Reported illnesses have tripled in some school districts. Experts say mental health is a factor
CBC
A child being mercilessly bullied in the schoolyard. A student with anxiety and ADHD who struggles to walk into a crowded, noisy classroom. A mortified teen who’s had an embarrassing photo shared with their entire grade.
Such experiences are common. For some kids, they make going to school feel impossible.
It’s called school avoidance, sometimes even school phobia. It happens when school does not feel safe and staying home becomes a form of self-protection.
It is one factor experts say is driving an increase in absenteeism that a CBC investigation has found is happening across the country.
The type of absence that increased the most were reported illnesses, which were up compared to five years ago in every district that tracked them. In some places, they more than tripled, even when increases in the number of students were factored in.
It’s something Toronto father and former school board trustee Norm Di Pasquale is very familiar with.
By the end of October, his 12-year-old son William had missed about 10 days of school. The reason?
“Bullies exist,” said William, sitting on his bed, which is covered in Squishmallows. Certificates of achievement are taped to his walls: for math, piano and a Virtue of the Month award for compassion.
“They’ll say, like, mean stuff,” William said in a quiet voice.
“Sometimes I'm like, ‘I don't care, okay, yeah, you said it.’ But sometimes it, like, kind of hurts.”
William points out he’s small for his age at four feet six inches. This, as well as a facial twitch, are two reasons William says he gets bullied in the schoolyard.
“It's hard to not twitch. I don't know how.”
His father, Norm, says the bullying is both verbal and physical.
“When these kinds of incidents happen, I'm pretty well guaranteed there's going to be an absence the next day.”
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