Schools must close, schools can stay open (for now). How does this affect the students mental health?
To begin, it is important to know that I am not a mental health professional and the comments offered here are simply from my experience.
Over the past year, the government took a hard line on school closures. Every school board had to initiate accommodation reviews on all schools which were under utilized in the province. Community leaders, parents, educators and students were drawn into a fight for their schools to remain open.
The adults involved looked at all the practical issues such as the funding, the availability of space in neighbouring schools, how it affected the educators, the change to transportation that would be required and many other things that would result from these school closures.
The children involved began to worry.
The stress of the prospect of their school closing affected many of them deeply. Where would their friends go if their parents put them in a different school, how far would the new school be for them, would they like their new teachers and so many other issues of concern.
Then, as an election year approached, the government reversed it’s stand and put a moratorium on most of these closures.
Parents, educators and community leaders celebrated. Most considered the hard battle they had taken up with their school boards and the Ministry was over. They had attended the meetings, presented at board meetings and written to their political representatives.
But the children still worried.
I think that most people in the education community understand that very soon after the provincial election is over, regardless of which party wins, the issue of closing schools will become a reality once again.
What are we doing to the students? Is anyone involved thinking about the kids? We talk about providing mental health resources to support our children, yet with all this change and threats to close their schools, the Ministry is actually creating a situation which increases mental stress for the children. The following situation made me both sad and aware.
I recently had the opportunity to sit and do some crafts with children from grades 1-8 in a school which had been scheduled for closure. At the end of each session I asked each child separately what their biggest dream was. Since it was Christmas, you would expect them to say they dreamed of getting something special from Santa. If not, I expected they would tell me that they wanted to be a rock star, an artist or a scientist.
About 90% of the kids said their biggest dream was that their school didn’t close and that they would stay with their friends until they graduate or that they wouldn’t have to take a bus to a different school. When they told me these things, I asked if they worry about it. Most of them told me they really worry about it, some told me they dreamt about it.
What are we doing to these kids?
It is one thing to make a decision and involve adults who need to take part in the plan, however, in these situations children are getting involved in a serious decision that the Ministry initiated. The do not have the same reasoning skills and often are not mature enough to not feel threatened in the situation.
I hope that the Ministry, from whichever party is responsible, will think about the students and the affect that this instability in direction regarding school closures has on them.
Today children have enough to worry about, let their schools be the place that they feel secure, where they celebrate their accomplishments and do not have to worry.
What can you do?
If you are a parent in a school that you know maybe under consideration for closure, don’t involve your child, contact your Trustee to advocate on your behalf. Get informed about the process that the Ministry requires a board to follow before closing a school and participate in all of the opportunities provided to the community to voice their opinions. Attend school council meetings in your school and work with them to engage all the parents in the school so you have a larger presence when you present your community input to your school board.
Lastly, the most import thing you can do is hug your child and tell them not to worry.
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