have some of the best ratios I have ever had, "
she said, " and I can't even begin to describe how
busy we are. "
What staff shortages mean in practice
Education Week's analysis found that 17 states
don't have a single district meeting the ideal ratio
of 1 psychologist to 500 students, affecting about
STUDENT AND STAFF MENTAL HEALTH: EMERGING FROM COVID'S CRISIS | 5
14%
of districts meet the
recommended ratios
for school counselors
9%
of districts report having
no school counselors
SOURCE: National Center
for Education Statistics,
Education Week
8%
of all districts meet the
recommended ratio
of school psychologists
to students
39%
of districts report having
no school psychologists
17
states
have no districts meeting
the recommended
psychologist ratio.
This includes Hawaii,
which is a single-district
state.
Education Week - March 2, 2022

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