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In this article Black students experience trauma from racist incidents at school from NBC news is about Saama Sane who was heavily discriminated against and racially harassed in his private school. He exclaimed  “I stopped loving myself because I realized the community did not love who I actually was.” These events create trauma in students of color and it’s not something they can just let go of. This happens to many students of color all around the world. Teachers need to be aware of students' backgrounds, and teach their students about acceptance in the classroom. Teachers need to teach about the inequalities in our world and how African Americans have been discriminated against for years.

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Saama Sane said that when he was a junior at Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Massachusetts, a white student repeatedly called him the N-word as he sat at a table in the library. Sane said he responded by yelling insults back and ended up on the floor in a headlock, all while five white students, some of them laughing, stood by watching. He reported the incident, and the school, which enrolls just over 600 and charges tuition upward of $58,000 a year for boarding students, took disciplinary action against the student, he said.

But Sane felt suffocated at the school, he told NBC News. And the wounds from that incident and many others seemed to still be fresh even after graduating.

"I stopped loving myself because I realized the community did not love who I actually was," Sane said.

Since he graduated, he feels as though he can finally be himself, said Sane, a rising sophomore at Boston College. He has reclaimed his love for making music, something he felt he had to give up at Nobles, as the school is commonly known, for fear of being made fun of by classmates.

A spokesperson said the school could not comment on the specifics of the incident but said, "Noble and Greenough School takes expressions of racism - spoken or physical - with great seriousness and responds accordingly."

In recent weeks, Black students and alumni of elite private high schools, including Nobles, the Brearley School in New York, Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and Trinity School in New York, have created Instagram accounts where their peers can anonymously share experiences with racism.

The accounts, with usernames that begin with the words "BlackAt," are part of a broader trend of students' exposing racism through social media, Taylor Lorenz and Katherine Rosman reported in The New York Times.

While many schools have released statements vowing to change, in some cases, the damage has been done, students and graduates say. In their posts on Instagram, Black students have described racist incidents, an inability to ask faculty for help and support, a lack of confidence and trust in authority figures and general feelings of being outsiders.

Catherine Hall, head of school at Nobles, said the school is listening to the stories shared by graduates and striving to be more equitable and inclusive.

"We are working with a group of current student leaders and have also established a Graduates of Color Task Force - a group of graduates spanning six decades - to help plan our work ahead," Hall said in a statement provided to NBC News.

The experiences detailed in social media accounts can affect Black students' mental health and how they approach education, experts said.

Black students are prepared for the academic stress of top private schools, said Howard Stevenson, a clinical psychologist and professor of urban education who researches racial trauma at the University of Pennsylvania. "But what really bothers them is the social status, having to navigate who they are as people of color," he said.

Stevenson studies racial stress and how educators, community leaders and parents can address it. He said Black students often lack a sense of belonging within their private school environments, which - in combination with the racism they experience - affects their long-term mental health.

JahAsia Jacobs, 22, is a graduate of Blair Academy, a private school of about 460 in Blairstown, New Jersey. "I don't feel like I ever belonged to a 'Blair community,'" she said. "I don't think of myself as being a part of the people who the Blair administration protects."

Jacobs said that while she was at the school, she internalized the hurt and lost a part of herself because of the constant microaggressions she battled. As a result, she said, "I really wasn't involved in much outside of classes at Blair and beyond what they required me to do."

"There were so many opportunities, and I found myself not really taking those up, because I just didn't want to endure anything that was more racist or more alienating than I already had," she said.

Jacobs said she got involved in extracurricular activities again only once she got to college, where she has worked as an activist and co-hosted a race and resistance symposium.

"I am just very deeply involved in all the things that I wanted to be doing at Blair but didn't feel comfortable doing," she said.

in a recent statement to the Blair community, Chris Fortunato, Blair's head of school, revealed a plan to further diversity, equity and inclusion.

"We are all committed to more fully ensure that we are an inclusive, safe and welcoming community for every student and every adult," he said. The plan includes increased faculty training, a curriculum audit, efforts to hire a more diverse faculty and a commitment to engage with issues of bias with transparency.

The sense of belonging that Jacobs said she lacked at Blair is essential for the development of young people, said Beverly Daniel Tatum, a psychologist and author of "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Race."

"When you are an adolescent in particular, trying to define your sense of identity, who you are, what you hope to be in the future - if you don't feel understood, you're likely to experience a sense of alienation and discomfort," Tatum said.

The consequences of working to fit in

Kynnedi Hines, 17, said she has hidden a part of herself to fit in at Woodward Academy, a private school near Atlanta. She self-censors her speech and tries not to bring any unwanted attention to herself.

The anxiety is the residual effect of a racist encounter with her middle school principal four years ago, Kynnedi said. In her post on the @ blackatwoodward page, she describes the time she and a classmate tried to plan a prom for their entire class. When they met with the principal to get approval, they were told they could not have an "African American-only dance" and that they would need to get signatures from their white peers supporting the event.

When reached by NBC News, the principal had no comment.

Stuart Gulley, president of Woodward Academy, said the former middle school principal retired in May. He said the school will encourage teachers and faculty to participate in "intensive diversity training," which has been offered for at least 11 years. The school will also host discussions with faculty and trained facilitators to digest their mandatory summer reading of "So You Want to Talk About Race."

"Over time, our hope is that we're going to create systemic change and that that change will be long term and regularly evaluated and reflect our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion," Gulley said.

Kynnedi, a rising senior, is captain of the basketball cheerleading team and a tour guide for prospective students, but the encounter, which happened her first year at Woodward, has stuck with her, making her feel intimidated and wary of standing out.

When Black students experience racism, they are often just as hurt by the teachers who stand by and say nothing as they are by the perpetrator, Stevenson said. Black students need to know that their teachers will stand up for them and that acts of racism are not their burden to carry alone, he added.

What has stuck with Kennedy Austin, 22, is the feeling of powerlessness in the face of authority figures.

"I don't know what it's like to be a white student, and if you feel that, but especially as a Black student, you know that [teachers] have a lot more power than you do. And a lot of times they can say or do whatever they want," she said.

Austin started in kindergarten at the Berkeley Carroll School, a private pre-K-12 school in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated in 2015. The stories she shares in the @blackatbc group span elementary through high school. Her accounts include having been hypersexualized by teachers during health class, a white classmate's insistence that she would have helped her escape slavery, having been forced to translate the word "negrita" in class and a general sense of doubt about her ability to get into the colleges of her choice from peers and teachers.

She said that by the time she was given the chance to be herself and to feel empowered, the belief that she was powerless had already been ingrained.

"I've never felt comfortable going to office hours or having those 'I need help' conversations with my teachers, because historically they had never been the ones to help me," Austin said.

The exception came in ninth grade, when Black teachers allowed Austin to feel comfortable asking for support. Even then, she said, it took until her junior year of college to really build the skill.

A representative of the school wrote in a statement to NBC News: "We have been reading and carefully processing the stories from our Black alums and students on the 'Black at BC' Instagram and share their goal of ensuring that Berkeley Carroll is a supportive and welcoming environment for the Black community."

Austin said that although her main interest is in sociology, she is more comfortable in the Africana studies department at her college because of the support she feels she will get.

Despite their traumas, students have found ways to heal. Since graduating, many have found happiness at their colleges and in new communities.

"The only reason I'm thankful for Nobles is because I had to become a way stronger kid because of that school," Sane said.

But, according to Tatum, surviving the schools is not what is in question. These students have the ability to make it through, she said.

"The question is, should it have to be that hard? It should not."

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Black students experience trauma from racist incidents at school, experts say

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Social media accounts, with usernames beginning with the words "BlackAt," have revealed Black students' accounts of racist incidents at elite private schools.

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The article Study finds ‘huge’ increase in children going to the emergency room with Suicidal thoughs from CNN is very concerning. The amount of children going to hospital for suicidal thoughts has increased, especially after the pandemic. The amount of treatment facilities has decreased 30% since 2012 which is even more alarming. The mental health of children and teens has never been at more of a low then it is now. In a pre-k to 4 classroom teachers need to create a social and emotional curriculum that is inclusive for all students. Teachers need to understand their students and their backgrounds. Teachers need to be emotionally sensitive and never punish kids for emotional outbreaks.

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Editor's Note: If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters, please call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or visit the hotline's website.

There has been a steady increase in the number of children who are seen in emergency rooms for suicidal thoughts, according to a new study - and the increase started even before the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought record high demand for psychological services for children.

The pandemic's effects drew renewed attention to suicide in teens and young children.In June, the Biden administration called the recent rise in rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts among kids an "unprecedented mental health crisis."

The study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, used data from hospitals in Illinois. The researchers looked at the number of children ages 5 to 19 who sought help for suicide in emergency departments between January 2016 and June 2021.

In that period, there were 81,051 emergency department visits by young peoplethat were coded for suicidal ideation. About a quarter of those visits turned into hospital stays.

The study found that visits to the ER with suicidal thoughts increased 59% from 2016-17 to 2019-21. There was a corresponding increase in cases in which suicidal ideation was the principal diagnosis, which rose from 34.6% to 44.3%.

Hospitalizations for suicidal thoughts increased 57% between fall 2019 and fall 2020.

"It just really highlights how mental health concerns were really a problem before the pandemic. I mean, we saw this huge increase in [emergency department] visits for kids of all ages, honestly, in 2019, and it's very concerning," said study co-author Dr. Audrey Brewer, an attending physician in advanced general pediatrics and primary care at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and a researcher in the Department of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "We saw more kids than we typically do that we ... wouldn't necessarily have thought would have problems about suicidal ideation. We saw 5-year-olds.

"To see them presenting to emergency departments for mental health or for suicide-ideation-related visits is very concerning."

Brewer thinks the true numbers are probably much higher than what the study found, because not all children who struggle with thoughts of suicide go to the emergency room.

Experts say it's not a problem unique to any one state.

Dr. Nicholas Holmes, senior vice president and chief operating officer at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego, said the increase in the number of kids seeking help in his health care system has been "profound."

"Over the last nine years, where we would see about anywhere from one to two patients a day that were having a behavioral health crisis, now we're seeing 20-plus a day," said Holmes, who was not involved in the new research.

He said Rady, the largest pediatric hospital on the West Coast, is fortunate to have an inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric unit.

To help more of these children, Holmes' hospital system is working with county health and human services to help create a pediatric-focused mental and behavioral health campus. It will double the size of Rady's inpatient behavioral health unit, in addition to beefing up services for children who need therapy but don't need to be hospitalized.

Other places in the US aren't so lucky. There is a nationwide shortage of beds for kids who need mental health help, research shows. A 2020 federal survey found that the number of residential treatment facilities for kids had fallen 30% from where it was in 2012.

The care shortage has come alongside a significant increase in the prevalence of mental health challenges that can lead to suicide. In 2019, 1 in 3 high school students and half of all female students reported persistent feelings of hopelessness and sadness, up from 40% in 2009. And there was a 36% increase in students who reported considering suicide, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new study cannot determine exactly why so many more young people are going to a hospital with thoughts of suicide, but Brewer thinks it may be a combination of factors.

Many of the children who were hospitalized with suicidal thoughts had other mental health problems like anxiety, depression and substance use, she said.

Children also are responding to trauma in their lives and social influences on their health like poverty, historical trauma and marginalization, trouble at school, online bullying and the pressures brought by social media, in addition to a lack of access to counseling and therapy.

Brewer said adults can intervene when a child is thinking about suicide. She advises caregivers to be on the lookout for problems at school or among friends and to watch for a child who is isolating themselves or showing signs of more anxiety or aggression than usual.

"They may act out or have problems sleeping. Irritability and being more withdrawn and isolating themselves are a lot of things that we oftentimes will think about," Brewer said.

It never hurts to seek help from a pediatrician about how to help a child who's struggling.

"It's important for parents to feel empowered to really sit back and listen to their kids and talk to them. Really try to relate and understand what is going on with them and help promote positive relationships," Brewer said.

She said she hopes mental health care will become less stigmatized and more available to children.

"We really need to develop more of a strategy to help support all kinds in different ways and really focus on some of those traumas and social influences of health," Brewer said. "We need to make sure more children will have safe places to grow and thrive."

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health and health care (by demographic group)

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Study finds 'huge' increase in children going to the emergency room with suicidal thoughts | CNN

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There has been a steady increase in the number of children who are seen in emergency rooms for suicidal thoughts, according to a new study -- and the increase started even before the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought record high demand for psychological services for children.

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In the article LGBTQ groups sue florida over so-called 'don't say gay' law  from PBS news says that gay rights advocates are suing Florida Governer Ron Desantis to block a new law that forbids classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender from kindersgarten thorugh third grade. Critics call it the “Don’t Say Gay” law and argue that its true intent is to marginalize LGBTQ people and their families. Children have exclaimed they are scared to talk about their families in school. In school, students should be able to be what they want and not be afraid to tlak about ehir identity or sexaul orientation. This  can cause embarrassment and future anxiety with being confident with their identity.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Gay rights advocates sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday to block a new law that forbids classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

The law has catapulted Florida and DeSantis, a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, to the forefront of the country's culture wars. Critics call it the "Don't Say Gay" law and argue that its true intent is to marginalize LGBTQ people and their families.

The challenge filed in federal court in Tallahassee on behalf of Equality Florida and Family Equality alleges that the law violates the constitutionally protected rights of free speech, equal protection and due process of students and families.

"This effort to control young minds through state censorship - and to demean LGBTQ lives by denying their reality - is a grave abuse of power," the lawsuit says.

"The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that LGBTQ people and their families are at home in our constitutional order. The State of Florida has no right to declare them outcasts, or to treat their allies as outlaws, by punishing schools where someone dares to affirm their identity and dignity," the lawsuit says.
WATCH: How Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' law regulates school lessons on gender, sexual orientation
The law deliberately employs broad terms and invites arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement, empowering parents to be roving censors who can sue school boards for damages based on any perceived violation, the lawsuit adds.

The law states: "Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards." Parents would be able to sue districts over violations.

U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona met with LGBTQ students and their family members at a school in Orlando on Thursday, discussing privately how the legislation is affecting their lives. Cardona's visit was one of several Biden administration events Thursday showing support for the queer community, including a presidential proclamation recognizing Transgender Day of Visibility.

"We know while many transgender students experience valuable support at school, many others face significant challenges because of hostility directed at them by others," Cardona said. "This includes a growing number of state laws that bully and intimidate LGBTQI+ students and their families."

DeSantis and other Republicans have repeatedly described the rules as reasonable, saying children should learn about sexual orientation and gender identity from their parents, not in schools.

"We will make sure that parents can send their kids to school to get an education, not an indoctrination," the governor said when he signed it into law this week.

Many critics have said the law's language, particularly the phrases "classroom instruction" and "age appropriate," could be interpreted so broadly that discussion in any grade could trigger lawsuits, creating a classroom atmosphere where teachers would avoid the subjects entirely.

Intense public backlash followed the bill's introduction in Florida's Republican-controlled legislature this year, with the White House, Hollywood celebrities, students, Democrats and LGBTQ advocates condemning the policy. Legal challenges have been expected.
WATCH: Florida school uses art displays from around the world to promote diversity and inclusion
The filing by Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP and the National Center for Lesbian Rights seeks to block the law from taking effect and also names Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran and other education officials as defendants.

"Already, our children have told us that they are afraid that they will not be able to talk about their family at school," Dan and Brent VanTice, parents of two first-grade students, said in the statement announcing the suit. "We are heartbroken that our children are already feeling isolated and stigmatized by this law."

Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association union, said the law is politically motivated because elementary schools, especially in kindergarten through third grade, do not teach about these subjects and have state curriculum standards guiding classroom lessons.

The law adds fuel to a persistent feud between DeSantis and Democratic President Joe Biden, who tweeted after DeSantis signed the bill this week that "My Administration will continue to fight for dignity and opportunity for every student and family - in Florida and around the country." Cardona has said his agency will be monitoring for any federal civil rights violations that result.

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LGBTQ groups sue Florida over so-called 'Don't Say Gay' law

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Gay rights advocates sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday to block a new law that forbids classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. The law has catapulted Florida and DeSantis, a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, to the forefront of the country's culture wars.

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In the Article 15 students injured after school bus, dump trucks are involved in a crash from The Washington Post exclaims how a school bus crashed head on to a dump truck around 6:30 am on the way to South Mecklenburg High School. No one died, however many suffered from injuries from the crash including high school students. It is crucial for teachers to teach students about safety on buses and the procedures that they should follow while on the bus, especially wearing seatbelts.

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In this article called Physical activity as a preventative strategy against depression from Science daily explains how physical activity can casually reduce the risk of depression. In this study researchers use gene variants to study the effects of non-genetic factors in a different approach from traditional research. The results of the Mendelian randomization study show that accelerometer based physical activity does appear to prevent against the risk of depression. This is important for teaching Pre-k -4 because teachers can’t just rely on recess and students after school curriculums for students to do physical activity. Students should be moving around every 30 minutes or so in class to get their blood flow moving and have a better attitude towards schools.

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While many studies have found associations between greater levels of physical activity and lower rates of depression, a key question has remained -- does physical activity actually reduce the risk of depression or does depression lead to reduced physical activity? Now a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators has used a novel research method to strongly support physical activity as a preventive measure for depression. Their report is being published online in JAMA Psychiatry.

"Using genetic data, we found evidence that higher levels of physical activity may causally reduce risk for depression," says Karmel Choi, PhD, of the Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit in the MGH Center for Genomic Medicine, lead author of the report. "Knowing whether an associated factor actually causes an outcome is important, because we want to invest in preventive strategies that really work."

The technique used in the study -- Mendelian randomization -- uses gene variants to study the effects of a non-genetic factor in a different approach from that of traditional research. The gene variants are studied as a type of natural experiment in which people show higher or lower average levels of a factor like physical activity that are related to gene variants they have inherited. Because genetic variants are inherited in a relatively random fashion, they can serve as less biased proxies to estimate the true relationship between physical activity and depression. This approach can also determine which of two traits is actually causative -- if levels of trait A affects the levels of trait B but levels of trait B do not affect levels of trait A, that implies that trait A leads to trait B, but not vice versa.

For this study, the researchers identified gene variants from the results of large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) that were conducted for physical activity in the U.K. Biobank and for depression by a global research consortium. GWAS results for physical activity were available for two different measures: one based on 377,000 participants' self-reports of physical activity and the other based on readings of motion-detecting sensors called accelerometers, worn on the wrists of more than 91,000 participants. The GWAS for depression was based on data from more than 143,000 participants with and without this condition.

The results of the Mendelian randomization study indicated that accelerometer-based physical activity, but not self-reported activity, does appear to protect against the risk of depression. The differences between the two methods of measuring physical activity could result not only from inaccuracies in participants' memories or desire to present themselves in a positive way but also from the fact that objective readings capture things other than planned exercise -- walking to work, climbing the stairs, mowing the lawn -- that participants may not recognize as physical activity. The analysis revealed no causal relationship in the other direction, between depression and physical activity.

"On average," Choi says, "doing more physical activity appears to protect against developing depression. Any activity appears to be better than none; our rough calculations suggest that replacing sitting with 15 minutes of a heart-pumping activity like running, or with an hour of moderately vigorous activity, is enough to produce the average increase in accelerometer data that was linked to a lower depression risk."

Senior author Jordan Smoller, MD, ScD, director of the Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit and a professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, says, "While gene variants like those used in this study do not determine a person's behaviors or outcomes, their average associations with certain traits in these very large studies can help us look at a question such as whether physical activity -- or the tendency to engage in more physical activity -- has a likely causal effect on depression. And the answers to those questions could help researchers design large-scale clinical trials."

Choi adds, "And of course it's one thing to know that physical activity could be beneficial for preventing depression; it's another to actually get people to be physically active. More work needs to be done to figure out how best to tailor recommendations to different kinds of people with different risk profiles. We currently are looking at whether and how much physical activity can benefit different at-risk groups, such as people who are genetically vulnerable to depression or those going through stressful situations and hope to develop a better understanding of physical activity to promote resilience to depression."

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fitness; mental health research; sports medicine; workplace health; depression; mental health; psychiatry; intelligence

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Physical activity as a preventive strategy against depression: Genetic data suggests physical activity can protect against the risk of depression

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While many studies have found associations between greater levels of physical activity and lower rates of depression, a key question has remained -- does physical activity actually reduce the risk of depression or does depression lead to reduced physical activity?

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In this article Catfish scams target everyone from CNN a former Virginia State trooper catfished a 15 year old girl and allegedly killed the girls mother and grandparents. This article explains the importance of monitoring your child's online activity and teaching your children how to be safe online. Catfishing is a form of online deception where people use fake photos to create a fictional persona. In some cases the catfish can be child predators like in this case. This article explains the red flags parents should look out for and how to combat catfishing before it happens. Having open, honest and non-judgemental conversations with your children about online safety is crucial. This is important for teachers because students can show signs of online harassment in school which we need to be aware of.

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Catfishing crimes have ensnared people for years.

This week, a grieving family implored parents to monitor their children's online activity after a former Virginia state trooper catfished a 15-year-old girl online. He then traveled to Southern California, where he allegedly killed the girl's mother and grandparents.

"Parents, please, please know your child's online activity. Ask questions about what they are doing and whom they are talking to," said Michelle Blandin, the girl's aunt.

It's not the first catfishing scam to make headlines. Football player Manti Te'o, whose story was featured in a recent Netflix documentary, fell victim to a catfish hoax. Celebrities, including musician Brad Paisley, have also been victims of similar hoaxes.

So what's catfishing and why do people do it? And how can you protect yourself and your children? Here's what you need to know.

Catfishers target victims for a series of reasons

Catfishing is a form of online deception in which people use fake photos and identities to create a fictional persona. They do it for various reasons, including to target potential love interests or people they're trying to befriend.

Other catfishers can be child predators trying to gain the trust of a minor. In the Southern California case, Austin Lee Edwards, 28, portrayed himself as a teenager to lure the girl, authorities say. While investigators did not provide details on what platforms the suspect used or how long he knew her, catfishers can be found on most social media platforms.

"Catfishing certainly has psychological attributes to it, including the ability to pretend to be someone else and to exert power over a vulnerable person," says Aaron Brantly, an associate professor at Virginia Tech and and director of the university's Tech4Humanity lab.

There are red flags that parents should look out for

Social media sites and apps - along with catfishing scams - have taken off in recent years. Experts say there are potential signals that people should be on the lookout for.

"Parents should pay attention to children who become intensely attached to individuals in both physical and virtual spaces," Brantly says. "Often, individuals engaged in catfishing will seek to encourage their targets to hide their online relationships from friends and family."

Fareedah Shaheed, an internet safety expert whose focus is protecting kids online, says another warning sign is people who don't want to appear on a video call or cancel plans to meet in person.

The FBI urges people to think twice when someone appears"too perfect," as it may be part of a romance scam. Sometimes, it means that person has studied their intended victim's digital footprint to understand them more deeply. That's another reason why people should be cautious of what they share online about themselves or their children.

"Scammers can use details shared on social media and dating sites to better understand and target you," the FBI says, warning against the type of person who "quickly asks you to leave a social media site to communicate directly" or attempts to isolate people from friends and family.

Parents can take measures to combat catfishing before it starts

With social media playing such a crucial role in our lives today, safety experts say that parents should have honest and nonjudgmental conversations with kids about digital safety, while even getting involved in their online worlds. This can be a lifeline that connects them to their children's pervasive virtual reality.

"For example, game with them, send each other funny or interesting short videos from social media, listen to their gaming or social media stories, get curious about their online activities and ask them questions about it," Shaheed says. "Be a good digital role model. If you want them to post with privacy in mind on social media, be sure that you're doing the same. It's much easier to have internet privacy conversations when they see you doing what you speak on."

Openly talking about digital safety allows parents to keep tabs on who kids are talking to online. It also helps parents know the specific apps their children are on and identify any anomalies in online behavior.

"Discussing who children are interacting with in online environments and developing a pattern of trust and an atmosphere of openness and transparency is an important step in minimizing the potential adverse interactions in online spaces," Brantly says.

Parents should also set clear times for device use, and establish patterns and boundaries on when and how devices should be used. "If in doubt, start a conversation that starts from a position of mutual trust," he adds.

For added security, parents can keep tabs on their kids' online activities through safety apps. Shaheed points to Norton Family, Microsoft Family Safety, Google Family Link and Apple Family Sharing as reliable examples.

"The internet can be a dangerous place if internet security and privacy aren't taken seriously," she says. "If your kids are online, please take time to understand how to keep them safe. You don't have to do this alone. Start searching for communities, tools, people and resources that can help you get started with protecting your children online."

Privacy conversations are best held in the car or while walking - in a comfortable setting that does not appear intimidating.

"Be sure that your internet privacy conversations are consistent and not just one long conversation before you give them access to social media," Shaheed says. "Make your internet privacy conversation an actual conversation and not a lecture. Ask them questions and ask them what they think they should do for their own privacy online then give them some extra suggestions and the reason why for each suggestion."

Internet users can also take additional precautions

Digital safety experts have other suggestions for how internet users can combat catfishing. They include:

Asking for live video meetings with people you're having meaningful online interactions with. "Be sure that they aren't consistently having tech issues, life issues, dark environments," Shaheed says. "This is a way that catfishers often try to get out of a video meeting."

Talking to other family members and friends about who you're speaking to online. Having people other than you in on it can help spot red flags, lies and deception.

Never sending money to anyone you have only communicated with online or by phone. "It is important to recognize that technologies and tools change but conversations about safety, right and wrong should remain relatively consistent," Brantly says.

The most important tip experts have to offer is: Trust your gut instinct.

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Catfish scams target everyone. Here's how to keep kids safe | CNN

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The grieving aunt of the 15-year-old girl who was catfished by a former police officer implored parents to monitor their children's online activity. This is what online safety experts say about protecting children from catfishing crimes, which have ensnared people for years.

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This article Vaping of Marijuana on the rise of Teens from the National Institute on Drug Abuse explains that marijuana use in adolscents is at an all time high. Almost 21% of 12th graders have self-reported themselves using Marijuana and that percentage decreases the slightest bit with 11th and 10th graders. The vaping of Nicotine and marijuana are the more common drugs used by upper middle school and highschool students. This article reminds teachers of how prevalent vaping of marijuana and nicotine is so they can be aware. This article also gives information about other drugs that are not as common in school age children. It is best to know about these as a teacher so you can teach about the consequences of taking these drugs.

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Findings from the 2019 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey demonstrate the appeal of vaping to teens, as seen in the increased prevalence of marijuana use as well as nicotine vaping. Results from the 45th annual MTF survey, a nationally representative sample of eighth, 10th and 12th graders in hundreds of U.S. schools, were announced today by the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, along with the University of Michigan scientist who leads the research team. The self-report survey is given annually to students who respond to questions about their drug use and attitudes.

Past year vaping of marijuana, which has more than doubled in the past two years, was reported at 20.8% among 12th graders, with 10th graders not far behind at 19.4% and eighth graders at 7.0%. Past month marijuana vaping among 12th graders nearly doubled in a single year to 14% from 7.5%-the second largest one-year jump ever tracked for any substance in the history of the survey. (The largest was from 2017-2018 with past month nicotine vaping among 12th graders). For the first time, the survey measured daily marijuana vaping, which was reported at 3.5% among 12th graders, 3.0% among 10th graders, and 0.8% among eighth graders. The MTF investigators documented more detailed findings on teen vaping of marijuana in a research letter released today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. High rates of nicotine vaping reported in the MTF survey were released in September.

Marijuana continues to be the most commonly used illicit drug by adolescents. After remaining mostly stable for many years, daily use of marijuana went up significantly since 2018 among eighth and 10th graders-now at 1.3% and 4.8% respectively. However, overall past year marijuana use rates remain steady among teens (35.7% among 12th graders; 28.8% among 10th graders; and 11.8% among eighth graders).

Past year rates of any illicit drug use, other than marijuana, remain relatively low among 12th graders; past year use was 3.6% for LSD; 3.3% for synthetic cannabinoids; 2.2% for both cocaine and MDMA (ecstasy); and 0.4% for heroin. Other drug use, including the misuse of prescription medicines and the use of alcohol as well as tobacco cigarettes, continues to decline.

"We are heartened to see the continuing decline in the use of many drugs, particularly non-medical use of prescription opioids; however, teens are clearly attracted to vaping products, which are often concentrated amounts of drugs disguised as electronic gadgets," said NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow. "Their growing popularity threatens to undo years of progress protecting the health of adolescents in the U.S."

Other highlights:

Prescription Drugs

Past year rates of misuse of the opioid pain reliever Oxycontin dropped significantly among 12th graders over the past five years, with only 1.7% reporting in 2019-the lowest level of use since it was first measured in 2002 (at 4.0%).

Past year rates of misuse of the opioid pain reliever Vicodin is now at 1.1% for both 12th graders and 10th graders. For 12th graders, it is a significant drop from 2018 and the lowest rate since it was first measured in 2002 (at 9.6%). These rates represent a significant five-year decline in these two grades.

Past year misuse of the ADHD medication Adderall saw a significant decline over the past five years among 10th and 12th graders-from 4.6% to 3.1% for 10th graders and from 6.8% to 3.9%, for 12th graders. However, there was a significant increase among eighth graders⸺now reported to be 2.5%, up from 1.3% in 2014.

Tobacco Products

Use of regular cigarettes continues to decline among teens, especially among 12th graders who had a significant decline in past month use, now at 5.7%, down from 7.6% last year and 13.6% five years ago.

In 2019, 2.4% of 12th graders said they smoked cigarettes daily, a significant decline from 3.6% in 2018. However, 11.7% said they vaped nicotine daily in 2019, the first year daily vaping use has been measured.

One in 4 12th graders say they vaped nicotine in the past month, along with 1 in 5 10th graders, and nearly 1 in 10 eighth graders.

Many teens say they vape for the flavor, to experiment, for social reasons, or to feel good. However, from 2018-2019, the number of 12th graders saying they vape because they are "hooked" more than doubled to 8.1%, up from 3.6%. It is important to note that not all teens know what is in the products they are vaping.

Alcohol

Alcohol use (past year) saw a significant five-year drop among 10th and 12th graders in 2019, now at 37.7% and 52.1%.

There was also a five-year decrease in binge drinking in the 10th and 12th grades. The survey reports that 14.4% of 12th graders said they binge drank in 2019 compared to 19.4% in 2014. Among 10th graders, 8.5% reported binge drinking compared to 12.6% five years ago. Binge drinking is defined as five or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks.

To highlight the MTF survey findings, NIDA will post two infographics on its website: one related to vaping and the other on several other drug categories.

The survey, conducted since 1975, is funded by a government grant to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and is the only comprehensive, large-scale federal government survey on teen drug use that releases findings the same year the data is collected. In 2019, questions were added on daily vaping to address public health concerns about e-cigarettes and vaping devices. This year, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have warned the public about lung illnesses and deaths related to vaping, with some patients as young as 13. The CDC posts periodic updates and recommendations for the public.

The MTF investigators have published several papers and research letters related to these findings:

1. Trends in Adolescent Vaping, 2017-2019, The New England Journal of Medicine, September 18, 2019 (online).
NIDA Press Release: Teen e-cigarette use doubles since 2017

2. Flavors of e-Cigarettes Used by Youths in the United States, Journal of the American Medical Association, November 5, 2019.
NIDA Science Spotlight: NIH-funded study finds teens prefer mint and mango vaping flavors

3. Trends in Reported Marijuana Vaping among U.S. Adolescents, 2017-2019, Journal of the American Medical Association, December 18, 2019.

Overall, 42,531 students from 396 public and private schools participated in this year's MTF survey. The survey has generally been administered to students in paper form, but investigators have been transitioning to electronic tablets. The survey will be fully electronic by 2020. The survey measures drug, alcohol, and cigarette use and related attitudes in eighth, 10th and 12th graders nationwide. Survey participants generally report their drug use behaviors across multiple time periods: lifetime, past year, past month, and in some cases, daily. NIDA has provided grant funding for the survey since its inception. MTF is funded under grant number DA001411.

For additional information on the MTF Survey, see:

Follow Monitoring the Future 2019 news on Twitter at @NIDANews or join the conversation by using: #MTF2019. Information on all drugs can be found on NIDA's website.

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Vaping of marijuana on the rise among teens | National Institute on Drug Abuse

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Findings from the 2019 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey demonstrate the appeal of vaping to teens, as seen in the increased prevalence of marijuana use as well as nicotine vaping. Results from the 45th annual MTF survey, a nationally representative sample of eighth, 10th and 12th graders in hundreds of U.S.

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This article on Childhood Obesity from CNN exclaims how childhood obesity has increased in the last few decades. Researchers say that obesity within 6-11 year olds has increased almost 2% from 1998 to 2010, despite all the healthy eating interventions that have taken place. This article also talks about Childhood obesity risk factors like socioeconmic status and race. In a Pre-k-4 classroom teachers can teach students about healthy eating habits, portions, and the positive effects of healthy eating. Students need to learn about the food they are consuming because it will  lead their relationship with food in the future.

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health and health care (by demographic group)

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Rates of childhood obesity have increased, study finds | CNN

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Childhood obesity is becoming more common and beginning at younger ages, according to a recent study.