School counselors sound cry for help
Every school, it seems, has a moment that crystallizes the crisis facing America's youth and the pressure it is putting on educators.
For one middle school counselor in rural California, it came this year after a suicide prevention seminar, when 200 students emerged saying they needed help. Many were sixth graders.
Another school counselor in Massachusetts tells of a high school student who spent two weeks in a hospital emergency room before he could get an inpatient bed in a psychiatric unit.
For many schools, last weekend's shooting rampage in Buffalo, carried out by an 18-year-old who had been flagged for making a threatening comment at his high school last year, prompted staff discussions on how they might respond differently.
Robert Bardwell, director of school counseling for Tantasqua Regional High School in Fiskdale, Massachusetts, said the shooting in upstate New York shaped how he handled a threat assessment this week. He told staff, “Dot our i's, cross our t's because I don't want to be on the news in a year, or five years, saying that the school didn't do something that we should have to prevent this.”
A surge in student mental health needs, combined with staff shortages and widespread episodes of misbehavior and violence, has put extraordinary strain on school counselors and psychologists. The Buffalo shooting highlights their concerns over their ability to support students and adequately screen those who might show potential for violence.
When the accused shooter in Buffalo, Payton Gendron, was asked in spring 2021 by a teacher at his Binghamton, New York, high school about his plans after graduation, he responded that he wanted to commit a murder-suicide, according to law enforcement. The comment resulted in state police being called and a mental health evaluation at a hospital, where he claimed he was joking and was cleared to attend his graduation.
“I get that schools are still safe. And I believe that,” said Bardwell, who is also executive director of the Massachusetts School Counselors Association. “But it also feels like there's more and more kids that are struggling. And some of those kids who struggle might do bad things.”
Childhood depression and anxiety were on the rise for years before the pandemic, experts say, and the school closures and broader social lockdowns during the pandemic exacerbated the problems. The return to inperson classes has been accompanied by soaring numbers of school shootings, according to experts who say disputes are ending in gunfire as more students bring weapons to school. Teachers say disrespect and defiance have increased. Tempers are shorter and flaring faster.
“The tagline I would go with is the kids are not all right,” said Erich Merkle, a psychologist for Akron Public Schools in Ohio, a district of about 21,000 students that he said is dealing with an increase in student depression, anxiety, suicidality and substance use, as well as aggression and violence, among other behavioral problems. “I can tell you that therapists are struggling.”
Schools have become a stage where the pandemic's ripple effects are playing out.