Mental Health Education is Funedemental
By: Ella Clifford
Afer a long day teaching students P.E., Avid, and Health, you can fnd Ms. Tami Kittle watching the Bachelor or spending time with her daughters. Ms. Tami Kittle is somehow everywhere, juggling three diferent classes, lessons, work loads, and classrooms. Despite this, when I ofered her my help with grading papers, she denied it. She explained that she does not allow other people to look at her students’ work, that it violates a trust she is trying to build.
Tis type of community is commonly established in Ms. Kittle’s classrooms as she prioritizes her students’ well-being over any other aspect of their education. She is a devoted person who prioritizes people learning about mental health, rather than just hearing about it.
She was not always a teacher, actually stating that “I never wanted to be a teacher, my whole college career, I’m like, ‘I’m not going to be a teacher. My mom is a teacher. My dad, my grandma is, my aunts. I’m not going into education.’”
Ms. Kittle went to college to be an athletic trainer, studying sports medicine. However, she realized quickly she would not make the amount of money she needed to support herself and two daughters, and the time she was putting in was taking away from her time with her family. So she went to education, specifcally in the MVLA Union High School District, where she knew she would make more money and have more time to spend with her family. She believes that there is vital importance in mental health education seen in physical symptoms and unseen in personal struggles, and although it is hard to identify because of its privacy, it has had a signifcant impact on the MVLA environment.
Tere are many experiences that Ms. Kittle could reference when asked about the importance of mental health education, all of them detailing the way that the class teaches students to see the signs of mental illness in themselves, their friends and family, as well as teaching the importance of wellness and the way it connects to emotional health. Tere are many studies connecting physical and mental health, as noted by Ms. Kittle: “If you’re not [physically] healthy (...) your mental health will also go.” In fact, there is a strong connection between physical health disorders and mental health disorders, including, most commonly, anxiety and
depression, as well as less common disorders such as illness anxiety disorder (hypochondria), obstructive sleep apnea, and addiction disorders (DSM-V). Poor mental health can also lead to physical health problems; including somatic symptom disorders, in which a person struggles with mental health and as a result experiences physical, debilitating symptoms; conversion disorders, in which a person loses feeling and movement in one or several parts of their body with inconsistencies as to its causes in neurological and medical health; and leaves a person more prone to cases like schizophrenia and OCD. Risk taking and choices leading away from negative infuences are also taught in health class, such as understanding and recognizing the cycle of abuse, and substance use, which are also contributors to poor mental health. Factors such as untreated mental and physical illness, environment,
“Just Tuesday I had a student come to me to report a student that was considering killing himself. Within 5 minutes, that student was pulled from class and was helped by a counselor,”
TammiKittle
stressors, risk assessment and subsequent decision making all contribute to the likelihood of developing severe and debilitating mental health disorders (Stel). Te ultimate goal of the health program is to reduce these factors, by teaching people how to deal with the many factors that cause mental health disorders. While preventative solutions are hard to track, Ms. Kittle asserts that the program is quantifably productive: “Just Tuesday I had a student come to me to report a student that was considering killing himself. Within 5 minutes, that student was pulled from class and was helped by a counselor,” emphasizing how the program creates a space for students to confde in their teachers for help, and helping them to know that action is necessary. One student says, “I was fortunate enough to be in two classes during my sophomore year…Ms.
Kittle is someone who genuinely cares about her students…She wants you to feel comfortable and safe and she wants things like you know like health resources to be easily accessible and she wants people to be knowledgeable and take control of their bodily autonomy and that sense and she is someone who is unafraid to be herself. And that is something that I respect so heavily. (Ngo)” Ms. Kittle is able to establish an environment which emphasizes the importance of mental health education and prevention of risk taking behaviors. She builds trust and rapport with her students, which allow them to not only listen to her important message, but to ask questions about the topics she teaches. In this way she is vital in spreading the message of prevention, recognition and treatment to audiences who will listen to her actively.
As important as mental health education is in the era of technology, there are behaviors of the MVLA school district, and many others in the area, that do not refect this widespread belief. Ms. Kittle compared her daughter’s school in Santa Cruz, only forty fve minutes away from Mountain View High School: “they have no therapists there and they’re not specialized.” One of the difculties that Ms. Kittle explained is that many schools and their staf, including some of our own, do not understand the importance of mental health education or see how it can be benefcial. In an era of a “mental health epidemic” as deemed by many news sources, and supported by statistical evidence such as the Poll of Teen Health in America; 64% of students believe that their lives are more stressful than when their parents were growing up. Today’s students may not grow up with the same type of stigmas or fnancial burdens of their parents, however they deal with a new problem, social media (“Poll of Teen Mental Health”). Te ability to constantly compare themselves to others means there is no safe space from potential bullies or harsh comments. It also means that they are constantly exposed to stressful stimuli, such as seeing people achieve academic success en masse, making average grades feel low or poor. Tere is no such thing as average on social media, or at least no average person is promoted on social media, that is just the way the algorithm works. As a result of that, teens nowadays have an increasing need to feel exceptional or perfect. In
the face of these challenges, only 56% of students believe that their school cares about their mental health, and only 40% of students think their school has resources to help support mental health (“Poll of Teen Mental Health”). In light of these statistics, Ms. Kittle has “always focused on wellness and mental health because of what teenagers go through, especially girls. But also boys now are really facing it between the ages of like seventh grade and 10th grade. Tey struggle because of puberty and hormones and just navigating life and friends.” Tat is why it is of vital importance that schools not only have mental health services, but also promote them. Tere is no use having these services if no one knows they are available, or feels supported enough to use them.
Tere is an issue at our school that Ms. Kittle expressed grave concern about: “we only hit (teach health in person to) maybe, let’s say, 500 kids out of 2200, so we get one fourth of the population of the school right now. Where we should be hitting 100%. And the kids that take it online, they just go through the course. Tey’re not absorbing things, and they’re not hands on. Tey’re not doing group work. Tey’re not hearing stories and seeing what’s really happening in the world.” Mountain View High School ofers an online health class for students to take over the summer. It fails to be efective however, for various reasons as seen by the University of Illinois, Springfeld (Gabany), one of which is a lack of caring. Intrinsic motivation is not something that can just happen, and an in-person, connected and enjoyable class serves as an alternative motivation to learn. People experiencing in-person education are also kept more accountable, they are essentially forced to learn. According to Ms. Kittle, there is a solution to this problem: “You know, most ninth graders have an extra period where they can
have one semester of health and then have a free period (...) And health is no homework so there’s no extra stress, everything’s done in class.” Based on the increase in mental illness there is a need for mental health education, and health class is one very important way to do that. Te promotion of health class to freshmen is highly important for the outreach of education surrounding health and wellness. Ms. Kittle’s story serves as a call to action for school staf to really promote mental health education as it is fundamental to students, as she explains, health education provides a safe space to learn and confde in teacher and students alike, creating an environment ft for healthy students. And take the advice of Ms. Kittle: “we need to talk about mental illness just like any other. So if you have heart disease, you go see a cardiovascular surgeon and fnd out how to help it. Mental health is just like heart disease. If you have a mental health issue, you need to talk to somebody.”
Ella Cliford is a junior in flm at Freestyle Academy. She grew up in the bay area with her parents, three siblings and her dog. Outside of school she enjoys hanging out with her friends, sleeping in and reading a good book out in the sun. She also loves spending time at the beach, downtown and shopping. She has been an advocate for mental health and hopes to pursue a career in psychology.