Everyone can agree that the last two years have been not the best for everyone's mental psyche. The data shows that this has been the case for schools. The CDC announced that in 2020, ER visits for suspected suicide attempts jumped 31% from 2019. That same data shows that from Feb-March 2021, ER visits for suspected suicide attempts for girls aged 12-17 jumped 51% from Feb-March 2019. In October, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children's Hospital Association said that mental health decline in children had become a national emergency. This comes at the same time that West Virginia has a psychologist-to-student ratio four times higher (2,034) than it should be (500). 

College students are having similar impacts on their mental health. A study shows that 71% of college students sampled are having increased stress and anxiety. So, I was disappointed that when WVU's student leaders were requesting more funding for mental health and were wanting a meeting with the Governor, his senior advisor went onto Twitter to tell them to ask WVU instead. Mental health is NOT something that should ever be a political football. We need to work together on this, not say who has the money and why they and not us can spend it. 

West Virginia pre-pandemic was already lacking in mental health resources, while the pandemic has accelerated a crisis, so sign and share this petition to tell our state leaders that we want mental health to be an important consideration in the coming legislative session, especially for schools and colleges.