Suicide, mental health concerns on rise
ER visits from children who attempted suicide, suicidal ideation and clinical depression more than double in 12-month period
CHICO » Jenny Scheele watched as her daughter’s love for school began to slowly diminish.
Scheele said her daughter, Grace Doley, a 15-year old sophomore at Chico High, began to struggle in school. She went from a joyous teenager who enjoyed her classes and loved her teachers, to having a hard time understanding material and having a difficult time in school.
“It wasn’t due to lack of trying. I watched her stay up till 2 in the morning doing her school work,” Scheele said.
The COVID-19 environment added to that stress. Scheele said her daughter felt isolated at school. Doley was separated from her friends who were part of the afternoon session of the school day. Doley was in the morning session.
Doley died by suicide in November. She is one of three people, two students and a teacher, at Chico High who have died during the pandemic.
“She loved school. She loved her teachers,” Scheele said. “She was a pleaser. She wanted to get the best grades and go to college.”
Months after her daughter’s suicide, Scheele said she’s still reeling from the effects. Her concern is that current students at Chico High aren’t getting enough support when the pandemic is exacerbating mental health concerns among the community’s youth.
“I feel very frustrated that my daughter’s suicide wasn’t really talked about at school,” Scheele said. “When I’ve gone (to the school), a teacher said ‘I’m sorry Grace has been out, is she sick
with mono? We’ve had a lot of kids with mono.’ It was like a knife in my heart that these people don’t know.”
A Chico High student died on Monday, the Chico Unified School District announced in a press release. It is unclear if the student died by suicide.
“Supporting student mental health and wellness will remain an ongoing priority as we work to bolster campus resources,” the release said. “Parents are encouraged to reach out to their child’s school to learn about the emotional and wellness support available. Online resources are continually being added to the Chico Unified website: www.chicousd.org.”
Enloe sees worrisome spike
According to Enloe Medical Center CEO Mike Wiltermood, from July 2019 to December 2019, there were 17 emergency room visits among school-aged children who had attempted suicide, suicidal ideation and clinical depression. From July 2020 to December 2020, there were 40 emergency room visits from schoolaged children for the same reasons. Enloe Medical Center not only serves Chico but also surrounding areas of Butte and Glenn counties.
“The pandemic is a worldwide problem,” Wiltermood said. “To think that it’s not taking its toll on mental health, you’d have to be living under a rock.”
Wiltermood noted that the pre-pandemic numbers were still high and a concern for the area.
“A pre-pandemic baseline doesn’t begin to tell the story of the stress that this area has been undergoing back to the Oroville evacuation during the spillway crisis. We’ve had the Camp Fire, the 2019 data may represent a spike based on the Camp Fire,” Wiltermood said. “I think it would be wrong to not consider that this is all having a cumulative effect. It may be far worse than we’re even seeing at the hospital because we don’t tend to get patients until it’s a critical situation.”
In January, this newspaper reported that calls to the county’s crisis services had seen an “uptick” among teens and adolescents.
“There could be plenty of people out there that normally might be holding it together but are now starting to have difficulties,” Wiltermood said. “There’s that population that’s always had trouble and have their mental health issues exacerbated by the pandemic.”
Struggles from a student’s point of view
Acacia Fellner, a 17-year old junior at Chico High, said she deals with anxiety and seasonal depression.
During the pandemic, Fellner said she saw her grades drop even though she’s always been a good student.
At her lowest point in the school year, she found herself crying every single day. Her art class was no longer fulfilling. She’d often leave the Chico High parking lot feeling “frustrated and unaccomplished” every day. When she reached out for help at school, Fellner said there was a lag in getting her set up with a counselor or therapist.
“It took me two to three weeks to get support,” Fellner said. “In that time, it could have cost any student’s life.”
Fellner is trying to spread awareness about mental health on campus. Students wore blue this week to show support for anyone who may be mentally suffering. Fellner wants a suicide awareness dress-up day, where students wear purple and turquoise, to be incorporated into the school’s spirit week. She said she’s not trying to glorify suicide or mental illness but advocate on behalf students that they need support.
“There’s a massive epidemic of suicide. I know it’s never going to be perfect and completely go away,” Fellner said. “But it can definitely be improved at Chico High.”
Fellner said that many students she’s spoken to aren’t aware of the services that are available at school. Part of the disconnect Fellner said was that students are told about services, but not how to actually pursue and set up meetings with therapists, counselors or psychologists.
“When in class, there’s clearly students struggling and no one checks in on us. There’s a big thing about coming after class if you’re struggling,” Fellner said. “Not very many students can come after class. You want to get to your next class. You don’t want to bother someone.”
Fellner added that she felt like students should have been informed of the resources at the beginning of the pandemic.
“This should have been happening long before now,” Fellner said. “It’s this big facade that everything is great. It’s really not.”
Counseling, psychology services
Currently, at Chico High, there are counselors that each serve 400 students. A counselor is trained in working with students on the mental health aspect as well on the academic scope. For instance, they can go over graduation requirements and requirements for getting into college.
There is also one and a half school psychologists at Chico High. A psychologist assists special education students on accessing the curriculum and can also serve as “crisis personnel” in a situation. There is a crisis counselor that splits time between Chico and Pleasant Valley High. A crisis counselor will meet with students who may need more than a check-in.
Doug Williams, the principal, said a full-time crisis counselor will be added to the Chico High campus next year.
During the March 4 school board meeting, the board also approved to allocate one-time money to hiring additional wellness counselors for school sites.
However, Fellner said that the effort to address mental health is coming far too late in the pandemic and falling short.
“I’ve been in the same place, just begging for them to help us. They send us emails saying there’s grief counselors. I’ve never met one of them. I don’t know where they are on our campus. There’s no follow-through,” Fellner said. “Our education system and our school, they’re failing our students. I don’t think our students should feel so desperate that they need to leave this earth.”
Chico High’s response
Williams said that mental health issues aren’t only specific to Chico High but to the youth in general.
“People rightly so want to know what steps are being taken to address mental health,” Williams said. “We obviously need to do a better job of sun shining what we have to offer students and where you go to receive those services.”
Williams said that training and services regarding mental health for staff were supposed to begin in March 2020. However, the pandemic hindered that effort. With April being mental health awareness month, Williams said training for staff will be up and running again.
“We are starting those up again,” Williams said. “We’re going through them at the teacher level, administrative level and we’re doing them at a school level beginning this month.”
A CUSD representative said that on Monday, the district will meet with 20 Chico High students along with a mental health professional to help that partnership.
“I think we’ve created a pathway through the garden of cobblestones to walk on. I know and people know where services are, but we’ve got to fill in those gaps. Obviously, there’s some gaps with certain kids not knowing that we provide services,” Williams said.
Williams added that maybe the school doesn’t provide a service a student is looking for so he’d want to help connect students “with a program outside the school” and “getting all organizations on the same page and working together.”
Other ideas Williams has discussed with mental health experts is possibly incorporating more counseling sessions and introducing curriculum focused on mental heath. He also mentioned possibly holding awareness events on campus.
“We’re going to have to do all of those things and we’re going to have to get better at all of those things,” Williams said. “The kids who are agitated by this, I really feel for them.”
‘Legalities’ surrounding communication
Williams said communicating suicides within the school is complex because of “legalities” and maintaining respect for the family that’s suffered a loss. The school’s protocol for dealing with a student suicide is based on guidance from the National Association of School Psychologists, Williams said.
“I know this is a negative event. But I don’t see the outcome of this being a negative situation,” Williams said. “I think it’s a learning situation for us.
“Any time we’re dealing with these situations it doesn’t matter if it’s a selfharm or a serious depression that keeps someone from functioning either at home or at school, these are families and kids that are hurting and they need help. I understand their frustrations. We’re only going to get better if we really have honest conversations with each other.”