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Lancaster County school districts deal with mental health crises: 'Kids are overwhelmed'

Intelligencer Journal - 3/18/2021

Six-year-old Imogen Slesser sat in her classroom one day early last year and watched police run down the hallway, followed by EMTs rolling a stretcher. In a nearby classroom, another student was banging his head against the wall in art class, screaming at the teacher and spitting blood on her.

Imogen, her parents say, had trouble processing the upsetting event, which happened in January 2020 at an elementary school in the School District of Lancaster.

Diagnosed with anxiety and PTSD, the little girl started crying every school night and morning. She complained of a stomachache and hoped she had a fever so she could stay home.

Imogen had just begun counseling when COVID-19 shut down schools. The result, father Steve Slesser says, proved devastating. Telephone and then virtual therapy focused on prompting Imogen to go back into the classroom and face her fears — which she couldn't do.

“It's hard to connect to a 6-year-old through remote counseling,” recalls mother Rebecca Slesser, who gave up her new career in real estate to stay home with Imogen and her older brother, Jude. “It was a bit of a struggle because this happened at school, and we needed her to practice being in school. And we couldn't.”

The pandemic has fractured the emotional health of students in Lancaster County and across the country as schools struggle to reach out to families experiencing failing grades, stress, depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions.

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‘Mental health crisis’

“There is a mental health crisis” among schoolchildren, one of “national proportions,” Damaris Rau, School District of Lancaster superintendent, told board members in December. That's why she relentlessly argued for all students to return to in-person classes Jan. 25 in a district that's primarily relied on at-home and virtual learning since March.

“I just knew I had to get my kids back in school,” Rau says recently, citing parents who called to report younger children acting out, losing language skills and forgetting their toilet training. “Even our highest-performing kids were not performing.”

Nearby, Penn Manor School District identified 21.57% of ninth graders as struggling after they recently completed a mental health screening. That number jumped from 12.42% in fall 2019, although the percentage has been higher in previous years, says Mike Leichliter, Penn Manor superintendent. “It's an indication that this is a more stressful time for students,” Leichliter says.

“Kids are overwhelmed,” says Melissa Ostrowski, the district's counseling department coordinator. “It's hard to know who's supposed to be here when. Students know how school works, and we keep changing that. Families have to pivot.”

For instance, some students attending Penn Manor High School receive in-person instruction on Mondays and Tuesdays. Other students attend Thursdays and Fridays. All students learn virtually on Wednesdays, but some families have opted for full-time online learning.

The district works with Samaritan Counseling Center in Lancaster to screen ninth graders. This year, Penn Manor added seventh grade students. Every student who takes the survey receives a phone call.

“Our first recommendation is to open the door to an honest conversation,” says Kim Moore, who directs Teen Hope, Samaritan's mental-health screening department. Teen Hope administers and collects mental health questionnaires in 19 schools covering 16 districts in the county. The 18-question survey asks about depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. Any student who indicates suicidal thoughts receives immediate attention, as do students who achieve a certain numerical score when ranking their feelings as a 1, 2 or 3, with 3 signaling a bigger problem, Moore explains.

Teen Hope has seen “a bit of a jump” this year in students needing help, Moore says. Screeners collected information from 845 students this academic year, flagging 22.7%. Moore says some districts canceled this year because of the pandemic. The department conducted 3,315 screenings in the 2019-20 school year and identified 19.29% as struggling.

The pandemic did no favors for Kya London, a McCaskey High School senior who still learns at home because she takes three virtual classes for dual credit at Harrisburg Area Community College.

“It's definitely been a challenge,” says Kya, who began counseling in her sophomore year for extreme anxiety.

After the pandemic closed schools, Kya found it difficult to connect with her McCaskey social worker as they worked through missed phone calls and text messages. Added stress came when Kya and her mother lost their jobs last March. The 17-year-old worked as a party host at Chuck E. Cheese, while Sandra London worked as an aide at a preschool. Kya had committed to a trip to Panama this summer and needed to finish paying the $3,000 fee. She now works at a Giant store, while her mom returned to the job she lost.

“It's been difficult,” Kya says. “My grades went down at first.”

The senior now counts on a support group of three friends who frequently check in via a group chat on iMessage.

Although most students are back in school, they still may be struggling. Educators, mental health experts and Pennsylvania Department of Education officials, however, remain optimistic.

“PDE understands the learning challenges created by the impacts of COVID-19. We continue to focus efforts and supports to our schools to create pathways to accelerate learning to address any learning gaps in the coming year,” Kendall Alexander, the department's press secretary, said in an email.

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Catching up

The School District of Lancaster plans to offer extra tutoring, Saturday school and a focused summer school designed to compensate for the learning lost during the pandemic. Students who are failing three or more classes now attend in-person classes three days a week instead of the usual two days at McCaskey.

“We will catch up,” promises Liz White, Kya London's social worker, and a student and family resource specialist at McCaskey.

Penn Manor's Ostrowski believes “the perfect storm of the pandemic” will create resilient students. “The optimist in me says these students are going to have intangible skills — a new bar for what students can handle.”

Penn Manor also plans to offer tutoring and summer school. The district may also assign a mentor to a student so there's another adult in the building to offer help. Students can also receive help with time management, coping and organizational skills.

The Conestoga Valley School District also looks to the future to erase any learning loss. Phyllis Heverly Flesher, the district's chief finance and operations manager, recently advised school board members to earmark money for the next two years for students who need extra help catching up.

“We have to be as realistic as possible,” Flesher says, explaining that staff sought information from other school districts about remediation costs. “We're going to see (COVID-19 and learning loss) effects in ’22-23,” she cautioned.

For Imogen Slesser, starting school again Jan. 25 proved distressing. Her father, who owns his own contracting and renovation business, arrived late to work her first day back because his sobbing daughter wouldn't let go. The first grader now regularly meets with her school counselor and says each day has gotten a little better.

“Teachers were instrumental” in helping Imogen feel comfortable, Steve Slesser says. “We are super grateful for that school.”

Counselor Liz White, from SDL, says students already have shown an improvement in grades and mental health in the few weeks of in-person classes

“It's going remarkably well,” she says.

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Crédito: GAYLE JOHNSON FOR LNP | LANCASTERONLINE