Youth group calls for student mental-health days
Recent studies underline difficulty accessing supports in schools
During the first pandemic school year, students at Mary Ward Catholic High School in Scarborough took their mental well-being into their own hands.
The student body was feeling the pressure of the pandemic-mandated quadmesters, in which students had to take two courses at a time for roughly nine weeks, and an unpredictable virus that often forced them to learn from home.
To ease the pressure, the students lobbied for two schoolwide wellness days — a request granted by the school’s administration.
“At that time, I was taking the worst set of courses I could be taking: advanced functions and chemistry,” recalled Andy Feng, a Grade 12 student at the school, and a member of the Toronto Youth Cabinet. The wellness days offered him and his classmates a much-needed break, he said, where they could be off without falling behind.
Now Feng, alongside the rest of the Toronto Youth Cabinet — the official youth advisory body to the city — is calling on the province to include mental health or behavioural reasons as an excused absence for elementary and high school students under the Education Act. Currently, the act singles out “sickness or unavoidable causes,” but does not mention mental health explicitly.
The cabinet is also calling on the province to increase mental-health supports at schools, offer mentalhealth training for all school staff, and collect and report data regularly on students’ mental health, all in a bid to make talking about mental health and accessing care more mainstream.
Stephen Mensah, the executive director of the Toronto Youth Cabinet, said the calls are driven by results from a survey the cabinet conducted from December 2020 to January 2021 of Ontario students, in which 43 per cent said their school does not have a mentalhealth worker.
The survey also found 79 per cent of students struggled in some way to access support at school, and 43 per cent said it’s very important for them to get mental-health support from someone who is Black, Indigenous or a person of colour. The survey gathered answers from 1,042 Ontario students, aged 12 to 19.
As of this year, 1,400 mentalhealth professionals are working across publicly funded Ontario schools, serving a population of over two million students, according to Ministry of Education data.
Through further consultations with students, Mensah added he’s heard of a lack of understanding and fears of speaking openly about issues related to mental health. “What I’ve gathered from the survey is many students are quietly suffering … and need a trusted adult to talk to.”
Some students responded to the survey saying they would like more time to cope and understand what they’re experiencing. Others said the education system has struggled to “show empathy” for students who are burnt out.
Mensah said the calls put forward by the youth cabinet could help erode stigma and create an environment where students who are struggling can be comfortable seeking help. “For students who do choose to take those days, we want to make sure that they are not required to provide the school with a doctor’s note,” he added. “Financial troubles and not having the luxury to be able to afford a note should not be a barrier.”
After two years of pandemic schooling, Feng said many of his classmates feel exhausted. Some miss the relief extracurricular activities gave them fromacademic pressure. Others are finding themselves losing touch with friends and classmates, especially students learning from home.
The youth cabinet has met Education Minister Stephen Lecce to discuss their calls, Mensah said. In a statement, a spokesperson for Lecce said his ministry will meet parents and students in early February “to identify emerging issues in student mental health.”
Mensah said while there is willingness on part of the government to move, they need to do so with urgency. “It’s not something they can wait on.”
‘‘ Many students are quietly suffering … and need a trusted adult to talk to.
STEPHEN MENSAH EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE TORONTO YOUTH CABINET