Tucked at the end of a hall in General Benjamin O. Davis Middle School in Compton is Room 105. Students know it as the “wellness center,” where they sometimes go for counseling sessions.
“A lot of people believe that it’s only adults who go through things in their lives,” says Neftalí Alcocer, a seventh grader at the school who’s used the center. “But I want to change that because I don’t think it’s right for parents to have that mentality about children.”
Concerns over student mental health have been high, especially since the pandemic, when anxiety and depression in K-12 students snowballed. It’s led to concerns over students’ well-being, as educators have noted depression, social-emotional problems and suicide attempts.
