Generation Mental

Before the end of 2007, every major news network had done a segment on depression, anxiety or some other form of mental illness in children. In September 2007, Katie Couric profiled Rebecca Riley, who overdosed on psychiatric drugs. Ann Curry did a segment entitled Saving Carrick for Dateline NBC. Stories like those profiled by two of the leading voices in news shows the extent to which mental illness is becoming a problem, at least in the mind of the media.

But talk to educators and they will tell you that they have been sounding the alarms for much longer as they have seen the wind of change come in the attitudes and perceptions of the kids they are charged with educating. At suburban schools around the country, kids are not only trying drugs but self-medicating because they understand something is wrong even if they don't know what that something is. In 2001 almost 4,000 kids were successful in ending their lives. What is worst is that 132,000 tried. Additionally, over ninety percent of those teens who attempt and/or are successful in committing suicide have some form of mental illness, depression or other disorder.

In September 2007, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention released a report that said that suicides in teens increased almost ten percent. With the number of students pondering and attempting suicides it has created a mental health crisis in our schools with teachers providing a dual role of educator and counselor. Certainly that role is nothing new to teachers, who have always been the one that a student turned to when things were difficult at home or they were having trouble at school.

While the effort of the teachers should be applauded one can only imagine the amount of teaching time that is lost because a teacher must choose to go outside and talk to a student rather than teach the other participating members of the class. Even colleges are seeing the spike in student populous with mental illness. And they are so concerned in the aftermath of what took place at Virginia Tech that they some have modified their policies to include stipulations that if a student has an episode that hinders the educational process in any way they are expelled from the university and kicked of college.

With colleges and high schools having to decide what is in the best interest of the student body and the individual students they face a daunting challenge. In most cases, the interests of the student and student body are in direct conflict with each other. In the Virginia Tech case, Seung Hui Cho had been ordered in 2005 to undergo intensive therapy. But Virginia Tech was never notified, they never knew.

Such is the conflict that schools must deal with between the privacy rights of individuals and the responsibility a schools has of having a safe learning environment for its students. The Virginia Tech massacre aside, students struggling to cope with their mental health are forcing schools to decide where they stand before someone else loses their life in a senseless act of violence predicated on an individual whose mental health is unquestionably out of control.