Over on WBUR, Dr. Gonzalo Bacigalupe, local parent who has a background as “a psychologist, a family therapist, a public health researcher and a specialist in trauma response,” writes that the stress that communities like Newton put on our children is too much.
He notes that while suicide is not contagious like a virus, suicides do happen in clusters with each having an influence on the others.
Gail mentioned the stresses of Newton schools earlier on the Village 14 blog.
Bacigalupe offers an interesting solution: turn to the parents. He writes:
Families and parents should be invited to provide their views on the impact that the schools have on their children, via open meetings as well as anonymously via online surveys and focus groups. In almost two decades that I’ve observed the school system, I’ve seen that parents are not regularly asked for their input. More opportunities for parents to interact meaningfully rather than just hold speed interviews with teachers once or twice a year could be valuable.
Connecting school and families in more than informational meetings is not a regular practice. The school could also solicit help from the rich expertise among parents, as many communities with high-achieving students do. This is a town with high levels of expertise in so many professional and academic fields. Parents are probably the most underutilized resources in the school system. We are the most invested in the health of our children but often feel outside the decision-making process and treated with condescension. We are here to help. Maybe it is time for our town to join forces with us.
Which brings up a final question: are we as parents part of the problem (pushing kids too hard) as well as part of the solution?
Based on the results of the most recent Youth Risk Survey, over half of the youth surveyed felt their lives were somewhat stressful and 1 in 5 thought their lives were very stressful. Seventy percent worried about school issues often or almost every day, more than any other category including social issues (41%), family issues (33%), appearance issues (39%) and being bullied (4%). On the other hand, the percentage of youth who felt “connected” in school and had an adult in their lives that they could talk to about their problems was up from previous years, so the schools must be doing something right. We should keep in mind, however, that the schools are not the source of all stress in our children’s lives, nor can the schools alone be expected to fix all of their problems.
Anecdotally, I have heard that when NPS tried to address concerns about school related stress by putting some limits on the number of classes students could sign up for, including AP and honors classes, and making sure they had a free block for lunch, there was push back from parents who wanted their children to be able to take more classes. Personally, I felt it was a good idea, because my kids were feeling pressure–mostly peer pressure–to sign up for as many classes as possible to help them get into the colleges they wanted. At times, they were unhappy about the classes they felt they had to take as well as their workload, which is why we always gave them the freedom to cut back on AP and Honors classes if that was what they wanted.
It is also important to keep things in perspective on school related stress and what if any connection it may have with depression and suicide. Notably, the suicide and attempted suicide rates for college students, including those at the most competitive and presumably stressful colleges and universities, are still far lower than for non-college students in the same age group. And the rates of suicide and attempted suicide in Newton are far lower than the state average. For all of the above reasons, I think it is important for Newton parents and students to have comprehensive and accurate information as well as a continuing dialogue with the schools and the city about all of these issues.
Lastly, the other night, the Commissioner of Public Health came to the Programs & Services Committee seeking funds to provide training and develop suicide prevention policies for teens. I wholeheartedly support these efforts. In addition, I was pleased to learn that every high school student received a bright orange plastic card with resources they can use if and when they are in crisis, to make sure they have access to suicide prevention services 24/7.
Yes, but I don’t think it’s intentional. I think they are picking up on our insecurity about the economy and the future. Our insecurity about the future comes from having lived during a time where the economy has shifted rapidly from lifetime employment with retirement benefits to resume always at the ready.
What if letter grades were done away with? A different approach is described here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_evaluation
How would using narrative evaluations be viewed during the college admission process, though? No grade point averages.
How many Newton High School aged students going to top prep schools and other demanding private schools have been featured in the news due to suicide in the last 24 months? I don’t recall any. If that’s an invade base statistic because Newton doesn’t need to send out parent emails about it and newspapers don’t report it, well…, okay. But to connect a caring reporting entity as a suspect cause in this type of event is way too uncomfortable for me.
Columbo would have put more thought in what the connections were than School Superintendent reports, therefor schools are the suspect. Logically, no entity is a suspect.
If you read the actual YRB survey, it states that student stress levels have shifted over the last ten years. Those calling school “extremely stressful” has actually fallen from 28% in 2002 to 20% in 2012. Those calling school “somewhat stressful” has increased from 50% to 54% over the same time period.
As to what students worry about, in the same time period: school, declined from 73% to 70; social as a source, 55-41%; family issues, 49-33%; appearance and bullying are about the same. Girls are more likely to feel stress than boys do. These numbers are correlated to figures that show students citing adult connectedness increasing over the same period.
So, while I get that stress is a problem, I am not sure which stress level that we should be concerned with. Is “somewhat stressed” acceptable? What exactly does that mean? And is it preferable that schools be the source of “somewhat stressed,” than say, “family issues?” The problem needs some definition.
Follow on post from Dr. Bacigalupe http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2014/02/teen-suicide-suburb
I am posting a link to a fact sheet prepared by the National Alliance for Mental Illness. As this community struggles to find some way to understand the tragic loss of three teens, I think it is important to include within our reflections whether there are sufficient, accessible mental health services available to teens and their families when coping with serious mental illness. A fact NAMI reports which I find quite stunning is that in any given year, only 20 percent of kids with serious mental disorders are identified and receive appropriate treatment, yet over 90 percent of suicides occur in individuals with mental illness.
http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=federal_and_state_policy_legislation&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=43804