By Julianne Hill and Hermes Falcon Urban Health Media Project As recently as 1973, homosexuality was considered a “sexual deviancy” and gay people were classified as mentally ill by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). The LGBTQ+ community and its allies have activists such as Barbara Gittings and DC’s own Dr. Frank Kameny to thank for...
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Missouri high school students recommend ways to improve school safety, student mental health
By Brie Zeltner and Malaya Mason St. Louis, MO - More licensed therapists on campus. Requiring parent or guardian participation in all school safety discussions. Implementing “calm rooms” where students can go to center themselves. Making every school inclusive and welcoming of students of all genders, sexual identities, races and abilities. These are just some...
Borough students talk mental health, racism in local high schools
By Brie Zeltner and Sarah Gandluri For Justin Soyka, the crisis came in middle school. During his 8th grade year, he survived two suicide attempts, and was hospitalized twice before he was able to get help for his depression, ADHD and crippling anxiety. “Growing up it wasn’t so easy not loving yourself and not being...
Staten Island high school students face racial segregation, bullying and mental health issues
By Pamela Rentz and Malaya Mason Youth leaders in high schools across Staten Island say that some of the biggest challenges facing their generation-- especially amidst the past two years of social unrest and a global pandemic-- are maintaining mental health and fighting racial inequities. Youth mental health issues have been on the rise since...
Missouri high school students call for more mental health services in schools to increase feelings of safety
St. Louis, Missouri -- Feeling safe in school was a problem in Missouri even before the pandemic added the unprecedented element of fear and anxiety of being exposed to a potentially deadly virus. As schools moved to remote learning, many of the daily concerns about physical safety in schools-- from bullying to school shooters-- decreased....
Monroe County students work to promote, elevate youth voices
By Sophia Garcia From protests against gun violence to the Black Lives Matter movement, the nation has recently seen young people take the lead on a wide variety of social movements. In Rochester, students have slipped pink slips inside Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office door to protest cuts to education, received training from the New York...
Youth fight for racial justice, and take their convictions to the polls
By Alan Gomez and Pamela Rentz With the world gripped by a global pandemic and protests over police brutality raging across the U.S., young adults and teenagers played a significant role in the activism work that defined 2020. Generation Z and Millenials were heavily involved in protests, marches, social media campaigns and the November elections....
Jacksonville youth face rising rates of trauma, mental health issues
By Angely Pena Agramonte Teens today are under a lot of stress: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that the proportion of young people visiting an emergency department due to a mental health crisis climbed by 31 percent during the six months between April and October of 2020. And that’s amidst a...
Jacksonville high school student-activists chart their course
By Sophia Garcia Generation Z - born roughly between the mid 1990s and early 2010s - has already made a name for itself due to its willingness to advocate for myriad social causes, from LGBTQ+ rights, abortion rights, and immigration to environmental consciousness. This group of young people has also taken on the issue of...
Gaffney Middle, High School students aim to reduce stigma around mental health
By Pam Rentz and Sarah Meehan After watching their peers struggle with mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of students in Cherokee County, S.C., hope to dispel stigmas around talking about challenges with anxiety, depression, suicide and other mental health conditions. Although youth in Cherokee County agree mental health problems are prevalent in...