Essay Sample: Causes Of Teenage Suicide

Mental Health… a state of well-being in which a person understands his or her abilities. Here at CHS students struggle with mental health because of the pressure to be perfect. In today's society, we are held to a high standard not allowing ourselves to love ourselves. The teacher scolds us if we don't get our homework done or get a bad grade on a test. For the past couple of years, people have been in quarantine, making younger students get thrown into schools that they have never been to. Studies show that the emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts among adolescents jumped 31% in 2020, compared with 2019. In February and March of this year, emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts were 51% higher among girls aged 12-17 than during the same period in 2019 (youth.org). During this year everyone was online and wanted to look like everyone else around them. At school, all of the homework and tests put pressure and stress on all of the kids. "Most students, especially at these high achieving schools, they're doing a minimum of three hours, and it's taking away time from their friends, from their families, and their extracurricular activities. And these are all very important things for a person's mental and emotional health"(Sara M Moniuszko). When kids are taken away from this thing, it doesn't let them get a break from school and have an outlet to get a break. With all of the homework kids are losing sleep which will lead to depression. But if they don't do their homework they could not pass the class or worse commit suicide. Some kids will turn to drugs or binge drinking. Teachers could get fired if they are highly effective for two years in a row. With all of the consequences, CHS could give students a peer with whom they could just talk about anything allowing them to get away from school. For the teacher instead of NWEA, there needs to be a test appropriate to the age level. Barile an educator for 23 years, said she noticed a girl had drastically changed and she had attempted suicide. Kids try to hide it because they don't want attention, imagine if she had someone to talk to about it. It probably won't have happened in the first place.

There are many solutions to this problem. But the best fitting for Caledonia High School is a peer-to-peer mentor program. Just talking to someone will help them immensely. “Friendships are good for your school-age child’s self-esteem. When your child has good friends, he feels like he belongs. His friends care about him, and this helps him feel good about himself” (raisingchilderen.net.au). This shows kids need friends, they can talk to and care about someone. For teachers, it will benefit not to worry if their kids don't achieve their goals and what will happen to them. They also won't get looked down upon by their peers. If we get every school into the peer-to-peer program mental health will become a lesser and lesser problem as they grow up. Did I mention they will also have a lifelong friend? They could communicate even out of school. For Caledonia Community Schools they could go talk to each other during seminars if they want. We could also make a class where the student could talk or do different activities. At my old school, I was in a peer-to-peer group. This is where high school girls would come to my middle school and come talk to us and do activities. It was during the first hour every Tuesday. In the end, it helped me open up to a lot of people and improved my mental health. They also will be able to talk with them whenever they want over the phone. Every conversation is private and no one will know what they are talking to them about.   

On the other hand, people think the real world is harsher, and learning it in school will prepare you. But in reality, in 2020, there were an estimated 14.2 million adults aged 18 or older in the United States that struggled with mental health (https://www.nimh.nih.gov/). This shows that if they were helped, they wouldn't have struggled at all during the pandemic. This is why we as students need to have peers to talk to and just connect with. When kids are stuck doing homework inside they are taken from making friends and just living through their childhood. At Caledonia High School we have a lot of silent work time. How many students are thinking about committing suicide at that time?

To summarize here at CHS many students are struggling with mental health. Kids are put under a lot of pressure to be perfect. They are scolded by the teachers if they don't make a good decision or do not do their homework. Mental health has a lot of effects on a person's physical health. If a kid is very depressed they don't care what goes into their body. This could lead to brinkmanship and smoking. Especially in today's society more than ever we all need to talk to someone about what we are going through. We have no idea when we are going to die and dying with mental health is a waste. What we have gone through in the last two years is incredible and very draining. CHS as a community can be the change for generations to come.