Extra

As a student at Berkeley High School, I can attest to the fact that it is a traumatic place for many this year, as for many years previous. Students are no more than a number at BHS, and we are all aware of this. Unless you possess positive contributive importance to your teachers and peers, such as humor or academic rigor, nobody will mind if you stop showing up. It is viewed to be a courteous act for teachers to inquire about well-being or call home when there is a dramatic shift in a student’s behavior. It takes nothing short of a student’s graphic death within a block of the school witnessed by many for there to be available school counselors during the day instead of a note that says “away!”, and even this was clarified to be only until the end of this year in an email from an administrator.  

BHS is a big school, drugs and poor mental health are bound to happen, and therefore they aren’t to be taken too seriously, the admin’s approach suggests. If you ask them, everything is far better than it was 30 years ago. In response to the most recent incident, in which a student in possession of parts to explosives and assault rifles planned mass homicide on campus, the administrator defensively responded via email once again that school the following day would take place and that the admin will continue perambulating the school’s premises “as we’ve been doing”. Sorry, even numerous middle-aged administrators in button downs will not stop a school shooting in physical presence, though they could in policy. Not to mention, as opposed to acknowledging mental health as being exceptionally low during this time, if you email the vast majority of the school counselors, you will, not an over-exaggeration, receive an automated response stating that they are busy, or as of the morning of the last day of school, they will be gone until next year, and will get to you eventually. If it’s an emergency you can call the suicide hotline.  

It is worth mentioning that there is a BHS health center, separate from school counselors. The prominent purpose is to offer resources and education on sexual health, though there are counselors to talk with. The problem is that in order to see these counselors a student must take the initiative to walk into the health center, ask for a counselor, completely open up to the counselor keeping in mind that they can report anything to the student’s guardian at their discretion, and then fill out the following paperwork to continue seeing the counselor, all on their own. A person who is struggling deeply will pragmatically not do this, but perhaps would with a referral, or a person to bring them. Most aren’t lucky enough to have this.  

According to NIH.Gov “People experience emotional disturbance, irritability, insomnia, depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms immediately after the quarantine period. These can last several months to three years”. On top of this, BHS is in downtown Berkeley, a place infamous for its poor mental health and drug abuse and homelessness, and highschoolers are taught to look away by most people. This is followed into school. Kids doing drugs in the bathrooms, fighting, lashing out, or not showing up to class are hurting, and the more they act out the more they are dismissed. I personally went from all A’s, sociable, and ambitious to failing and quiet this year, dealing with my own assortment of struggles, and all but one teacher, of whose subject I was the club president, checked in during class. Another student I talked to, who left BHS due to the lack of support, stated “I felt that teachers only cared about my grades when I stopped showing up. Once a teacher asked if I was depressed, but I don’t think he knew how to help.”  

I’ll spell it out. It's only going to get worse. This isn’t on the teachers, or the students. Mental health is a matter of life and death, not teenage drama, and it’s time to starve the ego and wake up, for clearly the resources being offered are not enough. It is only the admin who have the resources to allocate more funds to the health center and counselors, who have the resources to change the code of conduct, who have the resources to enact bi-weekly class discussion groups on mental health. Teachers working at such an intense school should receive training explicitly on student mental health. The solutions are endless, but instead the admin resolves to offer basic services which we should have already had.