As the school year reemerges, so does student stress surrounding SAT scores, college admissions and extracurricular involvement. This, on top of other personal life obstacles, can bring extreme stress and anxiety for some students.
While New Jersey public schools such as CHS are required to provide mental health resources for students, some CHS students don’t think the school provides ample amenities. As a result, they prefer to manage their emotional battles outside of school, like junior Ahren Gaikwad of Howell.
“Weekly, I do karate and meditate a little bit. So that helps cleanse my mind.”
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy would most likely frown upon such assertions, considering the philosophies and ideals he stands behind.
Just this August, Murphy said, “The mental well-being of young people throughout our state is of the utmost importance, and it is our responsibility to provide them with the support they need to thrive,” emphasizing the severity of such a topic.
Not only did he stress the importance of teens’ mental health, but he also spearheaded the Enhancing School Mental Health Services Project for numerous New Jersey schools, a program hoping to broaden student well-being services amongst public high schools in the state.
So, if the New Jersey Department of Education is such a big proponent of adequate mental health resources, does it really make sense for CHS to be completely lacking them? A more viable explanation would be that students truly aren’t aware of all the mental health resources they have access to.
One prime example being the knowledge surrounding last year’s Meditation Mondays. During various Mondays last year—and even some in the year prior—CHS guidance counselor Melanie Sambataro organized weekly meditations in Room 144 as a way for students to relieve tension. These were held during midterms and finals weeks, as well as during the regular school year.
When asked whether or not students utilized these Meditation Mondays last year, CHS students weren’t too familiar with the 2-year- running tradition.
Sophomore Honora Griffiths of Red Bank couldn’t even recall the name of the event.
“The Meditation what?” Griffiths said. “I wasn’t aware that there were Meditation Mondays.”
In actuality, CHS supplies students with a number of mental health and bullying support systems.
The CHS website has a page dedicated to Harrassment, Bullying and Intimidation information, but more notably, the counseling page of the website gives students the school counselors’ contact information as well as links to mental wellness resources.
However, when compared to districts such as Ocean Township, the CHS website is missing a feature for students to anonymously report incidents of bullying.
Underclassmen have an especially hard time reporting bullying to school counselors and administrators because they have not had a chance to become comfortable with them yet.
“I’m not well acquainted with my guidance counselor,” Griffiths said.
Instead of speaking to the counselors during times of struggle, some students, such as junior Noelle Widmer of Freehold, choose to confide in their parents about their stress and anxiety or, every once in a while, take a mental health day off from school.
“I’ve taken a lot of mental health days, especially [during] freshman year,” Widmer said. “It was very important to me to make sure that I was able to come back to school ready to learn and not be all burnt out.”
