Stress. Anxiety. Depression. Eating Disorders. PTSD. 

Just to name a few of the various types of mental health disorders that affect millions of people nationwide; including students here at Bell High. 

These disorders make it hard for students to focus in the classroom and severely impact their overall academic performance.

“Nationally, only 40 percent of students with emotional, behavioral, and mental health disorders graduate from high school,” according to the website for the Association for Children’s Mental Health. 

Mental health not only affects a student’s life at school, but also their life outside of the classroom. 

“Students are not just about academic performance,” Psychiatric School Social Worker Sara Soto said .“We go through transitions and changes in life and sometimes those changes and the relationships we have both in and out of the classroom can be overwhelming.” 

The school offers a variety of individual support services to help students through their struggles, including Bell High’s collaboration with the community health agency ENKI and a new Well Being Center in room 236A. 

Although these supportive services are available, they are not very well known among students and more should be done to shine light on these programs. 

Every school year, administrators conduct Positive Behavior Assemblies to remind students of how they are expected to behave on campus. What about assemblies focused on mental health to ensure that students are able to succeed on campus? These assemblies can focus on self-care tips, the warning signs of mental health conditions, and aid available for students at school. 

Our school’s mental health services need more recognition and should be promoted more so students know where to reach out when they need help. 

No student should feel as if they are being left behind because they are going through mental or emotional struggles. Instead, more should be done to remind students of the services offered here at school so that they know Bell High is here to help.