By Sydney Mills
Ever since 6th grade, when my school would do a Mental Health Week in the month of May, I never understood why it was such a big deal. Why would our whole school day be interrupted just to watch some butterflies be released? Or to listen to some speech from a random person I didn’t know? I always patiently listened and observed, but never fully understood.
I never thought that by the time I was a Sophomore, I would be begging for this week to come each year. I never expected I would understand exactly what it was all about. I learned first-hand the battles one has to fight from mental health disorders like anxiety and depression.
If you are a hardworking student, with multiple extracurriculars, and playing sports, it’s hard to find time to deal with mental health issues. It gets put on the back burner as just another thing you have to “deal with” when you already have a lot going on. It’s hard to make time when you are juggling going to school for hours, attending meetings, having practices, and then doing hours of homework or studying afterwards.
The idea of simply taking a break was not a possibility for me. If I missed an assignment it felt like a matter of life or death. Perhaps I could still make it up later, but as a perfectionist student I didn’t want to take the 10% drop in my grade for every day the assignment was late.
Many students will suffer for months just to get an adequate grade and hardly learn anything. They won’t take a day off with the risk of not being able to make up an assignment because they are “unexcused” or won’t be accepted. However, issues with mental illness should be considered a valid reason for missing a class or assignment.
Currently an excused absence is defined as: 1. required military duty, 2. court-mandated appearances including jury duty, 3. College-sponsored activities approved by the College president and 4. religious holidays. None of these fall into a category describing the inability of not being able to get up and brush your teeth in the morning because of your mental state.
I’m not saying mental health is something students should regularly be able to miss class for, I know attendance is important. However a student is only going to learn to their best ability and continue to grow academically if their mind is in a stable state.
If a student could get a note from a therapist or psychiatrist allowing for some time off or extended time on assignments, even just a day off to recuperate, could help them in ways unimaginable. Speaking from experience, the occasional excused absence for something as serious as mental health might greatly improve a students’ life for the better.
Students with mental health issues should not have to deal with extreme circumstances just because they can’t get a single day off.
