As the 2022-2023 school year is well underway, some LAUSD students are anxious, depressed, and lonely, says Aviva Alvarez-Zakson, who teaches world history and ethnic studies at Hamilton High School.
“Am I qualified to be a therapist? Absolutely not. That's not what I went to graduate school for. That's not what I have my degree in. But I would say we're the first line of defense when students are going through something like this,” she explains.
However, many students need extra mental health support, she points out.
“The ratios that our school psychologists and our counselors have to work with are not functional anymore. A typical counselor, I think the ratio is around 900 to 1. There's simply not enough hours in the day, there's not enough time. If we have one psychiatric social worker available on campus and three students need support right now, what do we do? It's really, really hard.”
Alvarez-Zakson says pandemic anxiety is driving a lot of the negative emotions.
“[There’s] this existential anxiety of ‘am I going to make it through this unscathed? Who in my family makes it through this? Am I going to stay?’ A lot of families left Los Angeles because it was unaffordable or to be with family.”
She adds that technology is exacerbating the situation. “The need to know everything that's happening right now. And it's not just social media. It's as simple as text messaging, right? ‘My friend is texting me right now. Or my mom is texting me right now. I need to know what's happening right now. And if I don't respond right now, they're gonna think something's wrong. Or they're gonna think I'm not okay.’”
Alvarez-Zakson says she is trying to hang in there as well.
“I'm staring at a grade deadline right now. Grades are due next week for the midterm. I'm literally looking at a pile of grading that I have to get done. Looking at lesson plans that haven't been done yet. So there's all of this stress on top of all of this other stress,” she explains. “I'm one person, I'm trying to do all of these different things, trying to wear all these different hats as a teacher.”
To alleviate the strain, Alvarez-Zakson says she tries to educate herself on what’s happening in the world and sets firm boundaries.
“Boundaries have been very, very important to me this year … saying no, which is really hard when there's so much asked. … That's all been very helpful. But at the end of the day, I'm tired.”