Mental health care in schools is often weaponized against the vulnerable student who experiences distress in the school setting. In my practice, I have met many kids/teens whose school is taking punitive action against them because they disclosed detailed symptoms of their mental health issues to a school professional. I advise most families, with whom I work, to avoid involving school personnel in their private decisions about caring for their child's mental health.
Schools have become increasingly aware of the prevalence of mental health problems amongst their students and they have progressively introduced "helping professionals" into the daily routine at many schools. School administrators lean heavily on the opinions of these "helping professionals"- despite the lack of mental health training for many of them- when assessing the "threat" posed by a child's mental health. If the "helping professional" determines there is a "threat" in the school environment, school administrators take swift action to eliminate this threat. I am aware of school administrators who exclude children from routine activities, request that a parent picks up their child from school, coerce children into therapy-like sessions with "helping professionals" without their parents' consent, and even suspend/expel children from school because of their disclosures. Furthermore, schools document these "interventions" in a manner that causes the child to be stigmatized as having a mental health issue throughout their school experience.
School personnel most often describe these practices as being in the best interest of your child's emotional health and other students' well-being. We all want to believe that school personnel are just interested in "helping" our children. However, this degree of unsolicited, and often unapproved, intrusive investigation into your child's emotional well-being serves only to protect the school from their perceived liability for your child's emotional problem. Though they may tell your child otherwise, school "helping professionals" are most often not on your child's side, especially when these "meetings" involve school administrators. Though many of these "helping professionals" may have good intentions, the information they obtain is not confidential and is often used to fuel punitive action taken by school administrators.
School administrators, and many times the school's "helping professional", are not adequately trained to assess, or respond to, a child's mental health issues. This ignorance often results in them misunderstanding mental health symptoms and mis-labeling benign statements/behaviors as "threatening." These errors can cause a child and their parent significant undue distress and, at times, can result in trauma to the child and their parent. Furthermore, because school personnel are not trained to treat mental health issues, they rely on the police, or a parent, to force the child into "treatment", a practice that can be more traumatizing.
I am a helping professional and I have dedicated my life to the emotional well-being of children. I have worked in schools as a "helping professional." I have the experience in this field to recognize which "helping professionals" are like me; professionals with the necessary expertise to provide a child with a safe, confidential, non-punitive, non-judgmental space to heal. School professionals do not have this experience or expertise and their goal is not to help your child heal.
Though I deeply support the younger generations' efforts to de-stigmatize mental health problems and their care, and I value a school's broad access to kids who may need mental health care, I believe that most schools' response to a child's mental health care is not yet truly safe for the child or their family.
If you are concerned about your child's mental health, please seek care from a therapist who is independent of the school system. Please advise your child to immediately come to you, or their independent therapist, if they are experiencing increased distress at school. If questioned by school personnel about the nature of your private, confidential efforts to seek mental health care for your child, please firmly explain that you are successfully managing the situation privately, then speak with your independent therapist about how to best address the school's concerns.
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