Rhode Island youth are facing a mental health crisis.

Feelings of despair have been on the rise among Rhode Island youth for a decade. Now, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, we’re seeing unprecedented levels of depression in our student body. In 2021, 38% of youth reported feeling sad or hopeless for over two weeks straight. Almost 10% of Rhode Island high schoolers reported attempting suicide.

Despite this, our schools remain understaffed and underresourced when it comes to mental health. Rhode Island is well above the nationally recommended ratio of students to psychologists, social workers, and counselors.

While the National Association of School Psychologists recommends a ratio of 250 students to 1 counselor, Rhode Island lags behind at 358 students to 1 counselor.

Meanwhile, the state continues to pour vast sums of funding into school police and other punitive systems, all of which act to further exacerbate our students’ mental health struggles. According to our survey of Providence youth, 72% of students feel unsafe with armed officers in schools. They’re made, says one student, to feel “like a criminal.” Students are unable to express “negative” emotions, such as anger and frustration, for fear of being read (and punished) as a troublemaker. This is especially true for BIack and brown boys, who are disproportionately affected by Rhode Island’s policing system.

This is why ARISE, along with several other Providence youth organizations, has launched the campaign #CounselorsNotCops. Together, we’re calling for the wholesale elimination of school resource officers and the redirection of funds into mental health supports. To find out more about our campaign and how to get involved, go to passpvd.org.