A couple of days ago a situation happened at my school... I deal with anxiety and some days I can calm myself down and other days I cannot. That day was one of those days. So I decided to go ask for help. My teacher told me there was someone in the office specifically for social and emotional problems so I went to see her but she was in a meeting. They sent me to my regular school counselor. I knew it was a bad idea but I decided to go anyway. As soon as I got in there I started to break down crying. I was so overwhelmed with emotions however, when I looked up at the counselor, they were just finishing up whatever paperwork they were doing when I walked in. I felt so alone. As the conversation went on it was obvious that they had no idea what to do with me. She called the nurse I guess to try to help me with my breathing but all the nurse had to say was "Is there anyone else we can call". At this point I felt worse than I did when I got there. To add to the chaos, there was an actual counselor there that could've helped me but I couldn't go to her because I wasn't signed up with program.

We need more trained mental health professionals in our schools. This isn't the first time something like this has happened to me and I've heard stories of others that have dealt with these types of things as well. If we can get as many people as we can from our community to sign this, I can get this to the superintendent and maybe we can make a change!