My name is Aydin, and I am a ninth grader in Coles County, Illinois. Let me share with you some stories.

When I was in 4th Grade, my local high school experienced a shooting in which a few people were injured. Thankfully nobody was seriously hurt or killed. The assailant? He was only fourteen. People are still recovering mentally.

When I was in 6th grade, I witnessed one of my friends be bullied to the point of nearly starving themselves. Thankfully, they got help, but what if they hadn't?

In the beginning of my 8th grade year, I aided other teens online in getting the professional help that they needed. I heard nearly a dozen stories about self-harming, their plans about suicide, their abusive parents, and lack of trust in anyone. Most of them got help, but at what cost, and how much sooner could it have been? 

And even right now, just the other day, my friend confided in me about how their gender dysphoria and insomnia was eating away at them. I told them that I was always here for them to talk to, but there is only so much that one single person like me can do.

Teen mental health is perhaps the hottest topic in education and society right now, but it is necessary to address it in order to protect the future generation of students and teens. We are told to rely on the adults and educators in our lives, but how are we supposed to do that if we cannot even rely on them to help save us from ourselves.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 out of every 4 students will suffer from a mental illness including insomnia, anorexia, self-harming and suicidal tendencies, depression, and much, much more. About 50-80% of those will never receive the proper help that they need, mainly because the issues are never identified by people close in their lives. As if those statistics were not staggering and scary enough, 6 out of every 100 students will attempt suicide at some point in their teen lives. 

My school and schools just like it have a mental health crisis on our hands, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. If Illinois takes the first steps to combat the teen mental health problem, then we can plant the seed, the spark that will inspire dozens of other people to stand up and take action.

This petition calls for two things!

Firstly, it proposes the creation of an Illinois Teen Mental Health Advisory Committee which will involve a select group of middle and high school students, along with a few educators and government-accredited mental health psychologists. Working together with professionals, teens will be able to make requests and suggestions to the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS).

And secondly, we call for a reasonable increase in budget that will go towards educational mental health response that is distributed equally throughout all regions and districts of Illinois.

The future generation of students and teenagers is at risk. My friends and I, we're hurting, and we need your help. So stand up to sign the petition. Sign up to be the change that you want to see! It's time to rise up and defend ourselves and the future generation.

I'm not a doctor. I'm not a teacher. I'm not a parent. All I am is a teen. And this, this is a call for help from all teens who cannot ask themselves.