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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by High School Sophomore and Youth Leader of Circle Keepers, on Mental Health Support in Schools
6:15:05
·
179 sec
A high school sophomore and youth leader shares her personal struggle with mental health issues and emphasizes the critical importance of mental health support in schools. She credits therapy, social workers, and guidance counselors for helping her overcome severe depression and suicidal thoughts.
- She advocates for baseline funding for the mental health continuum in schools to help students who are struggling in silence.
- She argues that providing students with necessary mental health interventions will help build a stronger future.
- The testimony highlights the life-saving potential of accessible mental health resources in educational settings.
High School Student
6:15:05
afternoon, chair Joseph.
6:15:09
My name is Keira Healy.
6:15:11
I'm here as a high school sophomore and as a youth leader of the Circle Keepers, a nonprofit organization devoted to restorative justice opportunities expressed through art and music.
6:15:24
I'm also here to talk about something personal, something that I let linger in me for far too long.
6:15:31
For the past five years, I had to deal with the most traumatic events in my small life.
6:15:39
The COVID pandemic, the high rates of suicide in youth, and slut shaming and sexual abuse in eighth grade.
6:15:47
But even before those events, I had to go through over a decade of being manipulated and dealt with severe trust issues because I didn't feel comfortable in my own home.
6:15:59
And during those times, I contemplated some ideations, the best choice of word.
6:16:08
I contemplated them for years, and they were bad enough to the point where every time I headed to school, I thought of tripping off of the train station platforms and letting the train splatter me all over the rails.
6:16:22
To the point where I wanted to run into the middle of the street and let my body get crushed against the pavement.
6:16:31
And so when I was given therapy in 2021, I was finally given some kind of hope.
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I thank the therapists who helped me throughout the past four years, to social workers who made me feel comfortable in my school, and to the guidance counselors who encouraged me to believe in my future.
6:16:54
If it weren't for them, I would have been six feet underground four years prior to today.
6:17:01
For years, I wished I wasn't given such high expectations from the people I grew up with.
6:17:07
I wished I didn't tire myself to the point where my bones hurt just to make one person proud.
6:17:14
I didn't I wish I didn't plummet my self esteem to the core of the earth just to lift up someone else's.
6:17:21
And because of the therapists, social workers, counselors, and mental health clinics we have, I'm sitting here testifying today.
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I hope by sharing my story, I motivate someone else who is struggling to ask for help.
6:17:37
If every school had the support I have, less children won't have to struggle in silence, which is why we need to baseline the funding for the mental health continuum in our schools.
6:17:50
If we give students the mental health they need, the mental health interventions they deserve, we will help our future grow stronger.
6:18:00
We can give them the chance at life they deserve to have.
6:18:04
Thank you.