‘A crisis’: West Ada senior pushes the district to add mental health days for students
Alexandra Asay has seen her peers struggling with mental health. She said friends have come to her who feel like they no longer want to live. She’s read “heartbreaking” stories about students across the Treasure Valley who died by suicide. And she’s heard from adults who downplayed the importance of mental health, saying kids should “just toughen up.”
The pandemic only made things worse.
“I see it with my own eyes, and it’s truly a crisis happening,” Asay, an Eagle High School senior, told the Idaho Statesman.
She soon learned about the lack of mental health resources available in Idaho, and wanted to find a way to help. So as part of her senior project, Asay, 17, started an online campaign for the West Ada School District to add mental health days for students. Those additional excused absences would give students more flexibility to stay home when they need to and, under her proposal, get connected to services they need.
Shortly after Asay started the Change.org petition, it received more than 2,000 signatures and dozens of comments from people in the community, including students, sharing their own experiences.
“When I first promoted it on Instagram, I didn’t even think it’d get 100 signatures,” Asay said. “It’s further evidence that something needs to change.”
Health officials report more children with depression, anxiety
Children’s mental health was declared a national emergency in October by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Children’s Hospital Association. In a statement, the groups said children and families had experienced “enormous adversity and disruption.”
“As health professionals dedicated to the care of children and adolescents, we have witnessed soaring rates of mental health challenges among children, adolescents and their families over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, exacerbating the situation that existed prior to the pandemic,” the groups said in a statement.
Dr. David Peterman, pediatrician and CEO of Primary Health Medical Group, said the pandemic continues to take a toll on children’s mental health. In his clinics, he has seen a “significant” increase in children of all ages with depression and anxiety, he said in an interview earlier this year.
Children have gone through isolation and been unable to see loved ones. The COVID-19 disease has created anxiety in children, he said. And schools have had constantly changing rules, with little consistency in COVID-19 mitigation measures, creating more disruption, stress and confusion for kids.
Many children also lost loved ones during the pandemic. As of October in Idaho, nearly 500 children had lost a parent or primary caregiver, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics journal.
A June report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that during the pandemic, emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts among children ages 12-17 across the U.S. spiked 31% compared with the same time period in 2019.
But even before the pandemic, children in Idaho were struggling with mental health. According to the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey from the Idaho State Department of Education, the percentage of Idaho high school students who “seriously considered attempting suicide” over the previous year went up from about 14.2% in 2009 to 21.6% in 2019. Nearly 40% of respondents said they had felt sad or hopeless for two weeks in a row or longer, to the extent where they stopped doing some usual activities.
Idaho also regularly ranks in the top 10 states for its suicide rate, according to the CDC.
Petition garners dozens of comments on mental health experiences
Asay is asking the West Ada School District to give students two mental health days per semester — similar to personal days used by teachers, she said in her petition.
Currently, high school students in the district are allowed three unexcused absences per class period each semester, and if students exceed that number, they can lose credit for the class “unless cleared by the attendance office as extraordinary,” according to the district’s attendance policy. Absences can be excused for illness, accidents or bereavement.
After taking a mental health day, under Asay’s proposal, the student would have to meet with a counselor.
“In this way, the student can have a day when necessary but also be tracked into counseling and given resources for further help,” Asay wrote on the petition.
Asay said she has had experiences when it would have been helpful to have the option to take a mental health day, and she’s heard from friends who feel the same way. She’s seen the crisis worsen throughout the pandemic, as students navigate isolation, constantly changing rules and increased anxiety.
On her petition, dozens of people commented on the importance of prioritizing mental health.
Some, who identified themselves as students, said it was difficult for them to get out of bed every morning and experienced more anxiety, stress and burnout because they couldn’t take days off for mental health. Others pointed to the pressures they face in school — which only grew during the pandemic. Students also said they felt a stigma toward discussing mental health and found a lack of services offered at their schools.
Several states across the country, including Colorado and Illinois, have passed laws allowing students to take mental health days.
Asay sent a Jan. 20 email to Superintendent Derek Bub asking him to consider giving students mental health days. In the email, Asay said this would be a step toward combating the state’s mental health crisis.
“It would be beneficial if students felt they could stay home and not be penalized for it on days that they are feeling depressed and unable to come to school,” she wrote in the email to Bub. “Teachers are given personal days each year to use at their discretion and students should be given the same courtesy.”
Asay said she wanted to make the district understand what students are going through.
“Even if they disagree with me on implementing the mental heath days, I just really want to make them aware of the fact that so many kids are struggling in our school district,” she said.
She hasn’t received a response yet.
As part of her project, Asay also created an Instagram, called cfcmentalhealth, where she is sharing information about mental health in Idaho and encouraging people to change the perception of mental health. She is also collecting donations, including clothing, books and art supplies, to take to Intermountain Hospital, which provides inpatient treatment for people with psychiatric illnesses or substance abuse.
‘Our goal is to always work with students’
West Ada spokesperson Char Jackson told the Statesman the district takes the mental health of its students very seriously.
“We would not simply take credit from a student when they exceed their allowable absences,” she said in an email. “The agreed expectation among our administrators is that we reach out to families when attendance concerns arise in order to assist with their situations. … Our goal is to always work with students.”
She pointed to an appeal procedure that students can go through if they exceed the number of absences allowed. The district also has a number of resources and programs in place, including those with a focus on social-emotional learning, she said.
Elementary and middle schools in the district use a variety of social-emotional learning programs, with focuses on skills such as self- and social-awareness, self-management, decision making and connections. Many high schools are also using certain programs, but by fall 2022, all high schools will have a social-emotional learning program in place, Jackson said.
The district is also in the process of creating contracts with private mental health providers to offer appointments at schools for students with “acute mental health needs.” In January, the district also started a pilot program that brings in school counseling interns to certain high schools to help run support groups on topics such as anxiety and self-regulation. Parent permission is required for both.
Asay said she hopes the district takes her campaign seriously and considers other resources it can offer to help students, such as adding more counselors and therapists who specialize in mental health as a resource for students. Being able to take a day off to focus on one’s mental health without having to worry about losing credit in a class could be a huge benefit and relief to students struggling, she said.
“Everyone needs a day to just … take care of themselves every once in a while,” she said.
This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
