School youth behavior survey shows disturbing trends
By Tracy Ouellette
Editor
According to the numbers from the anonymous Youth Risk Behavior Survey given to sixth- through 12th-grade students in the East Troy School District, about 35 to 40 percent of the middle and high school students in the district report they feel stress “most of the time or always.”
A significant number of students also said they feel “so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks in a row” that they stopped doing some of their usual activities. Almost 23 percent of the district’s middle schoolers reported those feelings on the survey and nearly 25 percent of the high school students did, keeping track with the state average. There is no state comparison for the middle school students.
Even more alarming is the number of kids reporting they have tried to kill themselves. Almost 7 percent of the Middle School students said they had attempted suicide in their lifetime. Again, state averages are not available for middle schoolers, but Kate Harder, director of Special Education and Pupil Services and the district’s Assessment Coordinator, said in her research a nearby district reported that more than 9 percent of its middle schoolers had attempted suicide.
At the High School, the question asked of the students was had they attempted suicide in the past 12 months. The number of students reporting they had tried to kill themselves as 8.6 percent; the state average is 6 percent.
Harder said while the numbers for the district were, for the most part, in line with the state average, the district was looking at how to help the kids who are struggling.
“The emotional needs of the children are critical,” Harder said.
Decreased funding and increased need in support services is affecting East Troy, like many districts across the state and nation, Harder said. But the district recognizes how vitally important it was to address the needs of the kids in and out of the classroom.
Harder said resiliency was an enormous factor in how the kids handled the stressors in their lives. One measure of resiliency, she said, was the ability to stand up to negative peer pressure, and she was pleased to say that about 70 to 75 percent of the students reported they felt capable of doing that in “dangerous situations.”
Harder said there were many factors that played into the stress in the students’ lives, but highlighted a few:
- Financial – The district has about 30 percent of its student body on the free or reduced lunch program. To meet the requirement for the program, the family must have and income below 185 percent of the federal poverty level and that is hard to qualify for, Harder said. So, many of the district’s children come from homes struggling with financial problems even if they don’t meet the federal guideline.
- Homelessness – One might not think homelessness would be a problem in a community like East Troy, but according to district numbers, 1.5 percent of the students in the district are homeless. Harder said the district had 19 homeless students in April, but over the course of the past school year, had reached a record high of 25 homeless students.
- Socio-emotional needs – Harder said the mental health needs of the nation’s children was much higher than most people realized and according to the most recent report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “Mental Health Surveillance Among Children – U.S., 2005-2011, 13 to 20 percent of the children in the country experience a mental disorder in any given year and from the 1994-2011 data, those conditions are increasing. Suicide was the second leading cause of death in children age 12 to 17 in 2010.
- Sexuality – According to the survey, about 12 percent of the High School students describe themselves as “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or are unsure.” According to the CDC, youth who identify themselves as LGBTQ are more likely to commit suicide, with one study showing rates as high as 25 percent of that population. Added to that is the likelihood of youth turning to drugs and alcohol as coping mechanisms for mental health challenges and day-to-day problems. The country seems to have many facilities for lgbt alcohol rehab and similar services. These can be accessed by youth who need assistance.
What they’re doing about it
The School District and its staff are not ignoring the reality of the situation by any mean. Harder said they’ve already begun shaping specific strategies to better serve the students so the students can get a high-quality education, which is often the solution to many of the problems they have faced as children.
Harder said the district is focusing on three areas to improve staff’s ability to assist the students – professional development, suicide prevention training, and activity development to address specific needs that were highlighted in the survey results.
Starting in the fall, Pupil Service staff will be training teaching staff on the mental health issues facing the students and how they can do more to help.
The district will also be offering suicide prevention training, or “gatekeeper training,” to staff through the Department of Public Instruction. That training will be followed up with small group sessions with Pupil Service staff and teaching staff.
“We’re going to be really working with the staff in small and large groups so they have the support they need,” Harder said.
And finally, the development and/or continuation of things like Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) leadership projects, transition services, career training, No Name-Calling Week, student ambassadors, Mentor Society and a host of other projects and activities to promote teamwork, healthy environments and future opportunities for the students.
The district is looking at new instructional programming, expanding on alternative and special education behavioral programs.
It doesn’t stop there, said Harder. The district is also looking at utilizing community resources through its Project Based Leaning initiative because this isn’t a “school” problem, it’s a society problem that has ended up on the school’s doorstep because it’s interfering with the ability to educate the youth.
“We want people to know we’re available to assist families and students in any way possible,” she said. “We really want to collaborate with the community as much as possible. This isn’t limited to the classroom.”
