Schools Are Causing Poor Mental Health

Schools are the reason for students’ poor mental health. Mental health is a recurring issue that is repeatedly brought up time and time again in discussions about school. Schools are famous for not telling it how it is and making up some excuse for why things are the way they are. When faced with the consequences, schools like to turn the other way in order to keep their good reputation. Schools like to put all their faith into their failing mental health programs. Of course there are mental health services readily made available to students, however the effectiveness of these services are still being questioned. It is no coincidence that schools have a key role to play in the deterioration of the mental health of youth. 

        Schools are an essential part of a developing person’s life. In these years, schools play a role in molding the early minds of students. It is here in the early years of a person’s life where negative experiences can really sway a person’s mental health. Experiences such as bullying and discrimination can really change how a person perceives themselves. Schools are known to harbor both bullying and discrimination and it is not overselling it to say that schools simply don’t care.  

        What they do care about instead, however, is to be prepared in case something results from bad mental health. In their book, Bullying, School Violence, and Climate In Evolving Contexts: Culture, Organization, and Time, author Ron Astor claims, “Furthermore, new and emerging policies have unexpected social implications that have not been discussed much in the school bullying and safety literature. For instance, in the United States, zero-​tolerance measures, the use of metal detectors, and the introduction of police resource officers have created major social backlash, raising concerns about the school-to-​prison pipeline and the advent of the social movement Black Lives Matter.” Using metal detectors and bringing in police officers are the measures schools will take in order to prevent a school shooting. School shootings are the product of terrible mental health and one bad day. Instead of helping students battle their issues, schools would rather use militaristic tactics in order to prevent bad things from happening.

       It seems counterintuitive that a school would rather spend a whole lump sum of money on upping security in school buildings rather than strengthening their already existent mental health services for way less.

       It is important to mention that teachers play a pivotal role in the early stages of a person’s life. It is the job of these teachers to make sure that they provide what students need in order to be successful. Arguably, teachers are also to blame when it comes to bad mental health. 

       Everyone has heard of or has had that one teacher. The one teacher that is ridiculously challenging or the one who doesn’t regard any of their student’s needs. In their article, “Mental Health Issues in the Schools: Are Educators Prepared?” author Amy Andrews states, “While an educator’s role does not officially include being a mental health practitioner, it is their role to educate all students. This inevitably requires an understanding of the connection between mental health issues and how they affect a student’s ability to learn and to live a healthy life.” While teachers may not technically be counselors or therapists, mental health issues that arise in the classroom environment are that teacher’s responsibility. When teachers blatantly disregard what is happening to their students, the students will continue to bottle up all of their negative emotions. Teachers are also responsible for the workload given to students. This workload can be a very daunting task that can get into a student’s head and stress them out.  

       Teachers tend to overly stress out their students to a point of academic exhaustion. When the workload starts to pile up, students get more stressed until the stress turns into depression and at that point, none of their work gets done. When students stop handing their work in is where the teachers start hounding their students for late work. This starts stress going again as the students start trying to get through all their assignments that had previously been piling up. 

       Stress is one of the main causes of poor mental health in people and the school environment certainly doesn’t help. In their article “The Impact of Stress on Students in Secondary School and Higher Education,” author Michaela Pascoe says, “Students in secondary and tertiary education settings face a wide range of ongoing normative stressors, which can be defined as normal day to day hassles such as ongoing academic demands…students commonly self-report experiencing ongoing stress relating to their education, which we refer to as academic-related stress, such as pressure to achieve high marks and concerns about receiving poor grades.” Stress can lead to having both anxiety and depression, both mental health issues that bleed into other daily activities. When school-related stress boils over into anxiety or depression, it can be harmful to the student. 

       A majority of students today have either anxiety or depression. These are both caused by school-related stress. Schools claim to have state of the art mental health services in order to combat this, but that isn’t the case because there are still massive amounts of students still suffering from bad mental health. 

       The school is to blame for the poor mental health of its students. Bad mental health is an issue that needs to be addressed so that it can be stopped. Schools are at the root of the problem when it comes to mental health problems. As long as there is money and the school’s reputation involved, they will say anything to deter the fact that there is a mental health crisis all around us and they are not doing anything to benefit their students. Poor mental health can lead to suicide and other things that can lead to people getting hurt. It is imperative that schools change the way they help their students in their times of need. While they might not think so, schools are the ones who are inadvertently creating mass murderers and other dangerous figures. 

References

1. Additional informationFundingThe authors received no financial support for the research. (n.d.). The impact of stress on students in Secondary School and Higher Education. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved November 7, 2022, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02673843.2019.1596823?scroll=top&needAccess=true 
2. Andrews, A., McCabe, M., & Wideman-Johnston, T. (2014, December 2). Mental health issues in the schools: Are educators prepared? The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice. Retrieved November 7, 2022, from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JMHTEP-11-2013-0034/full/html 
3. Asṭor, & Benbenishty, R. (2019). Bullying, school violence, and climate in evolving contexts : culture, organization, and time. Oxford University Press.