The NEA and AFT versus mental health

We have a serious mental health crisis on our hands. What's causing it? According to the NEA and AFT, social networking is to blame.

There are some problems with this argument. Among them is that there were signs of a crisis prior to the rise of social networking. Are we really supposed to believe that this is the fault of social networking?

There have been studies that have compared the school year to the suicide rates of school-aged children. As it turns out, suicide rates tend to track the school year. This appears to be the lone demographic that sees a decrease in suicides during the summer.

These studies don't prove causation, but there is plenty of reason to believe that our schools are responsible for this trend. During my school years, emotional abuse was the primary motivational tool used by my teachers. On multiple occasions, I caught myself instinctively taking deep breaths as a coping mechanism for the abuse. Simply put, schools are systematically assaulting mental health.

Suicides are not the only consequences of the mental harm caused by schools. Mental health issues can also lead to violence and drug abuse. The simple but uncomfortable reality behind our schools is that they can and occasionally do have lethal consequences.

I don't want to sound too defensive of social networks. They definitely have their problems, and I certainly don't want children to spend too much of their childhoods on these websites. Of course, excessive usage could be a symptom of deeper problems. In some cases, they could be used as an escape from the unhealthy environment provided by our schools.

Social networking has become a convenient scapegoat. The NEA and AFT are trapping children in an environment that is disastrous for their mental health. Because they don't want to be blamed themselves, the NEA and AFT are trying to pin the blame for their own actions on social networking.

If the NEA and AFT cared about mental health, they would clean up their own act. Instead, they are making excuses for systematically harming the mental health of innocent children. The NEA and AFT have made it very clear that they don't care about the mental health of others. In fact, they have shown support for the primary reason this crisis exists.

If we care about mental health, social networking shouldn't be our primary interest. We need to address the harm caused by the schools and supported by the NEA and AFT. If a school harms a child, we need to ensure that the child has the right to leave that school. Unfortunately, this is a concept that the powerful NEA and AFT have actively fought.