With students in turmoil, US teachers train in mental health

SAN FRANCISCO — As Benito Luna-Herrera teaches his seventh-grade social studies classes, he is on alert for signs of inner turmoil. “Teachers and school staff are on the front lines of a crisis, and need to be trained to spot students who are suffering.” Experts say while childhood depression and anxiety had been on the rise for years, the pandemic’s unrelenting stress and grief amplified the problems, particularly for those already experiencing mental health issues who were cut off from counselors and other school resources during distance learning. Educators say they “I have never seen kids be so mean to each other in my life,” said Terrin Musbach, who trains teachers in mental health awareness and other social-emotional programs at the Del Norte Unified School District, a high-poverty district in rural Northern California. “There’s more school violence, there’s more vaping, there’s more substance abuse, there’s more sexual activity, there’s more suicide ideation, there’s more of every single behavior that we would be worried about in kids.” Many states have mandated teacher training on suicide prevention over the last decade and the pandemic prompted some to broaden the scope to include mental health awareness and supporting behavioral health needs. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on “the urgent need to address the nation’s youth mental health crisis.” In early 2021, emergency room visits in the U.S. for suspected suicide attempts were 51% higher for adolescent girls and 4% higher for adolescent boys compared to the same period in 2019, according to research cited in the advisory.