Teacher: We’re going to share a high and a low experience from this last week.

Student: A low for me is, I had my first anxiety attack, like I want to say three days ago, so that’s stressful.

Jordan: I’ve had a lot of friends throughout my life that have really struggled with their mental health. And I felt like it was something that wasn’t being taken seriously for people that were young. I do think student stress is getting worse. I mean, the majority of people, I know we’re getting four hours of sleep a night and it’s like, I can’t have a crisis right now, I’m too busy.

Taylor: One of the main stressors is academics. The pressure to perform at a
very high level academically, the pressure to just be well rounded.

Julie: Being on a sport, trying to get into college, in general, things are more competitive. So there’s just been this sort of ramp up of the expectations and what you need to do to succeed.

Jordan: It’s unfortunate that, in an attempt to make sure all of our students are successful, we’re forgetting to acknowledge that student health has to come before academic success.

Patrick: I almost didn’t graduate. It was a struggle, I was going to classes and putting my head down and just kind of sleeping through classes.

Caitlin: I myself went through a really hard stage of depression my junior year, where I didn’t want to come to school and I didn’t want to get out of bed.

Taylor: I’ve known quite a few people who have been suicidal and have been very close to taking an attempt.

Faith: In high school, there’s also that stigma or that idea of, I need to be strong and happy ad cheerful and fit in.

Noah: Kids, more and more, they’re going home after school and they’re isolating in their rooms and they’re hanging out on their tablets or smartphones and there’s just this lack of support, mixed with this false version of who people are and their success.

Jordan: We definitely have a culture of perfection on social media, in that we’re trying to show our best lives, even if we don’t feel like we’re living it.

Patrick: It would have been nice if everyone hat the school had some sort of idea that it was okay to talk about your problems. Everybody’s got something that they should talk about, and they shouldn’t keep it inside, have to deal with it by themselves.

Raymond: Not everybody can talk to an adult. Maybe they need a peer to talk to, like someone their age that might be goingt hrough what they’re going through, or have experience.

Meghan: In high school, all of the stressful things all mixed together in a pot, inside of you, and it’s a lot to handle. Because kids are coming into
teachers’ classrooms every single day, it’s important for those teachers to let kids know that they care about them.

Lori: It’s okay to take that break from your curriculum sometimes to check on your students. You can’t teach a kid who is struggling and dealing with depression and anxiety and possible thoughts of suicide.

Julie: We talk a lot about resiliency and one of the things that makes a more resilient student is having an adult who cares about them.

Clovis Unified School District