Area teachers and administrators were on hand at the Macon County Economic Development Commission meeting on Thursday night in Highlands.
The topic of the presentation, coordinated by former Franklin High School principal and current county commissioner Gary Shields, was student mental health and the impact that mental health issues may play in the future of the county’s workforce.
“The reason we came to the EDC was because if the EDC board makes a statement, or endorses a program, it has an impact,” Shields said. “We want to provide better equipped workers coming out of our school system, but to do that we need the EDC’s help.”
Superintendent Chris Baldwin kicked off the discussion by explaining some of the student mental health problems that teachers are dealing with in their classrooms on a regular basis.
“The mental health issues are more serious than ever before and they are beginning with younger and younger students,” Baldwin said. “We are seeing serious things, like depression, suicidal thoughts, etc., regularly in the fifth and sixth grade and in less frequent cases in as young as second and third grade.”
Baldwin pointed to the ongoing opioid epidemic and the breakdown of the traditional family structure as two factors contributing to the deteriorating mental health of elementary school students.
“Statewide the numbers are staggering, something like 40 percent of grandparents are raising their grandchildren, either full or part time,” Baldwin said. “Often that is a product of the opioid problem because the parent or parents are in jail due to drugs or they are simply absent due to substance abuse issues.”
Baldwin pointed out that the school district received a grant to hire an additional school psychiatrist in 2019, but even with an extra person on staff the demand for mental health services is outpacing the availability.
Commissioner Ronnie Beale, who serves on the EDC board and also on the North Carolina Mental Health Task Force, noted that Macon County has better programs in place to help students than neighboring counties but still can’t cover the need.
“We have a walk-in clinic on Thomas Heights Road, we have some mental health clinicians in the schools from Meridian and Appalachian Services and we have school psychiatrists on staff and we still aren’t reaching all of the kids who need help,” Beale said. “And the fact is, if we are going to fix the problem we are going to have to do it locally. If we wait around for the state to fix student mental health we are going to be waiting around a long time.”
Second grade teacher Angela Phillips told the board that the student mental health issues have exploded in less than a decade.
“Really its been the last five or six years where education has taken a drastic turn,” Phillips said. “The lessons and learning are taking a back seat to the counseling. The behavior, the vulgar language, everything has made it harder to keep the classroom under control.”
Baldwin pointed out that the rise of mental health issues in elementary school students has come at a time when teaching assistant positions have been cut in the state budget. Currently in Macon County, only classrooms in grades K-1 have teaching assistants. In years past, every classroom in grades K-4 had an assistant.
“The day that a budget is passed without teaching assistants in grades K-1 is the day that a lot of us teachers will walk out,” kindergarten teacher Christy Hart said. “When you are responsible for 18 five-year olds, and five or six, or more, of them have mental health issues or behavioral issues, it simply isn’t doable without an assistant.”
Hart echoed Baldwin’s theory that the breakdown of family units is a major factor in the rise of mental health issues among students.
“What is happening is babies are having babies and they are bringing them to us to raise in the public school system,” Hart said. “The children’s basic needs aren’t being met at home and they are dealing with things that no child that age should have to deal with.”
Shields and Beale asked the EDC board to support a resolution imploring the state legislature to put teacher assistant positions for grades K-3 back in the state education budget going forward. The EDC board obliged and passed the motion unanimously.
“Some folks might not think student mental health is an EDC issue, but I can assure you it is,” Beale said. “We have students in our high schools right now that are getting good grades, they can pass the tests, they will graduate with no problem… But they won’t be productive employees because they have mental health issues that are going untreated. We need to help our students and we need to start early.”