Having just passed the one-year anniversary of distance learning, the effects it is having on the nation’s high schoolers can be seen in the increase of suicide attempts. According to NPR, at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, the number of children and teens hospitalized after suicide attempts went up from 67 in 2019 to 108 in 2020. And October 2020 saw a 250% increase in these numbers over the previous October.

Lab has made a commitment to resuming in person learning at the start of the next school year and they must not deviate from that plan.

Stats like those from Indianapolis are worrying as they indicate that distance learning and social isolation are having lasting impacts on kids. The pandemic has devastated America’s high schoolers social lives and this is having a directly negative impact on their mental health.

These kids are having their social lives destroyed at a time that is crucial in their development which is having an extremely adverse effect on them.  

We must hold the school to their statement not to start next year in remote or even hybrid learning if we want to help ourselves and our peers.