There’s an undercurrent of teenage emotional distress that’s causing Santa Barbara school leaders to rethink how they educate students.
The catalyst: a series of teen deaths in the county and more than 100 attempted teen suicides in Santa Barbara Unified School District over the past two years — along with findings that show some Santa Barbara secondary students report high levels of stress, depression, anxiety, and feelings of isolation.
With nationwide trends mirroring what we see happening here, Santa Barbara educators and their community mental-health partners are rallying behind an instructional intervention that has the power to create a true sea of change.
Known as social-emotional learning (SEL), the approach teaches students about self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, and relationship and social awareness: all soft skills foundationally important to becoming a healthy adult. They’re also critical skills for surviving and thriving in the often tumultuous teenage years, when the part of the brain that controls reasoning, emotions, decision-making, and judgment is not yet fully developed.
Fresh from a conference in New Mexico on the benefits of social-emotional education, Frann Wageneck, Santa Barbara Unified School District assistant superintendent of Student Services, wants to see an infusion of SEL integrated throughout the K-12 school day. She said the New Mexico convening reconfirmed what educators here have come to realize.
“The keynote speaker said that emotional distress is one of the defining characteristics of this generation — the post-millennials — and that really hit me in the gut,” said Wageneck, whose role includes supporting school counselors and serving as the point person for community mental-health partners. “We are seeing a lot of emotional distress in our students. In terms of youth mental health and the epidemic of suicide attempts in the last few years, we need to get control of that.”
Suicide Signals
Last year, Santa Barbara Unified School District counselors were trained on and then delivered the Signs of Suicide (SOS) program to 8,456 students in grades 7-12. The program focuses on depression awareness and suicide prevention and includes a dramatization video with lessons on recognizing “red flag” students who need immediate support from a trusted adult.
Also included is a mental-health screening that asks students whether they’ve ever attempted suicide or experienced suicidal thoughts or feelings of depression. The findings, which Wageneck shared with district officials in June, revealed the following: