Policy changes implemented this year jeopardize student mental health. Graphic by Taylor Ross.

Mental health is a topic that has been on the rise since Covid-19. Its pure importance cannot be understated, and it’s the underlying backbone of being healthy. However, many people don’t pay attention to the importance of mental health.

LFHS is a place where focus on mental issues is mostly alien. Although we have a student support team, LFHS, at its core, is a place where student mental health is widely disregarded.

The student support team is the largest advocate for student mental health. Together, they are a group of incredible people who take the time to support students who need extra help. However, the social worker team is outrageously overworked and severely underpowered. There are only four social workers for the whole student body of 1,429.

Recent policy changes limit what social workers can do to provide care. Last year LFHS turned to Dr. Daniel Cates who found that some students took advantage of the school’s mental health services to miss classes. However, some changes that have been made are far too drastic and force many students who need help to avoid the mental health offices. 

The most impactful changes limit how often students can access care. The new policy states that “if the student exceeds more than two incidents in a semester, then the parent/guardian will be contacted by the service provider.” This policy is extremely damaging because it removes student autonomy and is a deterrent towards student self-advocacy. 

Furthermore, this policy presents a danger to students whose journey towards good mental health is unsupported by parents. If a child is unable to have a safe space because their parents disallow it, should that child be denied autonomy to take care of their own mental health by choice?

The new policy is also morally and ethically wrong. For a school that speaks so much about how they want to empower students, it is reductive to inform parents when students take actions to protect their mental health, especially during the time students should be encouraged to have personal autonomy over their health and well-being.

Another detrimental policy change mandates that social workers can only run three support groups per week, as opposed to the previous six groups. This is deeply damaging to the underlying student body groups. 

Social worker Dan Maigler, who leads support groups, says he was “informed that to make sure that there was adequate mental health staffing in (Room) 160, (he) had to limit my number of groups offered to three.”

Previously, students could pick one of six support groups throughout the day to fit their needs, but the new policy cuts down the amount of support students get. Unfortunately groups like Health Issues, Family Issues and Deeper Connections were cut entirely.

These changes are a worrying extension of the LFHS “Gay Room” scandal from 2023. The controversy surrounding the student support groups snowballed to the point where students attending any group were harassed. The school response of cutting back on student support groups is not only ineffective but outright regressive.

One group attendee who wishes to remain anonymous said, “Group is a place where I can meet new people and it’s been really great. I’ve met some people who I would’ve never had the courage to talk to without the vulnerability group gives us to each other.”

This sentiment is commonly echoed by multiple group attendees. These changes deeply affect the small communities who form around shared experiences and overall decrease peer support.

LFHS needs to put more care and time into their policies surrounding student care. These issues are exacerbated by the school’s inability to have difficult conversations about mental health in a way that paints mental issues as normal and something to work on. LFHS needs to change policies like these into policies that seek to help the individual students and allow them to gain the tools to help themselves.