Junior Lucea Barte stares at her planner. Two tests tomorrow. An essay due Thursday. Practice after school. College prep meeting at lunch. It’s 11 p.m. and she still has two hours of homework left.
She’s not alone. Around the campus, in bedrooms across the Valley, other students are awake too, trying to balance schoolwork that seems endless with activities that colleges demand and social lives that feel like they’re slipping away one late night at a time.
Four years after students returned to classrooms, the mental health crisis hasn’t let up. If anything, it’s gotten worse. Between lingering pandemic trauma, increasing academic pressure and the constant pull of social media, today’s teenagers are facing unprecedented levels of stress, the long-term effects of which are still unfolding.
Ms. Tayla Silver, a Psychiatric Social Worker (PSW) counselor at our school, reflected on how the pandemic disrupted students’ social development and sense of connection when returning to in-person learning.
“Sitting in class, being able to have a structured space where you have to sit next to someone, you get to ask questions when you’re working in a group,” Silver said. “This generation missed all that and so to have to come back and interact with others, it increases anxiety with not having those essential years.”
According to a University of Washington study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, covid-19 lockdowns accelerated brain development in teens, particularly girls, by more than four years. The long-term effects on this generation are still unfolding.
Ms. Silver also noted that the pandemic created lasting challenges in how students interact and communicate with others face-to-face as they have not had the opportunity to build their skills in person.
“There was this huge gap in students’ ability to engage with others in person and there’s so much that we use when we’re engaging with others, like physical cues, being able to hear their tone of voice, etc,” she said.
The numbers confirm what students feel. According to 2023 CDC statistics, 40% of teenagers said they felt sad or hopeless.
Many students feel misunderstood by the adults around them.
“Some students believe that they are understood by the teachers,” junior Lucea Barte said. “Others believe that adults do not know the pressures to which students are facing so it’s hard to explain everything that’s going on.”
The workload itself feels overwhelming.
“I am stressed pretty often at school,” junior Zoe Lopez said. “I have tests almost every day. I feel pretty overwhelmed since tests happen so frequently.”
School counselors see the crisis from the front lines.
“A lot of kids come to see us when they reach their breaking point which is when they are ditching,” International Newcomer Academy Counselor Ms. Marissa Avitia said. “There’s usually a lot of attendance concerns, low grades and then if they’re here, I can tell they look stressed and they’re about to cry.”
Despite this, administrators like Ms. Silver and Ms. Marissa Avitia, an Academic Counselor, explains that they are always there to help.
“When a student comes in here, I’ll let them know that I’m here to support them,” she said. “I remind them about confidentiality and that they’re in a safe space but I also let them know that if there’s anything I need to report, I’ll do so.”
Ms. Avitia goes on to say that she isn’t the only help provided at our school.
“I also encourage students to see other support services that we have here on campus, so then I’ll go ahead and mention the PSWs here on campus Ms. Silver and Ms. Hernandez,” she said.
“Since the pandemic, anxiety, especially social anxiety, has surged as students return from the comfort of home to crowded, noisy classrooms,” Ms. Avitia said. “After years of isolation, many struggle with friendships, social interactions and the pressure of being around people again, leaving their minds so full of worry.”
Back at her desk, Barte finally closes her laptop at 1:30 a.m. She sets her alarm for 7 a.m. and tries not to think of the three tests she has tomorrow.
“Sometimes I wonder if this is what it’s supposed to feel like,” she said. “But then I think to myself that everyone’s doing it, so I just accept this is the way it is.”