Young, developing minds on social media. Post-pandemic rebuilding of social connections. Academic pressure in a big school. These all play roles in how Brookline High School students are experiencing issues that are part of a nationwide mental health crisis, students and staff say.
Of 904 Brookline high schoolers surveyed in May 2023, 28% reported feelings of persistent hopelessness, 12.8% reported thoughts of suicide in the past year, and 7.6% reported making a plan, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey results .
These numbers are improvements from those in the 2021 survey. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, is administered by the school district every other year, said Matthew DuBois, the district’s senior director of clinical services and social-emotional learning.
“We can see improvement, and we still have a lot of work to do,” said DuBois, who oversees the district’s school psychologists and counselors.
The next survey will be conducted in May, and results are expected to be available in fall, DuBois said. Anecdotally, in the year and half since the most recent survey, DuBois said, he has seen fewer risk assessments and hospitalizations, which are conducted when there are concerns for a student’s safety.
During weekly advisory periods, students engage in mindfulness activities and community-building exercises, DuBois said. Ninth-grade health class teaches skills for healthy coping and emotional regulation, he said, and students can opt to take courses after ninth grade that further develops these skills.
Social media and lack of sleep
Jordan Brandao, a 14-year-old freshman, said there are definitely students at Brookline High who struggle with their mental health, but he added that there seems to be a lot of mental health resources at the school.
“I feel like there’s more help here than [my] elementary school, because it’s a bigger community,” Brandao said.
Liam Loughnane, a 15-year-old sophomore, said some students shun away efforts to bring the community together.
“Maybe because they think it’s all corny. I’ve felt that way before,” Loughnane said. “Maybe because they’re not in the mood for it, and they think they can handle the problem on their own, when they haven’t actually tried to.”
Melanie Ho, an 18-year-old senior, said since Brookline High offers more AP courses than other high schools, students can feel pressured to take as many as they can, which can lead to stress.
“This place really encourages going to college,” Ho said. “That’s not the best for everyone, but it’s, like, what’s forced upon people, to make numbers look good.”
Jeremy Wang, a 15-year-old sophomore, said he thinks lack of sleep can worsen other mental health problems.
“I’m not getting enough sleep, definitely,” Wang said. “I’ve talked to a lot of my friends. They’re going to bed at, like, 12 a.m., 1 a.m. sometimes.”
Social media and smartphone use reduces quality of sleep when used late at night, Dubois said, and it can introduce kids to a set of experiences that their brains are not ready to navigate. A 2023 advisory by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy noted that frequent social media use may be associated with “distinct changes in the developing brain.”
Alice Faust, an 18-year-old senior, said she recently deleted Tiktok and Snapchat from her phone, which has given her more time for seeing friends and doing activities that build her character.
“I mean, I still have Instagram, but I’m definitely on it less,” Faust said. “Ever since I’ve stopped using social media as much, it’s like, you can focus on other things better, and you just have heightened awareness and more will to discover new things.”
Finding belonging and community at BHS
What’s really important to improving mental health, Dubois said, is having a sense of belonging. At a large school like Brookline High, students said, they find community in clubs.
One such community group is the Queer Student Program, which meets in a room called the Queer Student Union, said physics teacher Julia Mangan. Here, students can attend meetings for Gender and Sexuality Alliance or Queer Action Club, or simply hang out during their free blocks.
“For many kids, it’s like their home away from home,” said Mangan, a co-leader of the Queer Student Program. “It’s allowed the kids to connect with some of the teacher volunteers who staff it.”
Brookline LGBTQ students were hit especially hard, according to the YRBS results. A much higher percentage of transgender students who replied to the survey reported feelings of sadness or hopelessness, reflecting national trends.
“Being alone was really difficult for most teens and in particular for teens for whom home is a really tricky place,” Mangan said. “School can actually often be a queer student’s most affirming place, where they can be themselves the most.”
Philip Steigman, a Brookline parent who works in youth development, said there should be more coordination between community programs outside of school.
“There’s a huge ecosystem here, but we’re not coordinated around an existing strategy,” said Steigman, who is a policy fellow at the federal Department of Health and Human Services. “Connectedness is sort of the magic formula to combat these mental health issues. Personally, that’s what I believe.”
This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
This article was originally published on February 18, 2025.