The students struggling with their own mental health Tuscarora High School has become more of a continuous problem, but that does not mean potential solutions are being looked into. 

Mental health has been a huge problem within young adults and a lot of that struggle comes within the school building they attend everyday of the school year. 

Students continue to come to school everyday and the majority are not receiving the help they need. Mental Health America found that 59.8 percent of youth with major depression did not receive any mental health treatment in 2023. 

At Tuscarora High School, students were interviewed about the ongoing problem of the struggle of mental health to see if the data rang true. Students at THS had strong opinions on mental health at Tuscarora. A few students got asked, are there any resources students can go to when struggling with mental health? Alex Bender, a sophomore at THS, said, “In my experience here at Tuscarora, I would say there are very little resources. All the counselors are always busy and there aren’t a lot of teachers that are actually willing to help you.” With similar feedback, Jen Valdez, a junior at THS, responded,  “Yes, there are people in our school that you can go to as a resource but it is not definite that they will be able to help you with mental health or help you right away.” 

Students are experiencing this struggle very clearly in the classroom. Through observation of one Titan, even our highest performers need a break. This student shows significant need for a mental break amidst their high-level coursework. Throughout the week after Thanksgiving break, this student presented a continuous pattern of low energy during their math class, only their second period of the school schedule. Each day after completing the assigned work from said class, this student would continue to work on assignments from other classes and proceed to put their head down the rest of the time that remained. 

A solution is clearly needed to stabilize students’ mental health at Tuscarora High School, but why is this problem not being further looked into throughout school systems? 

One great solution to this issue is implementing a mental health day. Many schools in other states are doing this  and could alleviate some of this stress seen from students at THS. Schools in Washington, California, Illinois, Maine, Virginia, Colorado, Oregon, Connecticut, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Kentucky now provide a day throughout the week where students can take the time off from school to themselves without a valid excuse. A student from a school in Oregon described the change in their mental health to local news as “life-changing.”

Kelly Spelman, a gym teacher at Tuscarora, stated her opinion on this question of why the problem of mental health is ignored, “The educational system is more worried about tests and exams rather than mental health. Scores are what our system cares more about. They also do not have the money and resources to make a big enough impact.” 

Perhaps schools lack the money, but can you really commodify the well-being of an entire school in desperate need of a break?