By CHARLENE PAUL
The Progress
The school buildings in the Clark County School District (CCSD) have been uncommonly quiet places over the past nine months since the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
Most CCSD schools, including those in Virgin Valley, have had to follow an all-online distance education model where kids don’t come to school at all. Moapa Valley schools are among the only ones in the district using a hybrid of both online and live instruction in the classroom.
All of this is being done in attempts to protect the health and well-being of the students and school staff. But the past year has shown that there may be worse health and safety risks than COVID-19 out there, especially for the children.
School counselors and other mental health professionals in the schools have expressed concerns about a change they are seeing in their students. They say the kids have become detached, lethargic and less engaged in school work. And they worry about the long term effects of isolating kids at home and away from the routines and relationships they once had at school.
All of that is even true in the Moapa and Virgin Valley schools where family and community support usually boosts the educational performance of students.
“I see the students and their families really struggling here,” said Erika Whitmore, social worker at Mack Lyon Middle School in Overton. “I talk to students, and they all tell me, ‘This year sucks. All I want to do is come back to school.’”
Whitmore said that those sentiments even extend to kids that were never very engaged in school before the pandemic. It is that group of kids, many of whom have little or no support from home, that have been hit the hardest, Whitmore said.
“For many of our students, school is their safe place,” Whitmore said. “It is the only place where someone is rooting for them and where their needs are met. I’m afraid we are going to see the effects of this shutdown for years to come, and they are not going to be good.”
Indian Education Department Coordinator Della Frank, who lives on the Moapa River Indian Reservation, agrees with this. She said that the current state of education at CCSD is especially devastating to minority students like the native kids she sees isolated out on the reservation.
“We have students who have gone from making A’s to receiving Fs,” Frank said. “These kids are hurting! They are not learning. They spend all day on the internet.”
Frank said that the focus on distance education which has been taken by CCSD is prone to failure. “It is a lot to ask of teachers and a lot to ask of students,” Frank said. “It is hard to follow up and it’s nearly impossible to do home visits. These kids are going to be a full year behind due to a failure of the systems put into place.”
Roy Geter, who works as Social Worker at Hughes Middle School in Mesquite, said that he has seen a similar drop in academic performance among Hughes students. That includes some of the kids he hasn’t needed to worry about before.
“This system depends on the kids to log in and not get distracted,” Geter said. “Some are just not signing in. It also creates a built-in excuse for not getting their work done. They can just say, ‘Something is wrong with my computer.’ Teachers have told me that some students are never in class.”
But the problems are much more than just academic in nature. Mental health concerns are on the rise. Area professionals are concerned that many kids are isolated, overly stressed and depressed.
“Kids are not reaching out for social and emotional support right now,” said Mack Lyon Middle School Counselor Amy May. “They aren’t connecting with one another when they are here because they are only here two days a week with very limited interaction on those days. We are seeing students who are more apathetic, maybe depressed, and they don’t understand why. And they don’t even have each other to lean on.”
What’s more, under current conditions, the professionals who are meant to help depressed kids are finding more obstacles than ever standing in their way.
“Since most reporting of problems occurs through students’ interactions at school, there has been much less reporting this year,” said Hughes Middle School counselor Scott Curtis. “The social workers and I try to make contact with our students and their families as much as possible. But it is very difficult.”
Moapa Valley High School counselor Geniel Ozaki has experienced similar difficulties. “I’m not seeing as many students as I normally would because they aren’t here as much, and that’s concerning,” Ozaki said.
“But I do hear from parents who are concerned because they can’t motivate their kids to do their school work. They are also concerned about their kids’ connections to others as well as their behaviors. I think one of the problems is that there is no end in sight for the kids. There is nothing to look forward to.”
As the year 2020 reaches its conclusion, Virgin Valley High School Counselor Justin Ludvigson said he has seen the light of hope dimming in many of his students.
“Students are suffering from depression and anxiety,” Ludvigson said. “At least they had the hope that schools would re-open in January. Now, they see no end in sight, no hope. It is really hard on our seniors who have looked forward to sports and other activities. With no end in sight, some of them are working toward just graduating early so they can move on.”
The off-and-on nature of the hybrid model has even had an adverse effect on the younger segment of students.
“By this time of the school year, separation anxiety has usually been worked out,” said Grant Bowler Elementary School Counselor Robin LaFontaine. “This year, we are seeing so much anxiety with all ages of our students. They are here for two days and then home for three, plus the weekends. So there is no flow or stability that they can depend on.”
With all of the disappointment and isolation that is being placed on the shoulders of the youngsters, mental health professionals are concerned that the worst may be yet to come.
“School has always picked up the slack for struggling systems,” said Glen Horlacher who is a Licensed Mental Health Professional at Virgin Valley High School. “With the shutdowns, it has put a load on those struggling with deficits, such as lower-income and single-parent homes. School children are more worried than ever about things that are out of their control. Suicide rates are rising at an alarming rate. This is just the perfect storm, and there is no balance, no end in sight.”
Concerned about this worse-case prospect, Logandale parent Charlie Melvin, who is Director of Public Relations for the state-wide Power 2 Parent organization, reached out to the Clark County Coroner’s Office and the Southern Nevada Health District. She was looking for data on the suicide rate in CCSD since the beginning of the 2020 school year.
“It is difficult to get a totally accurate count since there are different categories of suicide, and the records get regularly updated,” Melvin said. “But we are quickly on our way to tripling last school year’s numbers.”
Melvin said that these kinds of indications do not reflect well on the current education system. “In many cases, (kids) have been in isolation and haven’t received the crucial services they need,” Melvin said. “As a public entity, CCSD must provide crucial services to help with personal living situations. Programs for Title I schools that serve the district’s most vulnerable students, Safe Key, and youth recreation programs are critical to students who have little or no home support. And with distance learning, CCSD is failing to do that.”
Meanwhile, experts on both the national and state level have long been urging local school districts to get kids back in school. The head of the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Dr. Anthony Fauci have voiced support for children being physically back in the classroom. They point to data that shows schools and child care centers are not major sources for the spread of the virus.
And Nevada Superintendent of Public Instruction Jhone Ebert has echoed that children deserve to be back in the classroom.
In a recent interview with regional news outlet 8 News Now, Ebert compared the CCSD to the Washoe School District. She said that Washoe, which has offered both distance learning and in-person classes; as well as a combination of the two; has had a smaller percentage of children ages 14 and under who have contracted COVID-19 compared to the CCSD which has stayed on lock-down.
“What that increasingly shows is that the best way to protect teachers and students isn’t to shut schools down,” Ebert said in the interview. “It is to focus on all the measures that will keep them and their families, friends, and their neighborhoods safe outside of the classroom.”
Despite all of this, there is no plan currently in place for re-opening CCSD schools to its more than 307,000 students.
