WHEN I REFLECT on my last year of high school, I remember each day that I would pass by the boy in school who everyone knew tried to commit suicide. He limped around from class to class because he attempted to jump off a bridge but wasn’t successful. I always wonder how stressful things had to get for him to make a decision like that.

He comes to mind as the impact of COVID-19 has taken a heavy toll on the mental health of teenagers and young adults. School communities ought to acknowledge the severity of this issue by providing mental health days for students.

Sometimes students need a break from the ongoing pressures that come with academics and extracurriculars. Consider this as part of the schools’ responsibility for supporting students’ social-emotional health alongside learning opportunities. Just as students are encouraged to eat well and exercise, they also should understand that mental health is critical to their development.

Similar to talking about college applications or athletics, discussing mental health should be a normal activity in schools. According to the Centers for Disease Control, one in six students has enough symptoms to be diagnosed with a childhood mental disorder. By encouraging conversations about mental health, fewer students might develop these illnesses and more students would recognize their self-care needs and get professional help.

A Workplace Rite

School prepares students for life after graduation, where many workplaces offer paid time-off days for adults to take care of personal needs. Students are deserving of PTO days too. When I needed a mental break in high school, I felt obligated to lie and make my mom call the school office with an “acceptable” excuse like a medical appointment. Rather than making students feel embarrassed or leading them to lie to take care of their mental state, schools can be supportive, in part, by mirroring the concept of PTO days.

With so many students isolated at home over the past 15 months with remote learning and limited social interaction, mental health issues such as anxiety and depression are even more prevalent. These conditions aren’t going to disappear once in-person school returns. Now, while schools are making facilities safer for everyone’s return, a focus on mental health needs to be prioritized along with academics.

I know some students may abuse the entitlement of a PTO day to get out of an assignment or ditch a class, but I want to think about the many more students whose lives might be improved or saved.

Three Ideas

Emerging from such an extended period of isolation, students need to feel comfortable talking about mental health and to find healthy ways to deal with stress. A few ways I believe school leaders can help are these:

»Create “Student Time-Off” days that fit into the school calendar with guidelines from mental health experts on how to use them;

»Destigmatize talking about mental health by encouraging open conversations with whomever a student most trusts;

»Give students a space to talk about their shared pandemic experiences. Let them bond over not just what they lost, but also what they gained or learned about themselves in surviving COVID-19.

When I think about that classmate with the limp (I’m ashamed to say I never knew his name), I now wonder how many other students might be dealing with similar struggles. All students, from elementary school through college, need an outlet to take care of their mental health. Put time-off days into our schedules automatically, just like assigning classes. Even one life saved would be worth the effort.

NINA BREISTER is a freshman at University of California, Santa Barbara. Twitter: @ninabreister