The Hidden Crisis of Mental Health and Suicide in High Schools

Dear Family Friends and whoever reads this,

If you are reading this letter, my heart has stopped beating, my lungs no longer breathe air into my body, my blood no longer flows, I am dead. This really was not something I wanted to do, but it is something I had to do. The expectations that are burdened on kids to do good and succeed is extremely high, but most kids make mistakes. One slip up makes a kid feel like the smallest person in the world. Everyone views you as a loser if you don’t go to college or get good grades. So much pressure was constantly being put on me to do well in school that I couldn’t take it anymore. The academic stress was suffocating me. I was continuously stressed and anxious, assignment after assignment, exam after exam, with no time to come up for a breath, so I decided to end my suffering. “I want you to know that my parents were not the reason for this. My parents actually don’t put almost any stress on me at all. It is purely the school.” (Patrick Turner)

Patrick Turner was only 16 years old, when the overwhelming stress of school consumed him, and he decided to take his own life in 2018. Alongside leaving behind a loving community of family and friends, Patrick left behind a suicide letter which was similar to the one above. In his suicide note, he directly blames the education system for his suffering, and I think the main issue with the education systetm today is that Patrick’s voice is not being heard. 

Instead of reforming the education system, and listening to 16-year old Patrick Turner, schools are turning a blind eye and have belittled him into a statistic. As of 2019, according to the Youth Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 18.8% of all high school students have seriously contemplated committing suicide (YBRFSS). 

That number is frightening. 

This means that one in five high school students have contemplated ending their entire life, due to their poor mental health. And I believe the main issue isn’t that 18.8% of high school students have contemplated suicide, but the main issue is that 18.8% of high school students have contemplated suicide, and education systems across America are taking no responsibility and assuming no correlation for the poor mental health of their students. 

Most of the mental health issues among high school students in America can be directly linked to school. According to Orit Shwartz, an 11th grade dean at deToledo High School, stress levels and poor mental health have been at an all-time high in the past three decades. In a recent interview, Shwartz stated, “I’ve been a teacher for 29 years, and it’s more [stress and depression], and I don’t know if it’s more because there is more for them [high school students] to do, or to juggle in between, or the expectations are higher. . . ” 

Although this is just one opinion, the rapid increase in poor mental health among high school students over the past three decades, is not only backed by Shwartz’s many years of experience, but also by many research studies. According to the CDC, more than 33% of high school students have felt a feeling of sadness or hopelessness for a perpetual period of time in 2021. This has increased by 40% since 2009 (YBRFSS). This statistic only refers to the past decade, let alone the past three. It is quite evident that the mental health of high school students has been at an all time low since 2009. 

Although the stress levels of high school students have clearly increased over the past few decades, what connection does that have to school? As reported by clinical psychologist, Dr. Valerie Long, “One of the main sources of stress for many teenagers is the pressure to achieve academically (Long).” And the stress of school is causing more harm to high school students than many people believe.

The average high schooler’s day appears as follows: Wake up at 6:00 am, sit through seven hours of classes, followed by typically two hours of extracurriculars, and an average of three hours of homework. Personally, looking at this list of activities does not sound fun, but on top of that, where is there room for personal activities/necessities? Somehow, a high school student is trying to fit a social life, personal interests or passions, freetime, and family time into that tight knit schedule. But by the end of the day, the average teenager ends up going to bed sometime from 11:00 pm to 1:00 am (Phillips), which leaves little time for sleep. It is a never-ending cycle of perfectionism where high school students are not getting enough sleep, which causes more stress, more depression, more anxiety, and eventually giving up, which often prompts suicide.

Orit Shwartz stated that, “[stress gets] to the point where some students just give up. They don’t want to do anymore or anything and it’s really hard to see that . . . (Shwartz)” One common form of “giving up” is suicide. After surveying 50 students and teachers about suicide, I was able to find out something strange. I asked students and teachers what they believe to be the percentage of high school students who have seriously considered suicide, and the percentage of high school students who have attempted suicide. I found that 77% of all students guessed much higher than the 18.8%, and 85% of all teachers guessed below the 18.8% (Survey). This suggests that educators in schools immensely underestimate the regularity of suicidal thoughts among high schoolers.  Yet on the contrary, students overestimate the regularity of suicidal thoughts, some students saying that they believed 90% of all students had suicidal thoughts. This made me curious, so I decided to interview a few students about the reason for their answer. After having a few discussions, I discovered that the reason that the students’ predictions were so high was because so many students have struggled with their mental health throughout the duration of high school, that they assumed that so many others students had also been suicidal at one point. The sad thing about this is that most educators are blind to the true realities of suicide and poor mental health, and there has been little to no reform in this field.

Many people fail to understand the correlation between poor mental health, suicide, and education, but it is clear that the academic pressures of high school is causing an extreme deterioration in teenage mental health. In a conversation I had with my aunt, who has been a high school educator for 15 years, on the topic of mental health and suicide in high school, she claimed that students with poor mental health takes up just a fraction of the population, and for the most part, “most high school students are happy,” but research suggests otherwise. According to Dr. Imed Bouchrika, 75% of all high school students in America have described themselves as often or always being stressed by the workload of school (Bouchrika). Let me put that into perspective, three out of four teenagers are struggling with their mental health, particularly feelings of constant stress. In addition to that, 75% of all students had reported feeling angry, depressed, and anxious during school (Bouchrika).

Although it is easy to acknowledge mental health as an issue among high schoolers, finding a solution to this issue tends to be not nearly as easy. There is no one correct answer to solving the issue of poor mental health, but there are definitely a few methods that high schools could use to be more proactive in the mental health of their students. For example, lowering the workload, having mental health training days for staff as well as mental health days for students. In addition to that, schools could attempt to check in with their students, mental health wise, and ensure that everything is okay. But enough is enough. There are clear methods to help solve this issue a little bit. Patrick Turner’s voice needs to be heard, the 15.1 million high school students’ voices need to be heard, your voice needs to be heard.

Resources:

Turner, Patrick, Suicide Letter, 2018, 4 October 2022 (1)

Ivey-Stephenson, et al. “Suicidal Ideation and Behaviors Among High School Students — Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2019”, CDC, 2019, 5 October, 2022 (2)

Shwartz, Orit, In-Person Interview, 6 October 2022 (3)

Long, Valerie PhD, “Teens Stress Is Higher Than Ever”, Children’s Resource Group, 6 October 2022 (4)

Phillips, Kevin, “Are High School Start Times Bad for Your Teen's Sleep?”, Alaska Sleep Clinic, 18 August 2014, 5 October 2022 (5)

Sinai, Jacob, Suicide Survey, 6 October 2022 (6)

Bouchrika, Imed PhD, “50 Current Student Stress Statistics: 2021/2022 Data, Analysis & Predictions”, Research.com, 5 October 2022, 6 October 2022 (7)