Portage Northern is experiencing a mental health crisis. Students feel  unseen, unheard, and don’t know who to turn to when needing help. Students should feel comfortable going to school staff seeking help, but all they get in return is bandaid on a deep wound. 

Portage Public Schools website provides crisis hotlines and OK2SAY, that is a lack of resources. Students don’t use these resources,  because it is barely spoken of. Resources should be provided constantly to students. It is not just this isolated district facing this issue, America as a whole is facing this crisis. The CDC reports that “58.5% of US teens always or usually receive the social and emotional support they need.” This percent of teens is arguably low. Two in five teens say that they are not getting the help that they need, they are going unheard, adults and school systems are the ones not providing enough resources to help teens. 

The CDC also reports that four out of ten students have persistent feelings of hopelessness and sadness. Two out of ten students have had serious thoughts of ending their lives, and nearly one out of ten have attempted to end their life. The CDC provides suicide rates by state, in michigan, there have been 1,529 lives taken from suicide over the past year from with an age adjusted death rate of 14.93. The number will continue to increase if the school districts and adults don’t gain an understanding of mental health and help the teens in need. 

Schools are sometimes the first and or only place where teens can access mental health support, but there is not enough support in schools. So when school systems are sometimes stretched thin, they can not respond adequately to all needs. The longer it takes to address the needs of students the harder they are to treat. There is also a lack of mental health professionals provided at schools, when there is a lack of mental health professionals, students will tend to seek help from teachers . This adds more responsibility on teachers that adds to their day to day work without actually solving the problem. 

There are many ways that this mental health crisis in schools could be eased. Strategies and approaches to mental health should be implemented in schools, this could help mental health problems from getting worse, while also promoting positive behavior and mental health of students. Students should have help provided to them to cope with severe mental health crises. Since some students don’t know when and who to turn to when in a crisis, schools should provide mental health services that can help them outside and inside of school. School staff that are not counselors should also be trained  to identify early signs of distress and quickly provide help. 

Instead of putting a band aid on mental health struggles and leaving students feeling unheard and unnoticed, school districts can take action and improve resources. Schools can be life lines. If schools start to create safe spaces, offering mental health services, and teaching emotional skills, schools can be powerful allies to students in the fight against mental health struggles.