Students: Prioritize mental health

District U-46 needs more resources, they tell board

School District U-46 needs to provide more mental health resources for high school students but things are starting to be more positive in general as the COVID-19 pandemic starts to wane.

Those was among the key points made by several high school seniors during a presentation made at this week’s school board meeting.

Jessica Pearce, of Bartlett High School; Graham Hunt and Kylie Mertinat, of South Elgin High School; and Mariam Ali, of Streamwood High School, are four members of Superintendent Tony Sanders’ student advisory board.

“Students desperately need more resources, especially given in the wake of the pandemic, many students are struggling with more anxiety, more depression,” said Pearce, who also serves as the school board’s student advisor.

The student representatives attended the annual student summit on March 3, where about 200 attendees talked about issues that are important to them and things they’d like to see the district change, add or improve. At the board meeting, they shared the topics on which there was major consensus.

Among them was a need for more staff to help guide struggling students.

“Having only two to four social workers in schools with thousands of students does not cut it,” Pearce said.

One beneficial thing some schools already use are QR codes on student IDs and on posters, which inform students on how to make appointments and access crisis hotline phone numbers. There was agreement such efforts should be expanded, she said.

Pearce suggested the district do more outreach, perhaps by email, to let students know how to reach their respective social workers. Teachers might benefit from more training on how to recognize signs of mental health issues and how to make students feel OK about getting help, she said.

Assuring students of confidentiality when they do reach out for help should remain a top priority, Pearce said.

Hunt said students would like to see therapeutic sensory rooms — the type currently used by special needs students — be made available to the general student body or for the district to create safe spaces where students could take breaks.

He also suggested schools hold information sessions for parents so they can learn more about mental health issues and related resources to help.

Students also said at the forum that they’d like to see guidance counselors remain with a student through all four years of high school, Ali said. Also, planning for life beyond school and job shadowing are the kinds of things that could be happening before students start high school, she said.

As for student life, Mertinat said, “It’s not necessarily that we lack extracurricular activities. It’s that we lack advertisements for them.”

To improve that, summit attendees suggested that ways be found to make students better aware of when activities are happening and transportation resources made available for those who want to participate in them, Mertinat said.

An open house earlier in the school year would help make students more aware of extracurricular activities available, and faculty should be more involved in promoting what’s available, she said.

“Having these activities, you want to encourage students to have fun in high school,” Mertinat said. “I think that’s a huge part of it. These activities can completely alter your high school experience. I know it definitely enhanced mine.”

District staff already is pursuing some of what’s been proposed, Sanders said, looking at how they can budget for an increase in the number of social work counselors available.

“We do listen and we encourage our school leaders to listen to your voices, because you do matter. You’re our number one customer,” Sanders told the students.

He also agreed with the students about the need for school to be fun through extracurricular activities.

“School should be some place where there is the academic side to it, but school should also be a place that is a welcoming, warm environment where you feel safe and where you can have fun,” Sanders said. “I feel the fun is starting to come back.”

“It is, slowly but surely,” Hunt said.

Pearce said, “It’s really exciting to see people getting more involved and finding their communities again.”

“Students desperately need more resources, especially given in the wake of the pandemic, many students are struggling with more anxiety, more depression.”

— Jessica Pearce, of Bartlett High School