As Seattle Public Schools begins a new school year, Mayor Bruce Harrell granted SPS 12.25 million dollars to strengthen support for mental health and safety. In recent years following the pandemic, SPS has seen an overwhelming need to support kids struggling with their mental health. This is due to the influence of social media in teens leading to bullying, violence and many other things creating unhealthy online environments.
“With phones, kids are able to instigate fights including third parties which causes violence on campus after fights brew for months online, instead of working out issues in person by talking face to face,” Mr. Rees, an academic intervention specialist at Garfield who has played a big part in this grant given to Garfield said. Since the pandemic the community’s mental health has taken a serious toll. Social media’s influence on kids and mental health issues from isolation have bubbled over into something bigger. To prevent these issues, the community needs to find a long-term solution.“We need people who are not there just to respond for the short term, but also for the long. My hope is to invest money into students in order to train one another from class to class, so we can sustain ourselves, and not only get help when something horrific happens,” Rees said.
Mental health is much more than just depression or being in crisis. “I think part of mental health…is not just about when students are in crisis, but also when they’re healthy, right. And educating them and saying ‘hey, these are some of the signs to look for’”Counselor at Garfield Mr. Lee said. Encouraging healthy behaviors and finding parts for everyone in the community will be vital for the success of mental health in SPS for the future. However, “the grant is not just going to solve the issue because I think the issue is so much larger than just our building and our students. I think this goes beyond our walls, into the community and also the larger country that we live in,” Lee said. Unfortunately this issue extends much further out than just at Garfield.
The Seattle City Council consists of 9 members of each district serving 4 terms. The Seattle City Council’s 14.55 million dollar investment plan for Seattle Public Schools includes adding additional mental health advisors, increasing security on campus, and expanding resources for families and students. The plan is to use these short-term sources to eventually create a long-term solution. “We need to make investments in our families. Parents need to be able to connect with their children and reinforce what they learn at school. Exposing our children to positive environments and building up positive villages in our children’s lives, will change the trends of the community vastly,” councilwoman of District 3 Joy Hollingsworth said. Hollingsworth believes that by investing into families, the community will be stronger than ever and much more healthier. Improving mental health will uplift our society, and help keep children protected from violence. “We have to understand the importance of the investments for our kids. We need to be able to return on our investments back into our society so we can keep moving forward,” Hollingsworth said.