Discrimination against Black children is driving a major mental health crisis
Annie Ma – ASSOCIATED PRESS – in the D&C on 6/5/23 on page A1
COLUMBUS, Ohio – To her students who need the most support, India Strother is rarely just “Ms. Strother” – she’s a family figure they call “Mom,” a trusted guide as they negotiate their teenage years.
They open up to her about their dating lives. About pregnancy scares. About their fights with their parents, about the trauma they experience outside school. She keeps a mental list of those at risk of self-harm or suicide, and checks to see how they are doing. It’s just part of the job of being a counselor at any American high school.
But at predominantly Black schools like the one in Columbus, Ohio, where Strother works, students’ mental health is further tested by pressures and discrimination they endure because they are Black, as well as poverty and violence in some communities that have faced years of disinvestment.