Students need breaks and safe spaces in school, as much stress stems from the school environment. Schools are aware of this, but students need more structured support.

During the School Leadership Team (SLT) meeting in October, mental health was discussed, and the following was recorded in the meeting minutes:

“Zekki Wilson wanted to know how the school planned to improve students’ mental health. Principal Ojeda mentioned that some students were participating in yoga and mindfulness classes, and the school would hold yoga events for the entire student population. Additionally, the school employed two social workers. Students are referred to the social workers through their guidance counselors, and the conversations are confidential, unless there is a threat of harm.”

Students need breaks or safe spaces to manage stress, and schools recognize the importance of mental health support through initiatives like yoga, mindfulness, and social workers. Many students, however, are unaware of these resources and still feel overwhelmed by their workload. They have suggested improvements to better support their mental health.

In an anonymous survey conducted in December, the results indicated that 41.2% of students believe the school cares about their mental health. 68.8% of respondents felt that the school is effectively managing students’ mental health. 

“Teachers assign overwhelming amounts of work without understanding the students’ other commitments, like their clubs and teams,” one student said.

Although the school implements initiatives such as yoga, dance classes, and has two social workers, 64.7% of students are unaware of these resources. This highlights the need for better communication to ensure all students are informed about the available support.

We must also consider other factors that affect students’ mental health in school. For these questions, I provided a 1 to 10 star rating scale, with 1 being the easiest and 10 being the hardest.

When asked how they feel overall about school, students gave an average rating of 5.64 stars. For homework, the rating was 6.29. For classwork and participation, it was 4.71. For assessments such as tests and quizzes, it was 7.47. Finally, for assessments like projects, it was 5.94.

This shows that the most stress comes from assessments, specifically tests and quizzes, which might mean they feel stressed because they feel unprepared. The homework given to prepare them also has a high rating of 6.

What do students think directly, and what do they believe would help their mental health, overall? Here are a few of their responses:

• “Give us more time at lunch.”
• “One thing they could have is activities that help students feel less nervous and more comfortable.”
• “Study hall.”
• “I’m not sure what the school could offer to help my mental health because I feel like most of the stress comes from homework, which is something that is somewhat needed to better understand the topics in class.”
• “More tutoring sessions.”
• “If the school shortened the periods to 35 minutes on Wednesdays, like how they did in freshman year, because those days were much less stressful.”
• “The school could provide calming activities and have counselors talk to students as if checking in to see if their mental health is doing fine. (Specifically for kids that are struggling and are okay talking to their counselors.) In addition, maybe check in with teachers and make sure they are not overwhelming their students to a certain extent.”
• “Reduce the academic pressure, reevaluate grading systems, homework policies (less work) and expectations to prioritize balance and avoid burnout, Anonymous support channels, Celebrate efforts not just results.”

Some things that would happen if these responses were to come true: An extended lunch could also mean extended classes, which would, in turn, lead to an extra period in the day for that extended break. Some activities designed to help make students less nervous include PGC, but that is mostly designated for freshmen and seniors, or clubs and organizations—unless they would like activities during lunch.

For study hall, it would make the day longer, or it could take place in the library during lunch or before and after school in the auditorium. Policies regarding homework could be more specific, as some classes, like AP courses, are more likely to assign more work, and teachers have a designated amount of work they must assign within a marking period.

Some lunch periods offer tutoring, and NHS students provide these tutoring services, but there might be lunches that don’t have tutoring, which we would need to identify. Regarding freshman year, it is unclear if lunch periods were as short as 35 minutes, but most teachers used that time as a supplemental period for extra reading, writing tasks, or low-stress activities since the periods were so brief.