![]() ![]() Gia Bradford still didn’t know where she’s going, with only a month before decision day. To be the best.”īeing the best means going to a good college if you’re a senior at West Lafayette High. ![]() “And I've been finding more these days, over the past probably 10 years, there's more pressure to be perfect,” Lucy adds. She says pressures have only increased for today’s teenagers. “When you start out with somebody who just has text taking anxiety, if you don't deal with that, it can blossom into something different,” says Lucy. And Lisa Marie Lucy, Willowstone’s director of clinical services, says tackling mental health concerns early is key in preventing issues in college or adulthood. And even in one of the state’s most populous areas, Tippecanoe County families today face shortages of mental health resources, especially those geared specifically towards adolescents.Īt Lafayette’s Willowstone Family Services, there’s a waiting list for counseling. Indiana ranks last in the nation in recent rankings from nonprofit group Mental Health America for the percentage of adolescents who’ve suffered a “major depressive episode” in the last year. “It’s inhumane.”Īnd data suggest the pressure may be affecting students’ mental health. “And then having children spend nearly two weeks of their instructional year in standardized testing?” says Killion. But West Lafayette Superintendent Rocky Killion says school still accounts for a small minority of the total time in a student’s life – too much of which, he thinks, is now taken up by testing. Indiana school years are typically 180 days long. “The adult who has been with that student week after week, day after day, and knows that student – when that student walks in and something's not quite right, then the teacher typically picks up on that,” says Sheffield. Sheffield says teachers are often among the first to identify students in need of help – and often, she says, they’re in the best position. And even that is better than some Indiana schools. Sheffield says West Lafayette High School meets this preferred ratio after bringing in an additional counselor last year, but prior to that the ratio was approximately 400 to 1. “There aren’t enough counselors to go around to help all the kids who are in need,” says Sheffield.Īccording to the American School Counselors Association, the ideal student to counselor ratio is 250 to 1. But school counseling departments don’t always have the capacity to reach every student. Her role includes helping manage their emotional and social health. Sheffield isn’t just responsible for students’ academic concerns. “It has been the theme this year, and probably for the last school year.” “The number one issue is anxiety,” says West Lafayette High School counselor Libby Sheffield. And they all know someone who’s struggled with depression. They wonder if they participate in too many extracurricular activities, or too few. The students all agree theirs is a competitive high school. She says she filled her time with Advanced Placement courses, but eventually realized trying to do too much was stressful. “I came into high school wanting to be valedictorian,” says Espinoza. Sometimes, says senior Gabriela Espinoza, the pressures are self-imposed. But the past four years haven’t been worry-free. She and her fellow seniors are in the last months of their high school careers, so they’re starting to relax a little. “I would take the SATs earlier,” says Bradford.īradford is a senior at West Lafayette High School. Gia Bradford has some words of hard-earned advice she’d give her freshman year self, if she could. West Lafayette High School seniors Gabriela Espinoza and Itoro-Abasi Udo-Imeh reflect on the end of high school.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |