Mental Health Days? by Gabby Ellrott

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What comes to mind when you think- high school? Maybe stress from your classes, pressure put on by not only yourself but by your parents, mental breakdowns, even having problems with the people you go to school with. This all adds up to be a lot and is exhausting and damaging in the long run.

Everyone knows that you are allowed to take off from school when you are in poor health of course, but what about if it’s your mental health that's in poor condition? Montgomery County in Virginia has decided it will allow mental health days for students as an excused sick day. A group of teenagers in their district got together and raised awareness for mental health, they now see that their advocacy has paid off which resulted in a unanimous vote at their district school board meeting.
Image result for teen mental health statistics
So… what are students everywhere saying about this? Supporters of allowing mental health days have said things like sometimes a break is all they needed, our minds should be granted a break if our bodies are allowed one, and that there would be a better chance to academically thrive. Students who oppose this ask how do we know that people won’t abuse the system? This is a very logical question and yes, there will be those who choose to abuse it but at least it’s there as an option for the people who truly need it.

There seems to be major stigma around discussing mental health and experts are saying that this may be able to open up a healthy conversation. There are people who have to take days off of school and work by making up an excuse even though it's because they can barely make it through a full day. Days like this will hopefully reduce the tension so people don't feel obligated to hide the fact that they aren't okay.

Resources: current event link

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 30, 2019 at 6:34 AM

    I think this could be really beneficial for so many people and I also really love how you provided resources!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 30, 2019 at 12:32 PM

    I think that mental health is as important as physical health. I think that mental health days would be very beneficial because school can become very overwhelming at certain times. And I also love how you talked about the stigma behind talking about mental health

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 30, 2019 at 5:35 PM

    I think this is a great idea. I think that they should also be implemented at most jobs to help take away from the bad stigma. By making them more common, people wont be scared to take time for themselves.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousOctober 30, 2019 at 8:27 PM

    I would absolutely love a mental health day. Mental health is just as important as physical health. I also love your use of statistics to support the argument!

    ReplyDelete
  5. DanielleNovember 4, 2019 at 8:45 AM

    i think this idea would benefit students and anyone working. We all need a break sometimes and it's hard to find that time.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousNovember 18, 2019 at 5:00 AM

    I totally agree that most people don't understand the amount of stress school puts on kids theses days.

    ReplyDelete

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