Of Course They Are Depressed

Schenectady High is starting an opt in program for ninth graders so they can be screened for depression. (Times Union via AOA) I find this to be a great public relations move but nothing more than a start...not even a good start.

Of course ninth graders at Schenectady High are depressed.  The combination of economic pressures (parents out of work, general tension at home, and a decrease in the general quality of life) plus all the awful crap that everyone goes through when they are 14 and 15 has to be depressing.

Can you remember what it was like to be 15?  How did you feel?  For me, being reasonably cute, and passably athletic at a small school made my life a little bit easier, but...I still hated my life to a great deal.  All of my friends has similar experiences.  It goes with the territory.

So..

You have all these hormone addled young teenagers put together in an overcrowded school and then you add the specter of gang violence and guess what...so of these children are going to choose the sweet release of death to the living hell that is high school (and high school is hellish under the best of circumstances, but a high school that would be too incredulous for a very special episode of 21 Jump Street would be a very special kind of hell). 

But...screening isn't going to help if they don't remove the gangs from the school.  Bullying is being addressed in Health Class, but...not enough.

If you create a stable environment where people have jobs, they are not going to seek out the false family of a gang...

But...screening...

It's a start.

It's not nearly enough, but it is a start.