During the first pandemic school year, students at Mary Ward Catholic High School in Scarborough took their mental well-being into their own hands., in which students had to take two courses at a time for roughly nine weeks, and an unpredictable virus that often forced them to learn from home.
Now Feng, alongside the rest of the Toronto Youth Cabinet — the official youth advisory body to the city — is calling on the province to include mental health or behavioural reasons as an excused absence for elementary and high school students under the Education Act. Currently, the act singles out “sickness or unavoidable causes,” but does not mention mental health explicitly.
The survey also found 79 per cent of students struggled in some way to access support at school, and 43 per cent said it’s very important for them to get mental health support from someone who is Black, Indigenous or a person of colour. The survey gathered answers from 1,042 students across Ontario, aged 12 to 19.
Some students responded to the survey saying they would like more time to cope and understand what they’re experiencing. Others said the education system has struggled to “show empathy” for students who are burnt out. “For students who do choose to take those days, we want to make sure that they are not required to provide the school with a doctor’s note,” he added. “Financial troubles and not having the luxury to be able to afford a note should not be a barrier.”
“Except for academics, I don’t think there’s much room or many methods for a teacher to know that a student is struggling,” he said. “For students who can hide it better, their mental health issues will never show.”
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