I Wrote A Letter to My Former School District

To whom it may concern,

Hi, My name is Zoe Frenchman and I was a DASD student up until I graduated from Downingtown East High School in June of 2021. As other students have previously emphasized, I am no longer one of your students so there is essentially no reason that I should be writing you this letter. However, I care and it seems as if you do not. From the moment I walked into East my first day of freshman year, I knew I was going to struggle. And I did. A lot.

We had our district and school’s first suicide in September 2018, when I was a sophomore and the victim who unfortunately lost her life was only a freshman. I had previously tried to end my life for the first time via overdose my freshman year in January of 2018. I was sent to a partial hospitalization program through Mirmont. After a month of treatment there, I was ready to be discharged, and on my last day, I threw the most melodramatic tantrum for a 15 year old. I was so distraught about going back to school that I did everything in my power to ensure I’d stay at Mirmont longer. I would have done almost anything to avoid going back to my treacherous high school. I hated the school’s environment that much, I had no friends there, everyone there was mean and exclusive, and I felt like I had no support there. I was afraid to open up to any of the counselors or teachers out of fear of judgment and invalidation, and simply out of knowing nothing would change.

My sophomore year was the school year in which my severe and intense anorexia entirely consumed my body and mind, when I lost 40 pounds over the summer before the year started. I was basically on the verge of death multiple times due to starvation and malnutrition. The school had hardly any knowledge on the subject and it was difficult for them to support me when they did not even understand how my brain operated. I was first sent to inpatient treatment at Brandywine Hospital in October 2018 after being deemed medically unstable by multiple doctors. I left there against medical advice due to getting sick and losing more weight because of it. So I left there even sicker. I was cold, weak, and quite frankly I thought I was going to die and I felt like there was nothing I could do about it. The school stuck me in SAILS when I returned, same thing when I returned from Mirmont. Those teachers always made me uncomfortable, I felt bombarded and pressured to focus on school when my brain was not even functioning properly, and I felt extremely overwhelmed and anxious every time I walked in that room. But that was the school’s only transitional solution. Their only solution to students returning from intense treatment is to get aggressive teachers, who believe academics will somehow distract the students from their struggles, to work with them. At least that is how I always felt. I have spoken to multiple students and former students who have been involved in SAILS, and every one of them has had a negative experience. My friend Julia Unger, who graduated with me, was in the SAILS room in fall 2018, and as she was having a meltdown over stress, the teacher continued to discuss her grades and schoolwork with her, and then proceeded to tell her she should look into alternative schools, simply because she was struggling. That is just one example of the approach they take.

You spent how much money on prom and how much on student mental health services? Check your priorities. Mental illness in teeangers is at a peak. According to the CDC, “More than 1 in 3 high school students had experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in 2019, a 40 percent increase since 2009. In 2019, approximately 1 in 6 youth reported making a suicide plan in the past year, a 44% increase since 2009.” Clearly there is a national epidemic. The school’s mental health department is an unfortunate failure. Out of the students I’ve spoken to, most of them, if not all, do not feel entirely comfortable opening up to counselors or prevention specialists. In fact, most students do not even know there is a prevention specialist, let alone two of them at East. And even if they were informed of that, I highly doubt they would be speaking to them voluntarily. Coming from a recently-graduated person, I know many high school students are afraid to be open. And many individuals who choose to be themselves and not care how others perceive them are often considered “weird” and are often subject to bullying.

Bullying is a whole other issue the school district has addressed poorly. Bullying can be a major contributing factor to one’s mental health. When a person is being bullied, they’re not going to be in the best mental state. I have been bullied, physically and verbally, and that kind of horrible, indescribable feeling is just so painful. A major aspect of the suicide epidemic is bullying. From what I have heard, many of the students who lost their lives to suicide were being bullied. The main focus of this is the mental health epidemic and the school district’s failure to take a proper approach to find a solution, but bullying needs to be addressed as well.

When we had our district’s first suicide, our school’s principal decided to announce her death over the loudspeaker. They never did that again, but I found that insensitive and triggering. I remember sitting in my English class, I did not even personally know the student, and I just had this overwhelming feeling of anxiety and grief. Then there was a trickle effect. We had a student my age pass away from suicide in January 2019. Again, I did not know him personally but I felt that same feeling of anxiety and grief when I heard about it via an email from the school. I was already struggling with my own mental health issues at the time and was hospitalized for my anorexia a second time in February 2019. The only person I remember accommodating and advocating for me was my chemistry teacher. She helped me out so much, Kerri Crompton is a blessing. But the counseling department, not so much. The transition back to school was very difficult after returning from two months of inpatient treatment. I did not feel supported at school, in fact I did not even want to return to school at all. I was petrified of the judgment, the stares, the pity, the insensitive comments, and the bombarding I was prepared for. This was my sophomore year, only the beginning. Again, they stuck me in SAILS. I was required to do pointless tasks that did not help me at all, and fill out a childish contract every time I was there. I felt constantly belittled because I was struggling, but they still managed to throw the most intense pressure at me to focus on my academics when I could not even function properly. The school district’s academic, and for some athletic, pressure can really take a toll on the students’ mental health. Our school district is known for academic success. But it’s also known as a district with little mental health support. Social media also plays a role in young people’s mental health. Social media is spread so rapidly and anything posted online is out there forever. There have been so many instances of cyberbullying between students, and inappropriate use of social media in the schools.

In the end, the priority should be health and well-being over academics. You need to change the culture of the school. The district needs to be more supportive and inclusive. You need to find a better balance between mental health and education. The Downingtown Area School District does not do everything in their power to ensure the students’ safety and health. Many students are not going to be open with the faculty simply because of the reputation the district has– unsupportive, unhelpful, and too stubborn to change. I believe this trickle down effect regarding suicide is only going to worsen if the district does not start taking this seriously. QPR training does nothing, sorry to tell you.

Thank you for your time,

Zoe Frenchman