Opinion: Teens want and deserve more emotional supports

With the mental health issues in our local schools — bullying, emotional abuse, suicides and the recent middle school student suicide — the time has come to focus upon “prevention” instead of “treatment.” A true prevention approach would serve to inform our local community of parents, caregivers, teachers, administrators and, most of all, the young people we care about.

In one of her recent articles, CDT education reporter Keely Doll reported that our community, following the most recent student suicide, is calling for change in the manner in which the State College Area School District approaches emotional abuse of all kinds.

There is a culture of abuse in our schools, as supported by numerous expressions from parents and students in Doll’s article. “They need to realize it is happening and believe these kids and do something about it,” one parent said. “And I know it’s hard to punish the kids, but there needs to be true change and true help.”

Recently, SCASD Superintendent Curtis Johnson and retired Director of Student Services Jeanne Knouse made statements to reinforce their positions that only serve to defend themselves and the district’s policies and programs, where they insisted the district is doing everything it can to investigate and stop bullying when it occurs. What about preventing it in the first place — wouldn’t that be doing “everything” to stop it? In the wake of so much sadness, why wouldn’t our local leadership insist upon taking immediate action, a proactive approach to implementing the latest best practices available to parents and teachers?

We are better than the meager responses from school and community leaders, and can implement three new best practices.

As a community we need to shift from treating the bullying behavior and mental health consequences to prevention. The SCASD could do so much more in this area. Proclamations by the Centre County Board of Commissioners help to raise awareness, but do not implement actual programs that prevent mental illness, bullying, emotional abuse and suicide.

Parents and caregivers need to take charge of making certain that their children are equipped with the latest best practices for prevention, and not wait until treatment is necessary. According to a new study by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, parents think they are offering emotional support during critical teen years, but teens disagree. Therefore, teens are suffering in silence with nowhere to turn.

Parents also need to continue demanding change, because schools are slow to adapt to the latest developments in the psychology of well-being as applied to schooling. Schools’ policies and programs reflect an outdated paradigm which focuses upon treatment with little understanding or awareness of prevention.

Teens do not yet have a framework and mental model of understanding their own mental health and well-being to be able to express what is going on — on the inside. We can all agree that happy, healthy and flourishing children do not do harm to themselves or others. We have identified 40 attributes of a healthy self that parents and teachers can incorporate into everyday activities to strengthen young people’s well-being. By teaching self-awareness and the 40 attributes of a healthy self, educators and parents can help middle and high school young people to build skills that protect them from the stressors of modern life.

Rest in peace, Abby, knowing that we are doing everything possible to prevent what happened to you in honor of Suicide Prevention Month.