Dec 20, 2017, Bellingham, WA, Northern Light: Community grapples with youth mental health crisis http://www.thenorthernlight.com/2017/12/21/community-grapples-with-youth-mental-health-crisis/
In a 2016 survey, between 8.6 and 13.6 percent of Blaine students in grades 8, 10 and 12 reported they’d tried to kill themselves in the past year. Even more had considered suicide or made a plan to kill themselves.
Statistics on youth suicide and depression have grown grimmer throughout the state in the last 10 years, but the 2016 Healthy Youth Survey results reveal that problems may be especially severe in the Blaine school district. …
In the survey, 26 percent of Blaine 10th graders and 30 percent of 12th graders reported considering suicide in the past year. Twenty percent of 12th graders in the state reported considering suicide –10 percentage points fewer than in Blaine.
Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.