Today is day 9 of the Slice of Life challenge. 

 I've been thinking about student mental health lately. A thousand years ago, when I was in college, all I wanted to do was to be a child therapist. I interned at the local mental health center in the children's program and loved every minute of it. In grad school, I worked as a liaison between the mental health center and a child's family. It was the most enlightening experience I'd had up to that point. 

Sadly, in NC, just as many other states, I'm sure, the state mental health organization got broken into pieces (sort of what I believe the "choice" folks and some politicians want to do with public schools). Now there is no central location for mental health services anywhere in my state. 

Which leads me to my point. Since my daughter attends the same school I work in, I'm now privy to some uncomfortable conversations regarding kids in disheartening situations. It's not that I didn't hear gossip before now; it's just that I could pretend that my ears were closed. It's not that I didn't refer kids to the guidance counselor who would take care of them; it's just that now, I don't know who to start with. 

And the problems the kids exhibit aren't the normal my-family-has-no-food, even though, that definitely happens regularly. Nope...these problems are more sexual in nature, and dealing with grief because the grandparents who they've lived with since elementary school died with Covid, and homes that have burned from faulty wiring in a condemned house so the family still lives in a motel.

Like, these kids are suffering! And I don't see anything innovative or imaginative that the staff at my school is doing to help. When the kids get in trouble, we suspend/punish/nag at them. I know it's not just the kids, but the families who are absolutely suffering unimaginable grief. And if my grad school job taught me anything, it's that when I made sure the kid's mom was okay, that kid I worked with was fine. He could function in a regular school in a regular classroom like a regular kid. But when mom was out of control or stressed, guess what? 

So unless and until mental health gets put on the top of the To Do list instead of the Someday list, nothing changes. I'm not sure I believe  the "kids are all right." I'm worried.