Contrary to the "self-evident" and "common sense" arguments pundits and politicians continue to make about how the school closures early in the pandemic were detrimental to children's mental health, studies actually show that teen suicide rates, which usually peak each year in October, coincidental with the start of the school year, actually held steady and similar to summer rates, or even dropped, during the beginning of the "lock down" school year. Why? Most likely because those suicides are in response to bullying, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, racism. ableism that the kids experience when they return to school each year.
I'm not saying the school closures weren't detrimental in many ways. As a science teacher, it was impossible to run real lab activities over zoom. Social interactions suffered. Many kids had low or no bandwidth and couldn't tune in (generally low income kids). Many lost access to social services schools provide.
But when talking about teen mental health, we really also should be looking at this decline in suicide, and what it tells us about how schools, and society, are still failing so many of our kids.
@MikeDunnAuthor thank you for sharing this. I was teaching hs history, and a few students reported better emotional well-being, at least initially. Overall, more students reported stress to their mental health, and I noticed all of the non-science problems. In history, connected students could carry on.
@MikeDunnAuthor German media used to paint a picture that schools are perfect safespaces. 13 years of school with bullying and violence proved me otherwise.