Do you ever have those days where you're not doing so well mentally, but since nothing is physically wrong, you can’t miss school? So many students all around the U.S. are constantly exhausted and stressed out just because of school. They’re putting all their time and energy into the tons of assignments they get each day and it’s causing them to become stressed and overwhelmed. This can lead to very dangerous situations in some cases.  Mental health issues should be an excused absence from school because mental illness is common, breaks from school can improve a student’s wellbeing, and without help mental illnesses can lead to self-harm.

Mental health issues should be an excused absence from school because it's a very common illness. Depression and anxiety in teenagers and children has drastically increased since the beginning of the pandemic. If students had a day off to manage these illnesses, it would decrease the added stressors from school. To support this, “Late last year the advocacy group Mental Health America surveyed teenagers about the top three things that would be most helpful for their mental health. More than half of the respondents cited the ability to take a mental health break or absence from either school or work.” (Chatterjee). This means that there are so many students and coworkers around the world that are just begging for a break from constantly working hard everyday. To back this up, “Schools have resources, like programs, and counselors, but many times they don’t have the ability to see which students are struggling before it’s too late and it reaches a crisis situation.” (Chatterjee). This evidence shows that just because the school has resources for students does not mean that they trust them. Sometimes, it’s better for students to just have a break from reality and relax. 

Mental health days would provide students a break from being overwhelmed. Students have at least 4 core content areas with intense lessons and classwork, let alone homework. This doesn’t even account for extracurriculars and personal life issues. “Before the pandemic shut everything down, his day started at 6:30 a.m., when he woke up to get ready for school. Next came several Advanced Placement courses; then either soccer practice or his job at a plant nursery; studying for the SAT; and various extracurricular activities. He often didn’t start his homework until 11 p.m., and finally went to bed three hours later. Every day it was the same grueling schedule.” (Doyne). This shows the general description of a normal student's everyday life. This student clearly doesn’t get a break from school or work, it's just a constant cycle with only 4-5 hours of sleep. One little mess up and his grades would come crashing down, he could lose his job, and everyone criticizing him because he’s being “lazy”. It’s not fair that no matter how hard we try, it’s never good enough. Studies have shown,, “From the beginning, we've seen elevated levels of stress, anxiety, and different behavioral issues in students," . (Doyne). Teachers are always wondering why students aren’t behaving well in school or assume they’re acting out. Behavior changes can attribute to lack of sleep, discipline at home, strict parenting, and stress from school. No one ever knows what a student is truly going through at home but not all teachers care. They think “it's a you problem” when you try to explain it to them. Although many people believe that students only use their free time to hang out with friends or chill on their cellular devices, in reality, students are just stressed out about the next day, wondering how they’re going to get done 4 assignments in the 1 hour they have to spare. 

Stressed students already have, and could still possibly end up hurting themselves or maybe even others. Just in 2020 alone, there were 20,000+  suicidal cases because of stressed out students in schools. What have we done about it? Nothing. There has been a massive amount of suicidal attempts, students harming themselves, or maybe even attacking other students or teachers. Poor mental health is not an excuse to act that way but school is part of the problem. Administration can at least let students take days off on our own sake of mental health. The NEA School Counselor Caucus recognized that, “There’s just so much going on in this day and age, the pressures to fit in, the pressure to achieve, the pressure of social media. —and it all makes it so much harder to be a teenager.” (Walker). This  tries to explain that the main reason suicidal rates have been going up is because of stress from school. School administrators don’t understand that students are not only worried about homework and getting to class on time. In addition, students are trying to fit in and make friends. The stress of students isn’t just about the homework, as bad as that is, it’s also about the social interaction they have with other classmates in school. Kids are speaking out.“I’ve spoken with many kids who tell me, ‘I’m studying as hard as I can and my parents are saying I just need to study harder.’ These kids stay up all night and focus 100 percent on schoolwork to get ahead.” (Walker). This states that parents are so worried about their kids' grades that it’s stressing the kids out even more, bringing them down to make them think that no matter how hard they try, it’s never enough. 

In conclusion, mental health should be taken much more seriously because mental issues are more common, students need a break from being overwhelmed, and stressed students end up hurting themselves or others. This is a very dangerous topic that schools need to be taken into consideration because if we don’t, things will get much worse where students might start acting out more at school or at home. Suicidal rates could go up much more because students not feeling heard or taken seriously. Until schools are ready to accept accountability and make changes for that, students should be allowed to take mental health days.