The pandemic shined a light on the mental health crisis facing our students–but student well-being is not a new phenomenon. According to CDC data from 2009-2019, 1 out of 5 adolescents aged 12 to 17 reported having experienced at least some kind of major depressive episode.
Now, looking more closely at the impact of the pandemic, the CDC found that more than one-third of high school students reported they experienced poor mental health during the pandemic, 44 percent reported that they persistently felt sad or hopeless during that past year, and almost 20 percent had seriously considered attempting suicide. But again, this is not a new phenomenon–the pandemic just escalated the mental health crisis youth face, and there is no doubt that we have some work to do.
