Schools and our children are in crisis.

It definitely took a toll on my mental health.

They feel like they were cut short of their high school experience.

Structure and routine is very important for kids.

We want to meet the basic needs of our students and our community.

The pandemic has changed how kids learn how they live now live a special PBS39 Community Conversation Asian stress in our schools.

Here's your host Brittany Sweeney Megan Frank.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Throughout the pandemic, perhaps no one has had a tougher time than our kids.

Simply put, life is different now for them isolation, learning, loss, stress and mental health worries.

Many of our children are in need a crisis created as much by disruptions and uncertainty as the virus itself.

Tonight we'll explore that through the lens of our schools.

Schools are changed places and everybody there not just students but teachers.

Counselors support staff have felt it.

They're all struggling PBS39 and 91.3 WLVT are proud to bring you this Community Conversation live from our public media center in Bethlehem.

We have a lot to get through tonight.

We'll hear from students and educators on the challenges.

We'll talk to mental health experts about ways to cope.

But first, let's take a look at the numbers.

We're talking mental health, a growing percentage of kids in the US live with major depression.

In the past year, 15% of youth experienced a major depressive episode, according to the group Mental Health America.

That's defined as a period of low mood or depression of two weeks or more, maybe even more alarming.

Most go without treatment.

Over 60% of kids with major depression don't receive any mental health services.

Of course, schools are where kids spend most of their day, but they're not alone in their troubles.

A survey last month by the National Education Association found the pandemic and stash shortages have exhausted teachers so much so that 90% of NEA members say feeling burned out is a serious problem and an exodus from the class doesn't promise to let up.

More than half of teachers.

55% actually say they will retire early or plan to leave education sooner because of the pandemic.

Of course, what to do about all of this is how to and how to overcome it is what will will.

We will be focusing on tonight.

Later, we'll meet some students for a thoughtful discussion on what they're dealing with.

But first we start with a place inspired before the pandemic.

School leaders knew of the need, but they had no idea of the overwhelming number of teens who would reach out for help.

Upon returning to in-person classes, the pandemic has disrupted three school year so far.

It's affected not only how students learn, but their mental health as well.

It just made me feel like scared and just confused because there was something new for me.

Like with being quarantined and how everything was jailing Foster and Jason crooning are both in 10th grade at Liberty High School in Bethlehem.

Their entire high school careers have been made by pandemic protocols.

The first year of high school was so much it's already nervous.

You're nervous your first you come to a bigger school and then just added the Covid stuff on top.

It just added so much more stress on your back and deadlines are more strict than normal.

Teachers were cracking down about the mask, yelling at you just so much more stressful and should have been.

I just feel like we should have been taught more about it when it first came out that way.

My kids, my age understood what was going on and why this happened instead of just being taken out of school and just never seeing your friends again.

The students have found some solace in a mental health resource offered in the school.

The Wellness Center one person that you can turn to for help when you need it is help me because it made me feel like I could talk to someone that I trust and understands me and supports me, which I really need it.

This year and last year.

But it just made me open up more to know people care about me and my feelings.

Getting kids used to hybrid learning and reintegrating into the classrooms and stuff was quite a struggle for everyone and not just students, everyone.

The center opened pre-pandemic, but as the last few years have added more stress and anxiety to many lives, they can come any time during the day.

But clinical supervisor Robin Sorenson says the number of students coming in for help has skyrocketed.

It's as if you we knew that this something was going to happen and we would need these services.

It was really incredible.

I don't know where we would be as essential workers, she says.

They were able to continue working even through the shutdowns, offering therapeutic services to kids in need anxiety.

A lot of anxiety.

A lot of depression.

Just having trouble figuring out how to get through a day with planning and that kind of thing.

They kind of helped me with time management like stress relief.

They helped me like plan out like how to do stuff instead of me reacting this way, I could react another way.

Just good time to hear.

We look at the whole picture and the student's whole story and what's going to work for them.

Music Oh yeah, I like to call a friend.

Liberty has teamed up with the nearby Moravian College Occupational Therapy Program Go for a Walk.

Interns work closely with the high schoolers with the occupational therapy intern as their focus more on participation in meaningful life activities.

So they're taking whatever the students say are their main issues and we try to help them with whatever they need to do.

Whatever barriers are in their way.

Inhale of participation in the things that they want and need to do.

For therapists are available for appointments throughout the week.

Some of the things that we've worked on with them are simple, like calming strategies that they can implement throughout their school day.

Take a deep breath in through your nose and make it functional to work for that specific student and their unique needs.

Assistant Principal Nicholas Summit Hill leads as a liaison between the Wellness Center and administrators.

This is where I like to call the war room and this is where all the ideas started formulating, he says.

The team is working on ways to offer more services to the growing number of kids seeking mental health solutions.

We specifically have set up a system and a structure knowing the needs are going to be great and we already eclipse the amount of kids as we call them referrals and we figure out what is it they need.

Some could be informal check ins.

Some could be more formal, so can be perhaps psychiatric help assistance.

We already by the fall.

I'll give you around the holidays at some point eclipsed amount of referrals we had last year as far as kids that need help and need services.

Some anti-elitist says the focus on mental health will only intensify in years to come.

He hopes other schools will begin to offer similar programs.

We're fortunate in that and we're very humble about that, that we're able to give our kids something that many schools are now scrambling to be able to build out, offering free therapeutic services to students who may not otherwise have access to them is proving to be successful at Liberty.

Got better like talking to people kind of got me like being nicer to people like opening up more.

My trust is better now.

Joining us now is the principal of Liberty High School.

Last spring, he was named the state's secondary principal of the year.

Dr Harrison Bailey, thank you so much for joining us tonight.

Thank you for having me.

So we're going to talk about the Wellness Center in just a couple of minutes.

But first I wanted to talk about something you spoke about in a recent New York Times article.

You had said you have seen an increase in disciplinary situations.

Kids acting out as they come back to in-person learning.

Why do you think that is?

Why do you think that was such a big issue at the start of the school year?

Well, I think that when we came back to school at the end of August, I think students returned feeling like they didn't know where they stood in the kind of grand scheme of things.

And so they were trying to find their footing with each other, trying to acclimate back to routines and just the general makeup of systems in school.

I think also we have to remember that the world definitely then and even some now felt really out of control political unrest, racial divide.

You had so much going on in terms of the social media scene with students.

And I think they returned feeling like the world was out of control.

And so if students look at look to the adults as the thermometer, so to speak and if they see that the adults are out of control, then why should I be in control?

And I think that wasn't that wasn't a a Bethlehem issue that wasn't a Pennsylvania issue.

I think that was an international issue in which students looked to us and saw that the adults in our world simply were not managing the stress very well and so they took their lead from that.

Sure, kids were seeing how adults reacted and taking their cue from that.

What are things like now?

Well, I'd say that definitely the second half of the year as we've kind of gotten through the kind of Januar stall, so to speak.

I think things have improved.

I think our students have started to acclimate.

I think they've started to recognize that they have to get back to the schedules and get back to kind of the normality of things.

And quite frankly, I think the world has started to come a little bit.

So as a result, I think they have start to feel like, OK, it's alright.

It's safe.

I can manage the normal things that happen in school.

When a student has to worry about their own safety, whether it's in school or out of school, learning is not going to happen.

And so we have to continue to make them feel better both in school and in the community.

And what about teachers?

I've heard a lot of teachers say that they're kind of in survival mode.

Is that a real thing or would you say that's exaggerated because of the pandemic?

No, I'd say that that's how people some people absolutely feel.

And that's a matter of we have to remember that prior to the pandemic, teachers and anyone who worked in a school building really felt that stress to begin with, whether it was the pressures from the state or whether it was just the pressures of them wanting kids to do better and learn.

So, you know, we had those issues prior to now we begin we head into this pandemic, we throw definitely the world of teachers upside down where they go from teaching in person to teaching online, which is an absolute flip of things for them.

And now we kind of swing back to OK, now we're back in the building again.

And I think those stress that stress on not just our teachers but our guidance counselors, it was a tough thing to to manage.

And so I think they're starting to just come and get through that and again, re acclimate the same way the students are sure and hopefully that calm stays for a while.

Obviously, we just took a look at the wellness center that was set in place before the pandemic.

Pre-pandemic.

It was kind of like not that you knew what was coming, but it was almost like you had a hunch.

We need this.

This is really needed.

And then it hit a high point during the pandemic.

What's it been like?

How has it helped?

Absolutely.

Well, the wellness center, we were blessed to have started that process about four years ago and we really did a lot of work and we had a committee of administrators, teachers, guidance counselors, secretaries and we came together and decided that we saw that there was a significant amount of trauma in the lives of our students and recognize that if you talk to any principal of a high school across the country and you ask them their number one concern health.

And so we knew that and so we decided we had to do something about it and we began to put our heads together and create the wellness center.

And so this has really been a blessing we have for social workers who are who work in that particular space and work with our students.

We have community in schools, worker we have occupational therapy from Moravian University and they all work very well together to serve our students.

And quite frankly, I don't know what high schools are doing without that.

I really don't understand how they're surviving.

Sure, I got to see it first-hand and it's just such a wonderful resource to have there in place for the students and the staff who support them as well.

Dr Bailey, we're going to ask you to stick around for a little bit.

We're going to move on to another school also in the Bethlehem area.

Leading an elementary school has a different set of challenges for younger kids.

The stability of school is something they count on.

But even that has been seriously put to the test in the age of Covid.

We spent a recent morning at Marvin Elementary School to find out how morning.

Hi everybody.

My name is Eric Fountain Hill and I am the principal of Marvin Elementary School.

Good morning.

Have a good day.

I've been the principal of marveen for four years now.

We have 320 students here.

We are an economically disadvantaged school, but you know, we do amazing things here.

If the best food they love to see us opening the doors, they love to say good morning each day.

I don't Lafayette Park here.

What's up, Verizon?

You hit that 30,000?

No, it's your birthday.

Happy birthday.

When we are out here, no one's yelling or honking horns.

So the kids aren't really like stressed out or, you know, like they know they're in a safe place.

They know we're going to take care of them.

We're going to love them, we're going to feed them.

We're going to do everything we have to do to make them, you know, have a great day.

What a lot of kids will transition coming back to school has been difficult as they started school all over again.

You know, you think, Oh, it's no big deal, but you know, structure routine is very important for kids through the pandemic.

A lot of people have lost a lot of love ones.

So that's another trauma.

A lot of emotion regulation issues I can give them something to do like of activity, like coloring or playing with Play-Doh.

And then after that, calm down.

Then we talk.

I just try to give them an extra place, a safe place to come and vent.

The lighting is very low.

They come here and they relax.

When you look around the classroom, you'll notice there's some covers and things on the Lyons just to keep the lighting a little bit more dim.

It's a little bit better for the kids.

It's nice and relaxing for the students.

Everything to kind of help out our kids.

Well, Marva, have a wonderful space here to help kids calm down and they provided me with resources that I can use for the students.

This is Marvin Food Pantry.

We've been up and running for about two years.

You know, we've canned products.

We have cereal.

You look in here, I have cheese, I have deli meat.

One of the other things that we realized that we were kind of meeting was just to have some extra clothing.

We want to meet the basic needs of our students and our community because when basic needs are not met, that's a huge stressor.

Our goal is to just not have stressors so that way they can come in and do the best they can just keep on moving through their educational career.

Like you guys doing a little dance.

I sure hope they're coming back to in-person.

Learning has been new for the students.

This is their safe zone.

They love being here.

One thing that we do so well is show our kids love and power.

You have some great dance moves right there and showing our kids some love.

Of course it's so important.

Joining us in person now is Eric Fontan as principal of Marvin Elementary School.

Mr Fountain Hill, thank you so much for joining us.

And thank you for having me.

The dance moves.

I like that.

I try.

Of course, when I think of younger students, I don't always think mental health.

You think about that law at the height a lot at the high school level, not so much.

The elementary level, but a lot of steps have been taken to set some resources in place at the elementary level.

Was this something that was brought on by the pandemic or something that you were already doing in the school?

So I think we were already doing it, but we definitely added on to it.

So we've been working with Shanti Project and doing a mindfulness program for all of our kindergarten first and second grade.

We've been doing that for a few years now, but when we came back from a pandemic we realized we really needed to step it up.

So you know, as a district, we tighten up some of our mental health services.

So now we have St Luke's as an outpatient therapist who's in our building once a week and then we have a values house therapist who's also there five days a week on top of the guidance counselor.

And you know, everything that the that the teachers are doing for the students.

And how is it different addressing those emotional skills, those anxiety issues with the younger students opposed to something like teens?

I mean, you know, I would assume that it's pretty similar in a way that you know, you have to teach them how to how to cope with their stress and how to how to regulate their emotions.

So, you know, it's just like when you're teaching reading like students are not you know, they're not born.

Learn knowing how to read.

Same way, they're not born knowing how to regulate their emotions.

So when things come up, you know, I stress to my teachers when you have a teachable moment like that, you know, do with the whole group over the whole class and, you know, show them that, you know, different skills that they can use different strategies that they can use, not only in the classroom but when they're outside of it as well.

Kids are back in the classroom now, but that wasn't the case last year.

Can you talk to me about the difference of in-person versus virtual learning?

What that's been like on the elementary level?

We are happy to be back.

Let me say we're saying that and you know, I commend our superintendent and all the administration and teachers to just, you know, plan everything to come back and never going back out again.

You know, it's amazing to be back.

The students, really, we ran into a lot of struggles when it came to online learning, you know, and it's stressors such as, you know, internet access.

You know, when we first went into the pandemic, they all didn't have computers.

We had to figure out a way to get computers into their hands.

So distributing distributing them out to the homes when they had technical difficulties at home.

You know, I remember times I was standing on front porches like Give me your computer, let me see if I can reset or to do what I have to do.

But you know, having them back now.

You know, we're starting to get back into the routines they're starting to, you know, know that they're back into a safe place.

They know they're getting breakfast and lunch every single day.

You know, we tried as much as we could throughout the pandemic to, you know, make sure that all their basic needs were met.

But it's a lot easier when you have them in front of you and you see them every single day.

Sure.

You mentioned resources and lack thereof.

Your school is literally in a public housing project.

Has that made your job any different harder than, say, other schools who may have those resources to provide every kid right away with the resources they need to learn virtually?

Well, I mean, I think we're blessed.

I think we're blessed by the partners that we have the community itself.

You know, when, when we became a community school, we truly became the hub of the community.

We have families that come to us for anything.

I mean, and sometimes they're not even our families, but they'll come and they might need help with finding a new job.

They might need help with furniture for their house.

We don't turn anyone away because we truly feel that if those needs are all met, they're going to do better educationally.

And that's right, that's what we strive for.

Wonderful.

I want to bring Dr Bailey back into this conversation.

Leading a school comes with its challenges.

The pressure has got to be there on you day to day.

You're making these big decisions.

So how do you cope with that?

What are some of the things you've done to get through it and lead this school forward?

That's an excellent question.

I wish I can tell you that I've done it without issue, but the reality is that for me, it's about leaning on my staff.

It's about having strong teachers, it's about having a great administrative team, solid guidance counselors that and great therapists that we can all come together and know that we're doing good things every day.

We talk about passion and purpose and students and so when you're doing something that is your passion and fulfills your personal purpose in life, each day, coming to work kind of feeds that.

And so, you know, my wife might argue with that a little bit, but so I certainly, you know, take home some stress.

But I think having those people to surround myself with has really been the way that I've gotten through this pandemic.

Sure, I know we're talking about mental health, but I want to touch a little bit upon learning loss.

Such a big issue over the past few years.

Now we're getting back in the swing of things.

How do we measure a learning loss?

And is that the importance of where kids stand in terms of their learning, Mr Fondness?

So you know, in the elementary, you know, we knew, as you know, across the world, we knew that there was going to be learning loss coming back.

So you know, we did we did benchmark assessments as soon as they came in and we honestly we started instruction on day one, which, you know, usually it wasn't always like that.

But we started immediately with whole groups.

Small group of math.

Everything started on that first day.

But Lehigh far Joseph Roy.

That's OK when it comes to measuring that.

How do you take a look at that and say, OK, this kid needs more help than, say, another student?

Well, that's when we kind of use intervention groups or you know, small groups for what kind of place them either with a reading, support teachers or anything like that.

But one of the important parts that I truly feel was that our teachers, they knew exactly what to do from day one.

And I told them, I said, Look, do what you do best.

You teach your master at it, you teach.

We took every moment and we made it a teachable moment.

So you know, if you'relining students up to go out into the hallway, hey, you know what?

Line them up by a numerical or just know that way.

Your practicing those things.

We have to find a way to grab the skills that we were missing and catch them up.

Some great advice there.

And Dr Bailey, what about the high school level?

Sure.

Well, one of the things that the district did was we the Dr Silver and Dr Roy were really thinking out ahead of this and hired coaches.

So we started the school year with English coaches and math coaches and we're able to are using them now.

We'll use them throughout the year to help really ramp up students that fell behind because we know that it wasn't an even playing field.

Some students were home the entire first that entire year, year and a half, and some students were here just on the hybrid schedule.

So they had different levels of exposure and statistically we know that the teacher the impact of the teacher is the most important thing in the learning process.

And so not having access to that teacher on a daily basis truly hurt some of our kids.

Not just at Liberty but nationwide.

And so we had to employ some things to try to ramp that up.

And our coaches are doing an excellent job in trying to to boost our students.

And speaking of teachers, are they getting some training and social emotional dealings with students?

How to address these situations?

Do they have that training in place right now?

Again, we are so fortunate because we were doing this, we were doing.

We were learning about trauma and toxic stress before the pandemic hit, all of our staff was trained other than our newest teachers.

They were trained before this pandemic hit and so we walked into the pandemic or already understanding how trauma and toxic stress affects the brains and bodies of students.

And Mr Frontliners, as are you seeing the same thing with your teachers exactly with the same, you know, we did a lot of trauma trainings for our staff and we continue it now.

We use Franklin Covey is a leader in me program as an SQL and actually we even have a training coming up next Thursday to continue that with all of our staff.

Great Mr Fountain Hill as Dr Bailey from the Bethlehem Area School District.

Thank you both.

So much for your input tonight.

All right.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely.

Of course, any conversation about learning and schools can't happen without teachers.

They are the driving forces in schools and they've been strained by staff shortages, interruptions in their own health concerns.

Joining us now remotely is Aaron Chapman, a teacher at Stroudsburg Area Middle School.

He's also Vice President of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state's largest teachers union.

Mr Chapman, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for inviting me in.

We spoke earlier of the NEA survey in teacher burnout.

As someone who's in the classroom day to day, what do you see as the biggest factors right now?

Well, again, thank you for having me.

And I must say over the past two years, our educators, our support staff have done such an amazing, incredible job with in-person learning.

They realize that it's necessary and you know, I saw a recent heart poll that said that 72% of parents and families with kids in public schools are absolutely thrilled with the education of their kids are receiving during these unusual times.

But we're absolutely seeing these staffing shortages as well as the burnout with educators Mr Chapman we saw across the country, we reported that there are fewer teachers today than there were two years ago.

Are we seeing the same thing here in Pennsylvania?

That same trend continue.

Yeah.

Unfortunately, this is a trend that we saw about a decade ago.

We saw this coming and then the pandemic really accelerated it.

We see a substantial amount of people not getting certificates for education that used to be going into our profession.

And how has that influenced what has the how has the pandemic influenced all of that?

How has it sped up that process?

One one of the major factors is the affordability of college is very expensive.

Leading many educators with debts that follow them for decades.

But you know, we're also in Pennsylvania not attracting educators of color and that needs to happen as well.

It needs to be a combined effort.

You're in the classroom every day.

So how does it impact the teachers who were there not having all of those positions filled at this point?

Well, the stress is real.

You asked that question earlier and it's very real.

Our staff are stretched so thin they're covering the hundreds and thousands of vacancies that exist across the Commonwealth.

This provides them with very little time during the school day to plan for the other classes in many cases, they're not getting their lunch.

In many cases they're unable to go to the restroom and filling in for staff positions that aren't filled or even absent staff because these, you know, they are getting Covid in some cases.

And this provides this really is causing a lot of burnout among the educators.

Absolutely.

Mr Chapman, what do you say to those people who say this is all just to play for higher salaries from teachers?

Absolutely not.

This struggle is real.

You know, and I think many of our families absolutely realize this.

I think our communities understand it and we need to be there for our educators as they've been there for our families over the last two years.

Of course, virtual learning was hard on the kids.

It was hard on the parents.

Talk to me about what it was like for teachers.

It had to be again hard for them.

It was hard all around.

Yes.

While it was, it was great to be able to connect with the kids virtually.

It was better than nothing.

It still does not replace in-person learning.

Our members are our colleagues across the state realize this.

But it has been very difficult.

We still, you know, we have Covid protocols in place for everybody's safety.

But you know, a lot of our kids have not been, you know, they missed being in the classroom as some earlier speakers talked about the lack of a routine, it made it very difficult and we're still experiencing that today in the classroom and makes it very difficult to not only teach the material but get the kids accustomed to what they should be doing in the classroom.

Dr Bailey had mentioned that in the beginning of this school year, with kids going back in the classroom, he saw a lot of kids acting up.

It was really tough for them to make that transition for teachers to make that transition.

What's it like now?

What are you hearing from other teachers?

What he was describing is accurate and it is still going on and it makes absolute sense.

You know, a lot of our kids have been uprooted from their regular routines.

David experienced great loss and some of their personal lives.

Some some loved ones that have passed away due to the pandemic.

And this is going to have an effect.

And we from the beginning of this pandemic, we've taken mental health very seriously with our students.

We realize that, you know, their mental health concerns aren't being met then their academic success is not going to be achieved.

So it's something that we are concerned with and addressing each and every day and we really need to try and get more professionals into our schools like psychologists guidance counselors, nurses and a variety of staff so that we can help those kids meet those mental health concerns.

And what is PSEA doing to support its members at this point?

Are there any solutions coming down the line?

What are what we were trying to to fill a lot of holes of issues that we're facing right now?

We're trying to figure out how to get more educators a possible future educators into this.

Are we?

We're partnered up with bipartisan legislation legislators across our Commonwealth to get some emergency legislation put in place for getting substitutes teachers.

It's very difficult right now to find substitute kits, which obviously impacts the stress that our educators are feeling.

So we're trying to do all sorts of things right now to try and get more people into education.

We thank all of our teachers for all of their hard work throughout the pandemic and beyond.

Aaron Chapman, Vice President of PSEA Thank you so much for joining us tonight.

Thank you.

And we continue this community conversation stress in our schools on PBS's 39 Streaming on Facebook and on the Web at PBS39.org.

A little later in the show, we're going to hear from mental health professionals.

First, a reminder resources are available for people who feel like they need to speak with Crisis Counselor are available 24 seven at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

The number to call is 808 two seven three eight two five five.

You can also text the word home to seven four one seven four one.

The phone number again one 802 seven three eight two five five or text home two seven four one seven four one.

OK, now it's time to hear direct relief from our students themselves.

A few days ago, I met with high schoolers from the Bethlehem Area School District.

They spoke candidly about how life has changed, what it was like to return to in-person classes and how everything that's happened the last two years has affected their mental health and outlook.

What would you like teachers, administrators, parents even to know about the past couple of years and where you're at right now?

I think just straight up that it's been hard and I think definitely at first there was a lot of pressure to just keep up.

You know, like grades or, you know, just I don't know, like people like our like trying to stay up like socially or like I don't know, just I don't know, trying to get into college.

I just think that there's a lot of pressure to just stay the way things were.

Even though there is like the world around us is literally changing every single second.

Some teachers won't like can't teach the full curriculum in a semester because we're only we were only going every other day, so we couldn't get as much education that we could get in one semester when we were just going for like half of the semester.

Everything's an adjustment right now, you know, nothing is constant every day at school has been like trying to get back to how things used to be because we weren't the past.

Our entire years, up until last year being at school five days a week and at home two days a week and then all of a sudden that totally got flip flopped around.

It's a little bit tumultuous.

You know, it's very, very different.

It's a lot.

There's a lot going on in our heads.

You know, you can't see everything.

It's not like everything is visible and like a piece of clothing or anything like that.

But we've got a lot going on up in our head.

So you know, just trying to be understanding, I guess with the New Times and how we're trying to handle it the best that we can.

I feel like this year it was very fast paced.

The first semester like just jumping back into school five days a week in the last year.

You're only in school for three days.

I feel like the amount of work, the amount of time that you were in school really like increased this year.

And I also feel like for other kids like elementary school, for example, my sisters in elementary school, I feel like for them it was also extremely hard because younger kids need other kids to make friends like when we were in elementary school, that's how we made the friends that we know today and I feel like a lot of that was hard for them because they were on a computer or they weren't in school.

It's just really hard for them for the younger kids to connect.

And I feel like that's really important for their age group, for them to grow and then go into middle school high school because I feel like you need a steady foundation to grow into other kids.

What has the school year been like this school year and your high school career, Gianna?

Let's start with you.

I feel like our high school career starting when we were freshmen, we came in.

It was a great year.

We had a normal what we know as normal year and then everything went downhill.

As a sophomore and I feel like many people still have the mindset of a sophomore as seniors, they feel like they were cut short of their high school experience like many of their parents, had a full four years.

There was no pandemic.

They kind of just lived their lives.

But we had just had a different experience last year totally felt like a blur.

I didn't I don't feel like I had a junior year and now I've got a few months left in my senior year and I'm looking to graduate trying to decide where I'm going to college.

It's a totally different experience.

I think we all definitely kind of took for granted just being with each other.

You know, it would be like the same every day like, Oh, I got it, I got to wake up, I got to go to school.

But I mean, coming back now, like I feel like there was no junior year and I think now coming back, it's like, Oh my god, I can finally see my friends again.

I can kind of kind of get back into the groove of things and I think that's what I was my senior year has been like I haven't gotten the high school experience that maybe I've wanted in the past like in middle school that I was looking forward to.

It's definitely changed my mindset going into each year thinking how like, oh, this year might be like the other ones.

It might not be, but definitely this year has been what it's gotten back to a little bit normal.

Then what we've seen in the past masking has been a hot topic in the community at school board meetings across the state, across the country.

Has that been stressful for you guys as a student?

Has that been stressful?

Gianna?

I feel like the masks they have helped us stay the way we are having everyone in school because I know last year junior, when we were separated by Alphabet the eighth round and through Z, it was really hard not seeing my friends.

A lot of my friends were on the other side of the alphabet so they would go to school on an opposite day of me having the mask really helped us gain more unity this year.

It is kind of stressful.

I feel like just trying to communicate with people while it is like really beneficial.

I feel like it's so hard to actually have a proper conversation with people sometimes.

Sure, you can't really show your expression, but it sounds like all of you agree that it's been helpful to get back into school.

See your friends what kind of mental health toll has this taken over the past couple of years?

Jillian, not seeing your friends being out of school, being back in school, going hybrid.

Now you're back.

What has that been like mentally?

Well, since it's like you never know what the next day's going to bring, you're like some like I would be worried sometimes that we might get shut down and we want to get like the proper education that we needed.

It was really hard to hang out with friends or just kind of socialize.

I mean, obviously like you know, when the pandemic first started.

But if I could be completely candid, my mom like she was at risk, so I wasn't able to go hang out with friends just like up until this past summer.

So it was it definitely took a toll on my mental health.

I mean, I just felt isolated, completely like school, even though it was every other day that was my outlet to go see people to talk to people.

So yeah, it definitely had a major effect on me.

But I think it definitely made me so grateful when I was able to go back and see everybody for sure.

Let's get into that a little bit more.

What were some of the ways you used to cope with some of that stress and anxiety?

I think phone social media face time just that allowed me a lot to just connect with people just outside of my home outside of school too.

I have I had a lot of friends that you know, would face time me or, you know, would just check up on me and you know, we would, you know, goof off for hours and that was great.

But it wasn't the same.

I mean, it would never be the same like, people need interaction.

For me, personally, I feel like having a group of friends really helped because they're experiencing something new just like I am.

I feel like that really helped keep us together as a friend group and just like keep us checking up on each other was like, Well, we used to do it all the time.

And I feel like that really helps when we came back to having like Hangouts in real life.

It wasn't like anything changed because we kept together, you know, everybody so social in high school and your friends seem to be your group of support.

Things shut down.

You weren't able to see friends.

What was that like?

It was very hard in the beginning, but I feel like for me personally, my brother, he went through.

He was a senior during the first like original shut down, so he graduated.

He didn't have a real graduation and he didn't have a real from.

So like, I really felt for him because like I was like, Am I going to have a real graduation?

Am I going to have a real prom?

How long will this go on?

How will school be for me?

It was really it was just like a very different time, like just a lot of unknowns that made me personally anxious.

Never knowing what's going to happen the next day.

I think we all remember where we were when everyone was starting to talk about, Hey, like we might shut down now.

Like this is actually real.

I remember we didn't have any snow days that year.

We were like, Man, it's really time to, you know, just have a break get out of here.

And then it didn't.

The shutdown didn't last two weeks and then here we are now.

Still wearing masks.

Still, you know, trying to connect with friends as much as we possibly can.

What about some of the positives that you found throughout this pandemic?

There has to be a silver lining.

Have you seen anything come out of this pandemic that you thought is a good thing?

My brother was a senior during the initial shutdown when we were shut down and we got to spend a lot of time together as a family, although I don't wish him, you know, no graduation, no prom and that.

But we did get to spend a lot of family time together, played lots of board games to watch lots of family movies.

It was a lot of time to bond.

I feel like a lot of people got to really look to themselves and figure out what they really like to do because you're alone for so long, you get to do a lot of stuff reflecting, you know, you kind of figure out who you really are.

I think that people are just more kind like recently within the past couple of years.

I think people just know everybody is going through something.

I think we've all kind of been under the same like situation where we all just had this sense of it's just it's so necessary to be kinder to people.

And there's just like a bigger sense of unity.

Some people are anxious in school and some people don't like going to school.

So maybe the hybrid or the all in line help them because they had the option last year to stay online and some people thrive in that like setting and some people thrive in a social setting.

Now as seniors, you're planning for the future now as we said, just your freshman year was normal.

Now with the new normal, how do you plan for the future in the middle of a pandemic?

Personally, I've done a lot of virtual tours because they weren't allowing physical tours because of the amount of Covid cases that they had on campus or they just didn't want potential Covid cases to come in.

And I feel like it was a very different experience because when my brother was going to college, I went along with him to some of the colleges and it was really like seeing both of the experiences.

It was really different from actually being there and then just seeing and from a screen like this may be where you're going to be for next year for years and you just see it through a screen you never actually been there.

I don't want to base my college decision off of a virtual visit because you know you're going to get the campus his best pictures.

You might not even get to see all the campus.

You're not going to really be able to feel how big a dorm room might be through a picture.

Another big thing, though, for me it was I felt like I really got to delve into what I really wanted to do with the amount of personal time that I had.

So that was pretty that was pretty good, but it made it a little bit difficult.

You know, I have some nerves about if I'm prepared enough because of the last few years that we've had so it's definitely things that are in the back of my mind right now.

I'd like to talk a little bit more about vaccinations.

Of course, many colleges requiring Covid vaccines to enter school.

But right now in high school, that's not a requirement.

How does that make all of you feel that you're in a school, you're in close proximity, you're in classrooms with people who may or may not be vaccinated?

I definitely think that it's been stressful.

I'm just going home and knowing like, I don't know if this person's vaccinated.

I don't know if this prson's unvaccinated.

And I want to keep like my grandparents safe to make sure they don't get Covid.

And then like my family, my sister, my parents, I have that feeling that like, you don't know because like it's not their point to share to everyone if they're vaccinated or unvaccinated, it's they can keep it to themselves.

You know, we have other vaccines that we have to get for school.

So I mean, I don't, you know, I don't see it as something too different from that.

And so it is a little it's a little frustrating, you know, but sure, this is a debate that also has raged on alongside the mask debate being vaccinated, being unvaccinated and we've seen that in school board meetings.

We've seen that play out among adults on social media.

Our kids in schools having those debates as well.

I feel like people who got vaccinated were pushing the vaccines, wanting everyone to get vaccinated and then the people who didn't want it to like back up their opinion too.

And some people just they don't feel comfortable.

Some people voiced their opinions like rudely or just not appropriately, and I feel like that's not going to help anything if just two people are arguing back and forth.

There are like a happy medium or just respect people's decisions.

It's not their say to tell you if they're vaccinated or not.

It's just like keeping your family safe, your friends safe, just people around you just being conscious.

I think people just don't want to talk about it because everybody's so unsure.

Like, Is the science right?

Is it not like, is this the right thing to do?

I mean, and there's also like to be on like is the vaccine safe?

And I think a lot of people feel like that's a big reason.

Some people don't get the vaccine.

So like there's two sides to it and I feel like people just don't really want to bring that up at school.

I think schools kind of like an outlet right now for people to, you know, just be with others.

So I think people are trying to just keep it a positive place.

What are some of the ways that you found are the best stress relievers right now in the middle of the pandemic?

What do you do to unwind and let loose?

I love playing sports.

It's definitely one of the most things I do in my life.

I play Club two, so right now when like field hockey and lacrosse aren't happening at school, I'm playing club field hockey, so I get to go hang out with people from other schools that I don't get to see a lot when I'm at school.

I think soccer has definitely I mean, I've been in love with that sport since like for literally as long as I can remember.

But yeah, I think seeing my teammates, I mean, my teammates are my best friends.

And just being active, I think I mean, there's so much I mean, we don't even have to go into that like so scientifically like moving, exercising, it helps.

I'm personally really happy that we're able to have like a normal band like I'm really happy that we had our football season and rural to travel and go to different games and play because I remember last year we were traveling from the auditorium to the gym to outside on nights days and I feel like we're back together and just I just really like that aspect of that big thing for me was staying fit and sometimes sports can be a little stressful for me and so I've just found a lot of relief just being with friends and playing sports with friends and not necessarily with the school or with like a club team, but just being with friends, staying fit with friends, being with friends has been the biggest reliever for me.

You are also incredibly resilient.

I want to end this conversation on a high note.

So what are you most looking forward to between now and graduation?

Michael, let's start with you.

I mean, graduation.

I mean, looking forward to graduation and prom and finally, you know, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, hopefully we'll see how that goes.

But you know, just so thankful that we have had a senior year where we can see everybody even though we have mass, even though we still have, you know, whispers of Covid everywhere we go, it's still somewhat of a normal year, you know, as good as we can get and that's really been that's really been great.

It's been a relief.

I'm looking forward to like a new chapter of my life.

Like though, I'm going to miss like being at freedom like all the different traditions that I've experienced throughout the years, I feel like starting a new chapter of whatever I'm going to college will be just good and fun to do.

I'm definitely looking forward to senior year and like what it's going to look like.

Definitely excited for feel like I didn't get to play field hockey this year because I taught myself playing lacrosse, so I'm looking forward to getting back out there and just learning new things about everyone in between graduation and now.

Honestly, I've just I'm just excited like just taking it day by day, honestly.

We're only going to have the senior year once and I know that sounds like pretty cliché.

But I mean, like we don't know what's going to happen.

Wonderful.

Well, best of luck to all of you.

Thank you so much for sharing your feelings and thoughts today.

We really appreciate it.

What a wonderful group.

And once again, I want to thank those teams for opening up to us.

We wish them and all their classmates.

Nothing but the best for what's ahead and for our final segment, we bring in two more guests Dr Andrew Clark specializes in child and adolescent psychiatry at St Luke's University Health Network.

Maggie Murphy is the executive director of NAMI Lehigh Valley, the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Thank you both so much for being here.

Thanks for having us.

Dr Clark, let's start with you.

We just heard these students talk who seemed to be optimistic, but they're pretty much their entire high school careers have been impacted by pandemic protocols.

What stuck out to you from that conversation?

Well, the one thing that stuck out the most what a wonderful group of students that you were able to interview and the resilience that you've had.

We have many studies of various epidemics to pandemics and various traumatic experiences that people go through and the results that people have is impressive.

So the overall health and well-being of that group that you were interviewing is really not to be missed.

And some things that I had heard in there about sports and physical activity.

There's a number of studies that have been done to show that the areas of the country that maintain school sports and the kids who participated in school sports did fare much better through the pandemic stressors so physical activity and participating in organized activities like school sports has definite beneficial effect.

Absolutely.

Well, medical groups have declared national emergencies when it comes to child and teen mental health at this point.

Are you seeing that on your level or are you seeing the increase in need for mental health services and kids reaching out or parents reaching out for their kids to get them some help during this pandemic?

In October, the American Academy of Pediatrics and American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry declared national emergencies.

The US surgeon general in December declared a national emergency for four teens and four youth for mental health.

And yes, very much.

We are seeing an increase in the emergency rooms up to a 50% increase in girls who are coming to the emergency rooms with various needs for crisis interventions.

The number of waitlists, unfortunately, to get a therapist in our community to be able to see a child psychiatrist, it's very difficult call triage of sorts to be able to really do what we saw earlier in this segment with at the ground level in the schools is being done.

The war room that I had seen in the beginning of the segment was impressive in the sense that people are trying their best with any means to really tailor what are the needs that the most practical levels for the students who are really coming forward and it's quite a difference to see what comes now in this sort of second year.

If you will, with schools being more open and the availability and communication that the students are having about what their needs are.

Sure, I want to bring in Maggie Murphy from NAMI Lehigh Valley.

Are you seeing more teens?

More adolescents reach out for help for mental health services.

Absolutely, either the teens and young people themselves or their family members on their behalf.

It's just risen phenomenally.

One of the things that has happened as a result of the pandemic is as was discussed in some of the earlier clips, much more awareness of mental health in children and youth and the realization that issues with mental health can start at a much younger age.

And I think a lot of people had really recognzed earlier.

Absolutely.

So what can parents do?

What resources are out there right now to help our children?

There are a number of wonderful local agencies that are providing services Lehigh and Northampton County have terrific childre and youth services.

Of course, the hospital systems do as well.

And at NAMI, one of the things that we're doing is supporting the whole family.

So we have a couple of courses that are very helpful to parents or caregivers.

We have an eight week family to family course where they can learn about all different aspects of mental health and mental illness and how to help their family member.

We have a program called NAMI Basics, which is on demand online and that's geared especially for parents or caregivers of individuals up to 22 years of age so that they can learn what they need to know because this is so new to many people and they don't even know where to begin.

We have support groups as well for family members and so they can go and one of the important things that they realize is that they're not alone, that other people have been in the situation and that they can learn from one another.

Maggie before the pandemic, it was difficult to get an appointment to get in there to get started as you mentioned getting started.

It was so difficult.

What's it like now?

How do people get their foot in the door?

How do they make that first appointment?

It's still very difficult, unfortunately, to get a new appointment with many mental health providers, particularly with psychiatrists and particularly with ones who specialize in children and youth.

We are suggesting that people talk to their primary doctor, their Palmerton provider who if he or she is part of the system, might be able to assist them in getting an appointment.

Many psychiatrists are using physician extenders like certified nurse practitioners who have been trained in mental health and they're able to see patients sooner.

So there have to be creative ways to do it.

Telehealth has also helped.

Wonderful.

And of course, Dr Clark, you are the head of a new unit that opened at St Luke's Eastern Campus, the youth behavioral health unit that opened just at the beginning of this year.

What are things like there and have you seen the need and that kind of difficulty getting into places?

Is that what sparked this?

Yeah, I provide care at all different levels of care.

The inpatient unit at Easton, it was new to St Luke's.

It's a 16 bed unit immediately filled within the first week because there's a tremendous amount of need coming through the emergency rooms and St Luke's entire network has a number of emergency rooms.

And so from triaging from that standpoint to address interventions that are individuals in crisis with perhaps unsafe behaviors all the way to the school based partials that I participate in caring for children in and then the outpatient level of care and to triage these needs, there's a number of kids who truly are not having their needs met and because of the sheer volume it has to be renegotiated.

Sort of how we can address what safety concerns take the form for it and need to be put into a safety plan and to be able to have people who can support them when they return home in So there's family based services and there's a program that's called multi systemic therapy.

These are Evidence-Based programs that can help support kids in their community have success on the truancy intervention programs are incredibly helpful tool as well to help get kids to get over the hump of their fears and phobias that are preventing them from returning to school.

Maggie, is there a silver lining here when it comes to the stigma that surrounded mental health before the pandemic has the pandemic and everything that's gone on shining light on that mental health aspect has that kind of loosened the stigma?

I think it has, although it's certainly not gone completely, but because so many people have experienced symptoms of particularly anxiety and depression, they're beginning to understand that mental illness is in fact that it is an illness that is not a character flaw or a weakness.

And so I think that's opened up some of the thinking and of course, all the attention to mental health has really helped people understand and that here in 2022, it's time to get rid of that stigma.

Sure.

Quickly, if there is one thing you would tell parents at home if they're looking for help, how do they get that call NAMI, call the local NAMI either us in the Lehigh Valley or there usually is an army in whatever area they're in.

And if we can't provide the services they need, we will help connect them with them.

Dr Clark, we have just a few seconds.

What's your advice for parents?

to your kid.

I think many times a kid doesn't want to hear advice, necessarily.

They want to just be heard.

And so at times to just be a sounding board and to really be available.

And that presence comes from just time together.

So to make sure that you have that scheduled through the week and you're checking in to get a temperature read with your child some great advice for parents whose situation maybe not serious may be very serious.

All parents can use that advice.

Dr Clark from St Luke's University Health Network and Maggie Murphy from NAMI Lehigh Valley.

Thank you both so much for some great information tonight.

Thank you.

And that will do it for this Community Conversation stress in our schools.

It's an important topic, a conversation we should be keep havng.

Hopefully, as the virus diminishes and our kids and schools get back to more of what we want that normalcy.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Have a good night.