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Anderson, Meg. "Mental Health in Schools: A Hidden Crisis Affecting Millions of
Students." NprED, 31 Aug. 2016. Accessed 15 Dec. 2016.

Dwyer, Lucy. "When Anxiety Hits at School." The Atlantic, 3 Oct. 2014. Accessed
5 Jan. 2017.

Lee, Kristen. "Your Mental Health is More Important Than Your Grades." The
Huffington Post, 22 Oct. 2015. Accessed 12 Jan. 2017.

Price, Rita. "Addressing Mental Illness Can Reduce School Shootings."
Addressing Mental Illness Can Reduce School Shootings. Opposing
Viewpoints in Context. Accessed 15 Dec. 2016.

Saringo-Rodriquez, John. "Studies show depression affects academic progress,
causes stress and chemical imbalance." Sundial, 21 Nov. 2013. Accessed 12
Jan. 2017.

"Schools' Role in Mental-Health Care Uneven, Experts Say." Schools' Role in
Mental-Health Care Uneven, Experts Say, 2 May 2007. Opposing Viewpoints in
Context. Accessed 15 Dec. 2016.

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Often mental health is looked at as unimportant, because those who don't have an illness, don't really understand what it's like. " If you are a student of today, you likely have a lot going on in the between. Ideas about “traditional” and “non-traditional” students have flipped, with increasing numbers of students being working professionals, juggling all kinds of demands, who want to earn new and advanced degrees. But across the board, what unites students of all ages and life circumstances is this: unprecedented stress levels. According to the Anxiety and Depression Society of America, an estimated 62% report marinating in perpetual, toxic anxiety" (Lee, 1). Students are extremely stressed, and it negatively affects their mental health.

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Sitting in a classroom, the teacher droning on about something in the background, I start to feel my hands getting sweaty, I started shaking and felt my body twitching and I couldn't breathe.

Panic attack.

I'm used to these, with all of the stress of junior year I just can't take it. I went home and the cycle just continued as the days went on. I'm not alone though, 8 percent of today's U.S teens suffer from some sort of anxiety disorder. Anxiety has been on the rise since the 1950's! I wonder what 2050 will look like.

This is an adapted story written by Lucy Dwyer, and the statistical information came from the National Institute of Mental Health.

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Dear ETHS School Board,
mental health plays a huge role in students academics, and it is not being looked at as seriously as it should be. A large fear factor in schools are school shootings, and most school shootings have been proved to be because of mental health problems. According to Rita Price, "addressing mental health illnesses can reduce school shootings. Price reports that depression and mental illness often go unreported among high school students. Students who have mental health issues often do not get help, and their problems may not be recognized by parents or teachers. This can lead to isolation and may be a factor in those students who are involved in school violence. Price concludes that better mental health services and more vigilance are necessary to stop school shootings" (Price, 1). This is a very important piece of information and should be taken very seriously!

Education Week states that "a raft of evidence suggests that screening children for mental-health problems as early as the primary school years and providing appropriate support can help alleviate poor school performance, bullying, depression, and suicide--all far more common than school shootings. They also state that far too few students who need mental health care, are receiving it. Between 75 percent and 80 percent of children who have a mental-health need do not receive treatment." That number is extremely high and something needs to be done about it. It is up to the school board to erase the stigma against mental health, so that their students can get the resources they need to stop hurting.

Mental health affects a student much more than one might think. "According to the American College Health Association’s (ACHA) National College Health Assessment, a 2011 nationwide survey of college students at two and four-year institutions found about 30 percent of college students reported feeling “so depressed that it was difficult to function” at some time in the past year" (Saringo-Rodriquez, 2). Now I know that that is college, which is more intense than high school, but many high school students also suffer from depression, and we still have to attend school everyday. If students are already feeling this way in high school, it'll be even worse in college. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in college students, and that is a serious problem. School can make students anxious, so anxious that they choose to drop out of college. "In 2011, the ADAA’s national survey found more than 62 percent of students who withdrew from college with mental health problems did so because of an anxiety disorder" (Saringo-Rodriquez, 4). 62 percent is over half, and that's a really large statistic.

Balancing school while also trying to take care of yourself can be an excruciating task. Nobody knows what it's truly like dealing with a mental illness along with something as difficult and time consuming as school, except people who have a mental health illness. Depression and anxiety are two common mental illnesses, and having them both is extremely difficult. Waking up at 7 in the morning genuinely terrified to start the day, and at the same time feeling like you honestly cannot get out of bed, is a terrible feeling. Being nervous and scared about grades, tests, studying, college and etc, but not having any motivation is hard to deal with. Knowing you need to get work done, but you can't get up, and you just feel frozen, it just seems impossible. Those are all examples of what some students have to go through.

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Silk Ring Theory- Smelly Melly

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"Up to one in five kids living in the U.S. shows signs or symptoms of a mental health disorder in a given year.
So in a school classroom of 25 students, five of them may be struggling with the same issues many adults deal with: depression, anxiety, substance abuse.
And yet most children — nearly 80 percent — who need mental health services won't get them.
Whether treated or not, the children do go to school. And the problems they face can tie into major problems found in schools: chronic absence, low achievement, disruptive behavior and dropping out" (Anderson, 1).

The problem regarding mental health is going to keep getting bigger and bigger as long as this stigma and ignorance keeps flowing. How can kids continue to succeed when they aren't getting the proper treatment they need? Mental health illnesses don't just "heal" or "go away", they require things like medication, professional counseling, rehabs and etc, just to control them.

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Based off of the survey 40 ETHS students completed, over 94% of students said that they know somebody with a mental health illness, and over 94% said that the school system plays a large part in mental health issues. This shows that many students are struggling, and that it is clearly obvious there is a problem. Mental health hits a lot closer to home than one may think, and out of 40 kids, 62% stated that they either have, used to, or think they have a mental health illness. That is over half. Another point to look at is, 22.5% of kids in this survey said that ETHS does not do a good job with giving support, and the percent that said it does help is only 7.5% more. If over half the students involved in the survey said they have/had/could have some type of mental health issue, yet 70% don't know/believe their school is doing it's part to the fullest, so it is a problem for the school system.

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2:14 am.
baggy eyes and aching hands.
inside my head i see a wasteland.

tears falling down
pencil going to the ground

test scores dropping
anxiety never stopping

no sleep now
not surprised though, wow!

keep on going, time to finish
perhaps my stress will diminish!

i check the clock, ready to stop
but it's still 2:14 am.

-cyyonna martin

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LA Johnson/NPR

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I made 40 copies of the same survey, and gave it to students in ETHS to answer.

1. Do you know somebody at ETHS who has a mental health illness?
95% said yes.

5% said no.

0% said I don't know.

2. Do you identify with having a mental health illness?
37.5% said no.
30% said yes.
12.5% said I used to.
20% said I think, but I'm not sure.

3. Do you believe that school & the school system plays a big part in mental health issues? (by playing a part, I mean playing a part in being a cause of mental health issues)
95% said yes.
5% said no.

4. Does ETHS do a good job with giving support to students with mental health illnesses?
30% said yes.
22.5% said no.
47.5% said not sure.

100% of the students answering this survey were juniors, which is "said" to be the hardest year of high school.

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High school plays a very important part in mental health, more and more students are being affected by mental health issues, and it is negatively affecting their schoolwork.