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BELPRE – Growing up is never easy, but today’s youth face challenges from a variety of sources.
Belpre City Schools officials say a focus on student mental and emotional health is not only needed, but is vital to addressing a host of issues which can affect children personally and academically.
A drug epidemic, social media pressures and the normal stress of adolescence and young-adulthood have come together to create a particularly difficult mix of issues and hurdles facing students throughout the nation.
“Our situation isn’t unique,” said Belpre Superintendent Tony Dunn. “These are issues being faced by schools and communities throughout the nation. But being a smaller school district in a smaller community, we don’t always have access to the help and resources you’ll find in bigger areas.”
The school system relies on outside agencies and volunteers whenever possible.
“Our resources are limited, so we have to build this web to catch students and family members when they are struggling,” he said. “We rely a lot on community groups and support to help us. Belpre really does treat community members as extended family.”
Dunn said with a small school district such as Belpre, outside help is imperative. The school system has seen its resources dwindle while needs have increased. The district is asking voters this week to approve an emergency operating levy to avoid running out of money next year.
“We’re always looking for ways we can do things at minimal cost or for free,” Dunn said.
Belpre City Schools Psychologist Hayley Bird said a major factor in student mental health has been the opioid epidemic, which has shattered families, claimed lives and has contributed to a rise in cases of abuse and neglect. Ohio and West Virginia lead the nation in opioid-related deaths.
“I definitely think the issues we have with drugs in this community are contributing to mental and emotional stress for students,” Bird said. “You can’t find people who haven’t been affected, either directly or through people they know.”
“Social media has really changed a lot of what students deal with every day,” said Mike Seebaugh, school psychologist assistant for Belpre City Schools. Prior to coming to work with the school system, Seebaugh spent 14 years working for Child Protective Services and handled more than 1,200 cases.
“Not only are they dealing with their own lives and dramas and family issues, but they also are dealing with what is happening to their friends, all the time,” he said. “If you don’t address the mental and emotional aspects, it’s going to be hard for them to do well academically.”
Severe mental, emotional and behavioral issues can also come with a cost as the district has to look to services in larger cities, such as Columbus or Cleveland.
“If they are our student, we are financially responsible for them,” Dunn said. “Some require specialized instruction or services we cannot provide here. There’s not only the cost for those services, but also the cost of transportation. It’s not common, but for some students who need those kinds of services and have to go somewhere else to receive them, we can spend $100,000 a year on one student. ”
Two years ago, the school system introduced a pilot program called Culture Club in the middle school, which gave students the opportunity to discuss issues and learn techniques to deal with issues in a positive way. The program is now expanding to the high school and a similar program for the elementary school.
“We want to give kids a safe place to contribute and be proactive,” Bird said. Students who participate in the program “feel kind of a bond. There is a strong unity among them. It is such a difficult time, and they find this process can be really beneficial.”
Seebaugh said the program already has seen benefit and generated interest. Students who participated at the middle-school level didn’t want to leave the group, he said, and so it has expanded to the high school as well.
The school system also has begun using the free Hope program, which is a health curriculum designed to fill in gaps in health education in schools. That program helps teach students about the dangers and consequences of drug use, which is a need during this opioid crisis, Dunn said.