By Samantha Burzynski
The Branford Board of Education recently voted to provide a series of half days throughout the rest of the year as a way to give a needed break to students and teachers. Full days will be converted into half days to accommodate this change. This comes at a time when there is more pressure for students and teachers, who––like many others––are juggling their personal and professional lives along with the pandemic. The Board of Education decision comes as school officials continue to discuss mental health and the necessity of breaks.
How necessary are mental health days? During these past two years of the pandemic, many students and even teachers’ mental health has decreased. To add, many students may have mental health issues, and don’t even know about it because they are scared to get help. Why should they have to struggle?
When kids struggle to do work it may be a sign they are lazy, but experts say it also can be because they are suffering from poor mental health. With the school year getting harder and harder, sometimes you just need a day where you are able to recover, and remove yourself from the stress you are putting on yourself.
According to Hailey Hardcastle, in her TED Talk “Why Students Need Mental Health Days” even the option for a day off could make a difference.
Hardcastle used a mix of personal experiences, and statistics to help and make her argument for having mental health days. Just the idea of having the option to take a mental health day was enough for people to push through the hard times, she said.
The Board of Education voted 6-0 with two abstentions to amend the school calendar to include the new half days to the school calendar.
I know from personal experience that a mental health day – even a half day – can help in more ways than one.
A mental health day can be used for not only making sure you are okay, but can be used for a day to catch up on work so you are not overwhelmed. I know one of my good friends that struggles with mental health, and school adds so much stress, and no one seems to care that she is struggling. They never take action to help. Before her mental health got bad, she took multiple days off from the school. Her grades were dropping, and all the signs were pointing to her struggling.
If she had an opportunity to take the mental health day like the kids in Oregon that Hardcastle discusses, then maybe she would not be in the position she is in now. If she had taken more than one mental health day, the guidance counselors would have been notified, and offered a helping hand before it was too late. Some may think that this would just be a free pass, and although that may be true for some outliers it would make a difference for the people who actually need it. It’s known that asking for help is the hardest part, so the mental health days could start some deeply needed conversations for people who are struggling.
Having an option for a mental health day would not only make me a better student, but also be beneficial to others. It allows for people to get help even before it’s a serious problem. Even if you don’t personally have mental health issues, we all have mental health that we need to take care of. It allows us to make sure we are taking care of ourselves in a healthy way.
Hopefully, we can make this a permanent part of the high school calendar to make it a safer environment for everyone.
Buzz Editor Sushant Kunwar contributed to this report.
In reflecting back on the BOE discussion that eventually led to the vote that added 3 half days to the school calendar, 2 things were particularly interesting: (1) The BOE discussion before voting that I recall was overwhelmingly geared toward teacher burnout vs. putting a larger burden on working parents. There wasn’t much dialogue about student mental health needs in this discussion at all- it was much more about the teachers. And second (2), if burnout among certified and non-certified teaching staff is so important, which it presumably is and should be, then what’s going on with the recent district climate survey that showed a 15% favorable rating for District leadership? Does one honestly think that working in a toxic, turnover-ridden work environment with a 15% favorable rating where people are routinely intimidated and marginalized doesn’t contribute to burn-out? It obviously does.