By Mr. Gotsell’s B Block Class
Students have been looking for a day off to relax in these extremely challenging times. The pandemic has made it evident mental health has become a prominent issue among the youth.
Kids are dealing with all time highs of stress and anxiety, which is why we worked with representative Carol Doherty and gained support to introduce a bill, titled H.572. We have currently gained 10 co-sponsors for the bill from neighboring towns and districts and have the support needed in legislation, but still need support from the school and our fellow classmates to pass a bill that will benefit generations to come.
This bill essentially allows students to be able to take a mental health day that would count as an excused absence. Students will receive 2 mental health days a semester and 4 in total for the entire year. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, students had been known to struggle with mental health with the stress and anxiety of school and other matters.
The pandemic has heightened this problem and many students have felt very isolated and struggled with remote learning and the mental effects of not being able to see and interact with friends, family and loved ones. Students lost almost a half a year of school and sports and have missed out on many events like sporting games and pep rallies.
This bill looks to solve this problem now and shows why it is important to emphasize taking care of your mental health. It would be more beneficial for a student to take mental health day then coming into school and not being fully in the present moment. Taking a mental health day would allow a kid to prioritize their well being which should come first.
This is important as students cannot learn when their mental health is suffering and coming into school and not receiving any help can only make that worse.