Onika Darling

States, like California, that ranked higher for mental health had higher attendance rates than Oregon.

The state of Oregon greatly struggles with mental health and attendance, being ranked one of the worst states for both. According to U.S. News, Oregon ranked 41 out of 50 for mental health. Oregon also ranked fourth for chronic absenteeism, according to an article in the Oregonian. Students are considered chronically absent after missing two or more days of school per month.

Lincoln’s school nurse, Mary Johnson, says there are a variety of reasons why students are struggling with their mental health.  

“I think the evidence is pointing towards a couple factors,” said Johnson. “Social media and the pace at which people are expected to perform causes a lot of stress and anxiety.”

Senior Laurel Tillier agrees that the expectations that are out on students when it comes to performance can be hard especially with how the day is structured. 

“I would say a pretty major thing is just the workload that students have, especially considering the emphasis on the IB program, and just in general having eight classes,” said Tillier. “There’s actually very little time to socialize [and] there’s a lot of rushing from one class to another. I think that can cause the school community to take a hit [when] you’re not really getting that chance to spend time with people outside of work time.”

According to Education Week, sixteen percent of high school students missed school because of anxiety, while ten percent missed because they were behind and feared they wouldn’t be able to catch up. 

Junior Eva Hoehna explains how the stress that students feel may cause them to miss class.   

“I’ve seen a lot of students skip classes because they just need a break, even if that means that they have more work later,” said Hoehna. “They’ve just become so stressed that they can’t do anything and then they have more work and it just piles on even more stress, it’s a cycle.”