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Mental Illness vs School Systems

Thesis: Social mental illnesses such as social anxiety, depression, and PTSD should be accepted

as valid reasons for an excused absence in the public school systems because of the

effects they have on students’ learning focus and learning potential, the behavioral effects

that can occur due to the improper treatment, and how society and peers can affect how

students work and react to schooling.

I. The effects mental illnesses have on students’ learning focus and learning potential.

A. Cognitive effects

1. trouble concentrating in school, negative cognitive development, altered cognitive

functioning, and confusion

2. emotional imbalance

3. emotional outbursts that make it difficult for friends and family to help

4. desire for isolation

5. dulled or nonexistent emotions

6. common short-term effects: memory loss, a state of confusion and a lack of

coordination

7. long-term effects: increasing loss of declarative memory, such as forgetting

names and significant faces, and a general lack of emotional stability and control

over one’s actions.

B. Manipulating the ability to think at the expected level

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1. Regression can cause a student to be less engaged and less developed in the learn

pace he/she should be at through full potential.

2. inability to retain information

3. Students with greater depression symptoms are more likely to report difficulty

concentrating in class and completing homework.

4. Students reporting high levels of psychosocial stress are more likely to perceive

themselves as less academically competent.

II. The behavioral effects that can occur due to the improper treatment

A. Behavior effects of PTSD

1. angry outburst, regression, loss of interest in past enjoyable activities, irritability,

reenactment of trauma through play

2. tend to engage in high-risk behaviors including drug and alcohol use and/or

suicide attempts

3. that suicide is the third leading cause of death among adolescents; and that up to

50% of all adult mental disorders have their onset in adolescence.

B. Emotional Effects

1. a person’s ability to be happy, control their emotions and pay attention in school.

2. According to Gallaudet University, symptoms of an emotional behavioral disorder

include: Inappropriate actions or emotions under normal circumstances. Learning

difficulties that are not caused by another health factor. Difficulty with

interpersonal relationships. A general feeling of unhappiness or depression.

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Feelings of fear or anxiety when it comes to school matters or personal matters.

Someone who has a behavioral disorder may act out or display emotional upset in

different ways, which will also vary from person to person.

3. According to Boston Children’s Hospital, some of the emotional symptoms of

behavioral disorders include: easily annoyed or nervous, often appearing angry,

putting blame on others, refusing to follow rules, arguing or throwing tantrums,

having difficulty handling frustration

4. People may get into trouble for acting out, such as face suspension or expulsion

for fighting, bullying or arguing with authority figures. Adults may eventually

lose their jobs. Marriages can fall apart due to prolonged strained relationships,

while children may have to switch schools and then eventually run out of options.

III. Society and peers can affect how students work and react to schooling

A. Poor peer relationships

1. Students tend to exclude themselves away from other

2. youth who may be significantly depressed because they are shunned or

marginalized

3. Many adolescents who suffer social anxiety may not be able to interact without

having panic attacks or other side effects

B. Attendance
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1. High school students who screen positive for psychosocial dysfunction have three

times the absentee and tardy rates of students not identified with psychosocial

dysfunction

2. During any given school year, children and teens with mental health disorders

may miss as many as 18 to 22 days.

3. Referral to a school-based mental health center or to counseling can help reduce

absenteeism rates by 50 percent and tardiness rates by 25 percent.

C. Society causes of these illnesses

1. lack of program development in low income countries; lack of any policy in low

income countries and absent specific comprehensive policy in both low and high

income countries; lack of data gathering capacity including that for country-level

epidemiology and services outcomes; failure to provide social services in low

income countries; lack of a continuum of care; and universal barriers to access

D. Bullying

1. Depression and anxiety tend to characterize their emotional outlook well beyond

the bullying years, extending into their adult lives where they become chronic,

sometimes lifelong, problems.

2. “Bullying is an attempt to instill fear and self-loathing. Being the repetitive target

of bullying damages your ability to view yourself as a desirable, capable and

effective individual,” Dr. Mark Dombeck

3. These issues make eating, sleeping, working, exercising and engaging in

interesting hobbies – all the hallmarks of a full, balanced life – more difficult.
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4. make it more difficult to make and keep relationships, whether with friends or

romantic partners.

IV. Counter Argument

A. Physical over mental

1. Many will say that mental illnesses are just in your head and that if you aren’t

physically sick or injured you must show up to all classes

2. Mental illnesses can be ignored and not exploited

B. Student handbook

1. “The following are excused reasons to be absent when satisfactory evidence for

the excuse is provided to school officials: (1) Illness or Injury (2) Quarantine (3)

Death in the Immediate Family-Includes grandparents, parents, brothers and

sisters but is not limited to these family members (4) Medical or Dental

Appointments (5) Court or Administrative Proceedings (6) Religious Observance

(7) Educational Opportunity-Prior approval must be granted by Principal”

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Victoria Riley

D. Cullen

AP English IV

April 29, 2019

Mental Illness vs School System

Mental illness is defined as ¨any of the various forms of psychosis or severe neurosis.¨

Twenty percent of students between the ages of 13 and 18, twenty percent of these students

suffer from some form of mental illness (Effects). Students walk through the halls of public

schools and have no method of how to cope with how they are feeling. The mental state of

children need to be closely observed and needs to be taken into consideration. ​Many schools

have an issue with students missing classes because they have been feeling lesser than usual.

Every time these students miss school for mental health reasons, they are marked as an

unexcused absence in the attendance records. This can result in consequences that are

unnecessary. Mental health illnesses such as social anxiety, depression, and PTSD should be

accepted as an excused absence in the public school systems because of the effects they have on

student’s learning focus and learning potential, the behavioral effects that can occur due to the

improper treatment , and how society and peers can affect how students work and react to

schooling. Although this may be true, people will say that students should not be able to claim

mental health as an excuse for absences because of the fact that they are physically able to come

to school and should show up no matter the circumstance.

While many of the mental illnesses can cause physical effects, several psychological

effects that can hinder a child’s learning focus and potential come also play a role. ​ Eleven
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percent of the youth who suffer from mental conditions may have mood disorders. A number of

high schools alone have approximately 200-400 student, in certain cases more than that. That

means ranging from 22-44 students in the public schools, high school alone, will have some form

of a mental issue.

The cognitive effects can vary depending on the student and the severity of the illness or

disorder. Trouble concentrating in classes is a huge dilemma within kids these days. Many have

so much on their minds that the work being put in front of them does not seem as important.

Some will zone out into space or even just not do the assignment. Along with trouble

concentrating, when disorders are formed at a young age, this can cause a negative cognitive

development. This can cause students to have an emotional imbalance. Some students may have

emotional outbursts that can prohibit a student from receiving help from family or friends. This

includes anger, sadness, euphoria, and even exuberant. When certain students feel too much

pressure or feel too uncomfortable, they will reject all forms of help in order to isolate

themselves. Doing this only makes the problem worse. This causes students to lose the human

interaction and guidance they need to receive. While some students have unbalanced emotions,

other students seem to be numb to emotion. These students will appear to have no emotion and

have a very monotone expression. This can cause other students to be intimidated or even

frightened by the student. With every condition there are short term and long term side effects. A

few short term effects of common mental illness include memory loss, a state of confusion, and a

lack of coordination. Although these are very drastic, they depend on the severity of the illness.

Memory loss will affect schooling for someone at a young age to the point where they will most

likely have to seek advanced help or even drop-out of school. The long term effects include the
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increased loss of declarative memory, such as forgetting names and significant faces, and a

general lack of emotional stability and control over one’s actions (Cognitive Problem Symptoms,

Causes and Effects).

Malcolm X said in a speech “​education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow

belongs to those who prepare for it today.” Today’s generation is all about making tomorrow a

better place and how education is the right route to being able to achieve just that. With

education being the answer to making our society a better place, mental illness is just a bump in

the road for some people. Mental illnesses can manipulate a student’s ability to think and

respond at the intellect they are expected to process. The biggest intellectual effect that mental

illnesses can cause is regression. Regression is when a student returns to a former or lesser state

of development. ​This can cause a student to be less engaged and less developed in the learning

pace he/she should be at through full potential. It also makes it difficult for the adolescents to

retain the information that is taught during the school days. This can hinder a child’s will to

challenge themselves in order to move forward in their education. Students with greater

depression symptoms are more likely to report difficulty concentrating in class and completing

homework. These students tend to have more on their minds that they deem more important than

school work. Students reporting high levels of psychosocial stress are more likely to perceive

themselves as less academically competent. This gives the teen the mindset that they are not

good enough to be as smart as another student. Usually this is a result of bad grades and

struggling with assignments that other students pick up on easily. So many students have effects

that can interfere with their thought process and learning potential (Depression: Recognizing the

Physical Signs).
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Ten percent of our youth will have a behavioral or conduct disorder. Eight percent of

these teens will have some form of anxiety. In every school, behavioral problems is something

that they will encounter at some point in time. The majority of the time, the behaviors of mental

illness kids are on the negative side of the spectrum. This results in punishments that can do

more harm to a student’s education than it does to the student. Behavioral effects that can occur

in a child’s life due to improper treatment can cause incomplete or challenging schooling

(Effects).

Post traumatic stress disorder is one of many mental illness that are common in high

school students today. This can develop when someone has a traumatic event happen to them or

they witness an event that can traumatize them for life. While this can harm anyone, studies

show that effects are more likely to be more severe when occurring at a young age. Angry

outburst, regression, loss of interest in past enjoyable activities, irritability, reenactment of

trauma through play are just a few of the emotional effects that can happen to the student’s

mental state. Inside every school, there are cases where a student has had an outburst due to

flashbacks. Besides outburst of emotions, a child may have a panic attack or fits of

hyperventilation because of past events. Anything can be a trigger to this occurrence. Whether it

is something they see again, something they hear, or even a certain smell. To take away the pain

of the PTSD, many of the troubled victims tend to engage in high-risk behaviors including drug

and alcohol use and/or suicide attempts. While these thing may be illegal, the number of people

who use drugs and alcohol as a numbing method tend to become addicted adding another issue

that will have to be fixed. As sad as it sounds, suicide is the third leading cause of death in

adolescence. People go through something so heartbreaking and scarring that they think the only
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way to escape the pain is to kill themselves and end their personal mental pain. Lori Goodwin

said ​“Even in times of trauma, we try to maintain a sense of normality until we no longer can.

That, my friends, is called surviving. Not healing. We never become whole again ... we are

survivors. If you are here today... you are a survivor. But those of us who have made it thru hell

and are still standing? We bare a different name: warriors.” The people who do keep the will to

stay alive are and should be respected for the amount of pressure and inner battles they have

going on in their heads everyday (​Causes, Symptoms & Effects of Post-Traumatic Stress

Disorder)​.

According to Gallaudet University, symptoms of an emotional behavioral disorder

include: inappropriate actions or emotions under normal circumstances, learning difficulties that

are not caused by another health factor, difficulty with interpersonal relationships, a general

feeling of unhappiness or depression, feelings of fear or anxiety when it comes to school matters

or personal matters. Someone who has a behavioral disorder may act out or display emotional

upset in different ways, which will also vary from person to person. These side effects are just a

few of them that can cause a negative result. According to Boston Children’s Hospital, some of

the emotional symptoms of behavioral disorders include: easily annoyed or nervous, often

appearing angry, putting blame on others, refusing to follow rules, arguing or throwing tantrums,

having difficulty handling frustration. Students may get into trouble for acting out, such as face

suspension or expulsion for fighting, bullying or arguing with authority figures (Behavioral

Disorder Symptoms, Causes and Effects). ​ ​The rates of suspension and expulsion of these young

victims with mental disorders are three times higher than their peers. Students in high school

with mental health disorders are more likely to fail or dropout of school compared to their peers
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in the general population. Something many people do not realize is that these effects follow you

into adulthood. Adults may eventually lose their jobs. Marriages can fall apart due to prolonged

strained relationships, while children may have to switch schools and then eventually run out of

options (Behavioral Disorder Symptoms, Causes and Effects). Everything humans do will not

only affect the present but the future is at stake too of corruption.

When working or attending any public or social function, society and the peers around

will have some form of influence on everything that is done. In schools alone, peer relationships

are of huge importance. In 2000, the National Research Council released the quote “human

relationships, and the effects of relationships on relationships, are the building blocks of a

healthy development”. Growing up, teens and young children are always told that they need to

make friends in order to be happy in classes. While some people make friends easily, the kids

with mental disorders tend to exclude themselves away from groups of people. Youth who may

be significantly depressed because they are shunned or marginalized. These students tend to be

made fun of behind their backs or even to their faces. Peer relationships are important so that

students can view the mindset and learn the appropriate lifestyle of kids their own age. Social

anxiety is a very difficult thing for student to encounter. They can tense up and be very nervous.

This can be misunderstood with someone being shy. In extreme cases, a student may end up

having a panic attack that prevents them from getting in front of a group of people or even a

single person. Many adolescents who suffer social anxiety may not be able to interact without

having panic attacks or other side effects.

School attendance is the thing schools look at when deciding what students will attend

the school the following year. During any given school year, children and teens with mental
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health disorders may miss as many as 18 to 22 days. This does not include the days missed for

educational purposes. High school students who screen positive for psychosocial dysfunction

have three times the absentee and tardy rates of students not identified with psychosocial

dysfunction. Several students that miss this amount of school days are held back or even just

drop-out due to the amount of unexcused absences. Referral to a school-based mental health

center or to counseling can help reduce absenteeism rates by 50 percent and tardiness rates by 25

percent. Students need the days off of school to cope with how they are feeling. If unexcused

absences are such a big dilemma in schools, then why make it so difficult for a student to have an

excused absence?

While home life and peers can cause mental illnesses, society can cause some too. Just a

few of the society causes of mental illnesses are: lack of program development in low income

countries; lack of any policy in low income countries and absent specific comprehensive policy

in both low and high income countries; and lack of data gathering capacity including that for

country-level epidemiology and services outcomes; failure to provide social services in low

income countries; lack of a continuum of care; and universal barriers to access. All of these can

cause hardship within a family. These struggles can affect not only the authorities of the

household but the dependents living there too. While people may only believe that these illnesses

are only in someone’s head, outside influences can cause an uprising mental battle with

themselves (Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders: the Magnitude of the Problem across the

Globe).

Imagine walking down the halls of the school and noticing a student being picked on for

something they enjoy doing or for having a weird tick. Every school contains some form of
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bullying. Whether it is verbal, emotional, and worst physical. Students with some form of

disorder tend to the biggest target for bullying. While bullying is a horrible thing, it causes

someone to feel lesser than they truly are. It causes someone to have low self-esteem,

depression, and makes them scared to do anything without fear of judgement. Depression and

anxiety tend to characterize their emotional outlook well beyond the bullying years, extending

into their adult lives where they become chronic, sometimes lifelong, problems. Someone who

has been bullied for several years can cause them to have issues doing normal everyday

activities. These issues make eating, sleeping, working, exercising and engaging in interesting

hobbies – all the hallmarks of a full, balanced life – more difficult. Teens who have depression

are often looked down upon and ridiculed for it. People laugh saying it is just in your head and

that it is nothing serious. As sad as it is, bullying has led so many people to committing suicide.

These people are talked down so much they no longer believe that their life is okay of living.

Macklemore posted on Twitter one day saying “Suicide is stupid? You wanna know what is

stupid? Hurting someone so much emotionally, that they think suicide is the only answer”. Many

social media influencers have spoken out about bullying and the effect it has on teens and their

mental development from it. “Bullying is an attempt to instill fear and self-loathing. Being the

repetitive target of bullying damages your ability to view yourself as a desirable, capable and

effective individual (Dr. Mark Dombeck)” Bullying can also affect future and current

relationships a student has due to trust issues formed (The Psychological Effects of Bullying on

Kids & Teens).

While all this evidence supports why mental illnesses should be considered for excused

absences, some will disagree saying that it is not as important. The biggest debate regarding this
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topic is physical health over mental health. While physical health is also very important, some

will say that mental health is not as important and can be ignored. “No one would ever say that

someone with a broken arm or leg is lesser of a whole person, but imply that all the time about

mental illness” (Elyn Saks). Those who believe this argument say that mental illnesses are just in

one’s head and that they are not contagious therefor they are able to attend class as normal.

Others will argue that mental illnesses can be ignored and not exploited for the sake of other

students. People want the youth to ignore how they feel and just continue on with life as if

nothing is going on.

The people who want to believe that the issue is not ignored will state that the student

handbook says it is excused when in fact it does not. The handbook states the only valid excuses

for absences.

The following are excused reasons to be absent when satisfactory evidence for the

excuse is provided to school officials: (1) Illness or Injury (2) Quarantine (3)

Death in the Immediate Family-Includes grandparents, parents, brothers and

sisters but is not limited to these family members (4) Medical or Dental

Appointments (5) Court or Administrative Proceedings (6) Religious Observance

(7) Educational Opportunity-Prior approval must be granted by Principal

(Rockingham County Student Handbook).

Under these excuses, nowhere does it state about mental disorders. It states illness and injury in

the same category implying that they are physical not mental.

Of students with disabilities in the special education system, those with emotional

disorders consistently have the lowest graduation rates and highest dropout rates compared to
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other disability categories. In 2005-2006, 45 percent of students between the ages of 14 and 21

that had received special education services for an emotional disorder under ​IDEA Part B

dropped out, only 32 percent of students with a serious mental illness continue into

postsecondary education. These students need help achieve the goal of education that everyone

needs.

In conclusion to all the evidence that has been provided, students need to have the feeling

of security when it comes to their mental stability. Schools should be considered a safe haven to

the students rather than feel like a stress-builder. The school system makes it seem as if a child’s

mental state is not as important as their grades and attendance. The school system should help

the students by creating a comfortable and healthy learning environment. The children need to

become the top priority once again.

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Works Cited

“Behavioral Disorder Symptoms, Causes and Effects.” Behavioral Disorder Symptoms, Cause

and Effects,

Belfer, Myron L. “Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders: the Magnitude of the Problem across

the Globe.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 21 Jan.

2008,

“Causes, Symptoms & Effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.” Village Behavioral

Health,

“Cognitive Problem Symptoms, Causes and Effects.” Signs and Symptoms of a Cognitive

Problem

– Causes and Effects,

“Depression: Recognizing the Physical Signs.” WebMD, WebMD,

“Effects.” Effects | Youth.gov,

youth.gov/youth-topics/youth-mental-health/how-mental-health-disorders-affect-youth.

Pietrangelo, Ann. “Recognizing Anxiety: Symptoms, Signs, and Risk Factors.” Healthline,
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Healthline Media, 24 Sept. 2014, www.healthline.com/health/anxiety/effects-on-body.

“The Psychological Effects of Bullying on Kids & Teens.” The Psychological Effects of

Bullying

on Kids & Teens |