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Ohio's public schools serve 1.6 million children - 90 percent of students in the state! What happens in the classroom has impacts far beyond the walls of the K-12 school building or higher ed lecture hall. So, on behalf of the 120,000 members of the Ohio Education Association, we're taking a deeper dive into some of the many education issues facing our students, educators, and communities. Originally launched in 2021 as Education Matters, Public Education Matters is your source for insightful conversations with the people who shape the education landscape in Ohio. Have a topic you'd like to hear about on Public Education Matters? Email us at educationmatters@ohea.org
Intro - Various members and students speaking 0:08
public Education Matters. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters because every student matters. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters because it is the foundation of our democracy. Public Education Matters because we are stronger when we speak in one voice. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters. This is Public Education Matters, brought to you by the Ohio Education Association.
Katie Olmsted 0:41
Welcome back to Public Education Matters. I'm Katie Olmsted. And I'm part of the communications team for the Ohio Education Association, and the 120,000 public school teachers, education support professionals and higher ed faculty members OEA represents across the state. On September 30th, thousands of those members came together at four regional rallies to celebrate the first ever Public Education Matters Day in Ohio. We'll have a lot more on that in just a moment. But first, we're taking a deeper dive into something else that brings just about every educator in Ohio together. That is the call for greater mental health supports for students and educators in our public schools. We're looking at a real crisis here in Ohio. But initiatives like On Our Sleeves through Nationwide Children's Hospital, are also continually offering new and better tools to help educators support the students they care so much about. OEA has been proud to sponsor the Celebrity Softball Classic to support On Our Sleeves for the last three years. But we wanted to learn more about it, and how it can help educators around the state. So we asked Dr. Ariana Hoet to join us for this episode. She's the Executive Clinical Director of On Our Sleeves, and is the driving force behind its mission of providing educational resources that break stigmas, increasing mental health literacy, and supporting children's mental health.
Katie Olmsted 2:17
Dr. Ariana Hoet, thank you so much for joining us for this episode of the podcast and talking about such an important topic, especially for all of the educators we're working with children around the state right now. What can you tell me about what you're hearing about, "Are the kids all right?"
Dr. Ariana Hoet 2:36
Yeah, it's a great question. Kids' mental health has been something that we're we've been worried about. Even pre pandemic. I think a lot of people think about the pandemic and how things made kids so stressed or sad. But even before the pandemic, the CDC released data that was collected from 2009 to 2019. So for 10 years, we have this data that showed depression was increasing, anxiety was increasing, thoughts of suicide were increasing in children. So we were already worried. And then of course, the pandemic made that worse. And we know that. We saw increases in emergency room visits for things like depression, suicide, eating disorder, substance use. So as you can imagine, that's, of course impacting the classroom. We can't learn and show up as our best selves unless our mental health as well. So we are hearing from teachers and educators that it's getting in the way of learning. And they often don't know what to do about it. I know it's a problem, but I don't have the training to respond to this situation in the class.
Katie Olmsted 3:44
And that's where on our sleeves is a good resource for those educators. Right?
Dr. Ariana Hoet 3:48
Right, exactly. So we do quite a lot for teachers and educators. We have classroom curriculums that vary depending on what the teacher is looking for. We do mostly focus on elementary-aged children. But for example, we have a partnership with Go Noodle, where we create fun videos that talk about emotions and coping tools and relationship building. And then with those videos come a curriculum that both the teacher and the parents can download, to kind of implement whatever is being discussed in the video. And so our goal is never to make the teacher a therapist. They have their job already. They can't do someone else's job, also. Our goal is really to think upstream. What are the things that we can do with students in the classroom that helped build protective factors that help them be more resilient, that help me as a teacher respond to what I'm seeing. And then if I am worried, how do I reach out to the parent? How do I have that conversation? How do I find help for that child? So our curriculums like the Go Noodle curriculum, we have some On our website, if you go to onoursleeves.org, and search educators, you'll find quite a few curriculums on those kinds of skill building protective factors, ways to talk about emotion, ways to take breaks in the class. And they're all free. So teachers can access those right now.
Katie Olmsted 5:18
Ohio Education Association is a proud supporter of On Our Sleeves, we sponsor the summer Softball Classic to help promote and to support this program, because we know how important it is for our mental health to be treated just like physical health for students. If we're not meeting their their needs, they can't learn in our classrooms. How did On Our Sleeves get started?
Dr. Ariana Hoet 5:46
Yeah, that's a great question. So we started in 2018. We'll be celebrating our fifth year in October. And at the time, we really started as a campaign. It was to bring awareness because again, if we think pre-pandemic days, not a lot of people were talking about children's mental health, whether it's because of the stigma, or a lot of people simply thinking, kids don't have a reason to be sad, or kids don't have a reason to be stressed and kind of dismissing mental health as an adult thing. And so On Our Sleeves was started really to bring awareness to break stigmas. But then the pandemic happened, and we had to quickly shift to supporting and creating resources. So our current mission is to give free evidence-informed resources to every community in the US to help people understand and promote the mental health and wellness of children. So again, we're really thinking upstream, what are those skills? Like you said, exactly like physical health, we know you need to eat your veggies and exercise to be physically healthy. What do you need to do to be mentally healthy? And we're mostly talking to adults, we're talking to the teachers, the parents or caregivers, coaches, anyone with a child in their life to help them feel empowered to support the children in their lives.
Katie Olmsted 7:05
What has the response to this program been like so far? I assume it's just been growing and growing and growing.
Dr. Ariana Hoet 7:12
Yes, so quickly. We're very proud. You know, we started in central Ohio. Our experts are behavioral health experts are all Nationwide Children's Hospital behavioral health. But we have a national reach. We've been downloaded in all 50 states. Last year, we were we reached over 6 million people. So we're really proud that while our experts are here, we're able to reach people all over the US and really have that national footprint.
Katie Olmsted 7:44
What are the challenges of working in the children's mental health space right now?
Dr. Ariana Hoet 7:49
Oh, that's a great question. I think one of the things that that is a motivation for me and why I joined On Our Sleeves as a psychologist is that we see that we talk a lot about the crisis. We're worried about kids. But we have to move on from that conversation. We all are aware, okay, kids are not doing well. What next? What do we do about it? And as a psychologist, I know that our field, the mental health field has a lot of the answers. And it's frustrating to me that those answers are staying in academic journals, academic conferences, and it's not making it out to the community. And so that's why we do what we do. We're trying to translate the science, make it accessible, get it out to people, make it seem not scary to engage with. Because we, again, we do know a lot of the solutions. We just have to start getting them out. And so that's kind of the narrative we're trying to shift. And then of course, a huge, huge challenge is the stigma, the willingness for families and, and people to engage with the content. Because a lot still feel like, Oh, that's not something for me to worry about with my child or not something I want people to know that I'm struggling with.
Katie Olmsted 9:15
What would you say to the families who are saying, Well, it's because we're talking about it so much. Like, 'no one was depressed back in my day,' because but now, now that you bring the word depression into the room, these kids are saying they're depressed, and they have no idea. How do you how do you combat that sort of attitude towards this?
Dr. Ariana Hoet 9:33
Yeah, we hear it all the time. And, you know, it is partially true that once you give someone the language and the words to talk about it, they're gonna talk about it more. What we see, though, is there are certain behaviors, that we're seeing an increase in that that doesn't have to do with whether we're talking about it more, right. So I mentioned the emergency department visits. We are seeing more kids with self harm behaviors and suicidal thoughts, eating disorder, substance use, those are all outward behaviors. It's not just that we're giving kids the language, they are showing us to that, that they're having a hard time. I personally love that the younger generation is talking about it more, they seem to have less of a stigma. They share that they go to therapy. I've had kids bring their friends to therapy, which really surprised me, I didn't know what to do at first, my patient walking in with a friend. Or they'll tell me, you know, I told my friend, that skill you taught me last week, and now we do it together. And so there's so much more open about it. And I think that's wonderful. You know, we again, we often talk about our, our physical health openly, so why not talk about our mental health in this way?
Katie Olmsted 10:51
And not to dwell on the crisis? Like, like you were mentioning, but what do you think is leading to this increase in in those ER visits and all of that?
Speaker 3 11:04
Yeah, it's a great question. You know, the Surgeon General, in the end of 2021, declared children's mental health a public health crisis. And he has a report that beautifully outlines all of the factors that impact a child's mental health. And if you think about a child in the middle of a circle, you have their individual characteristics. So their genetics, their personality, their coping ability, but then it goes from there. Their family environment, what's going on at home. What's What are family stressors? What are the parent/child relationships? Then you go bigger. What's happening at school? And how are they feeling at school? Do they belong? Do they have friends? How are they treated by the teachers? What's that school system in general? Are they able to learn well? And then you keep going from there, you have community neighborhoods. And it goes all the way up to our public policies, our laws, all of that impacts children. So it's hard to answer, because it's not just one thing. It's all of those things. And they interact differently for each person. But we - his call to action was, we all have to take action within the family unit, all the way to technology companies, to our policy makers, everyone has a role to play in this mental health crisis.
Katie Olmsted 12:28
And for educators, they know, you know, that partnership between the educator and the parent is so important in supporting the student academically. How important is it in supporting them with their mental health as well?
Dr. Ariana Hoet 12:41
Oh my gosh, it's so important. You know, kids spend most of their day at school, right? And, again, their experience within the school and their systems really impacts how they feel. And he has, the Surgeon General has a whole area about schools and talking about how do you respond to misbehavior? Right? What are your rules? Because one of the things he calls out is inequitable response based on kids' race, and background and ethnicity. So we have to look at that, again, making sure that kids feel included. And then there's all this research that shows for example, that teacher and student relationship can really, really make a difference in a child and how they feel about themselves. And that's what we're really trying to get at with our curriculums at On Our Sleeves. For example, we just released resources on belonging, and how the way a teacher interacts with with a student can really help them feel like they belong in the classroom. And belonging in the classroom is a huge protective factor to their mental health. Even during the pandemic, we found that there was, of course, a lot of negative impacts and outcomes to mental health for kids, but if they felt like they belonged, that was one of the things that led to a kid being okay. So teachers have a lot of power.
Katie Olmsted 14:08
What are some of the things that we need to be doing in our schools right now to help address this crisis? Obviously, we've been advocating for more mental health supports in our school, more mental health, more mental health professionals in our school. What do you think is needed?
Dr. Ariana Hoet 14:29
Yeah, I mean, again, it one of the first things that the surgeon general highlights is that creating that inclusive environment looking at our systems or our disciplinary policies, but then at the teacher level, we're talking about giving them the training that they're that they need and that they're asking for, right? And again, not not that they need to become therapists but just knowing how do I talk about emotions with my students? How do I know how mental health shows up in the classroom, how do I know how to create those protective factors and build skills. And so whether it's trainings or the curriculums like we provide, it's increasing that access for teachers and support to them in what they're facing, because they're really the front lines a lot of the times when it comes to mental health. And then of course, yes, we want to integrate more mental health professionals into the schools. We want to think about early intervention. And so it's, again, a whole system and a lot of things that we can do to support kids.
Katie Olmsted 15:37
Now, I do want to go back to one of the things, again, what's leading to this crisis? I don't want to dwell on it so much, but it is, when you're thinking about the timeline of when we've seen this increase, it's hard not to imagine social media has played a role in the rise of these issues. Is that something that the research is is also supporting?
Dr. Ariana Hoet 16:03
Yeah, it's interesting, because the research hasn't caught up. We at this time, don't have anything that says, outright social media is harmful for kids. It really varies depending on the child and their risk factors and their environment. How are they using social media? Right, so it really, really varies. I do appreciate that this past year, both the AAP so the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Surgeon General did release guidelines. And one of the things the Surgeon General said, which I loved was, we haven't proven that it's harmful; we also haven't proven that it's safe. And that that really clicked for me. I'm like, Yeah, that's true. Like we keep saying it's not harmful, and we keep moving forward. But wait, is it safe? Why are we allowing kids to do something that we don't know, it's safe either. So we definitely know it has impacted children. We definitely know that kids who are at risk, are then more at risk if they're exposed to social media - social comparison, not doing other activities in real life, because they're on social media, bullying, exposure to hate language. I mean, you name it, right? There is a lot of risks. There's also the ability to connect and be creative. And you know, a lot of teens love it for the citizenship piece of it, like being able to know what what are current events, and what can I get involved in. And so it really depends on the conversations happening at home, the limits, the boundaries that we're setting, and teaching children how to use it safely. The same way we talk about safe driving and drinking and different topics like that, we have to start talking about social media in that way.
Katie Olmsted 18:00
That is excellent advice there. If you could say one thing to the educators who are sort of on the frontlines of of this crisis, what would you tell them?
Dr. Ariana Hoet 18:10
You know, I, you brought this up earlier, educators can't do it alone. It takes a village, right. So definitely viewing yourself as part of a team in this child's life, working with the parents, working with school counselors, if they're available, school staff, to support the child. One of our curriculums that we created in partnership with an organization called First Book has a whole area that talks to teachers about how do I have the conversation with a parent? What are the things I should say? What are the things I should avoid? So really, it's you're not in it alone. And again really reminding educators that they do have the ability to change a child's trajectory by building these protective factors. But we have to start early. We don't want to wait until we're worried about a kid.
Katie Olmsted 18:10
Dr. Hoet, you've mentioned a few resources already, but are there other resources for educators out there?
Dr. Ariana Hoet 18:20
Yes, absolutely. So I shared go noodle. I shared our education curriculums. We also have a listserv. So when you go and download one of our curriculums, you are able to sign up for the listserv, or you can go to onoursleeves.org and subscribe and click that you're an educator. And so we will send out emails whenever we have a new resource available for teachers. So I mentioned, we just released Belonging so our teachers got that email saying hey, here's how you increase belonging in the classroom. Back to School we'll have conversation starters to get to know your students. So it's really focused on skills and strategies for for teachers to implement in the class.
Katie Olmsted 19:56
And it does sort of serve as a reminder that this is an evolving con versation there will be more to add to this conversation and more resources as we all continue to work together on this.
Dr. Ariana Hoet 20:08
Absolutely. We're constantly surveying our community, especially your teachers, trying to understand what they need and what they're seeing in the class. So we are always adding new resources in response to that experience.
Katie Olmsted 20:23
Dr. Ariana Hoet, thank you so much.
Dr. Ariana Hoet 20:26
Thank you.
Katie Olmsted 20:31
As a reminder, the links to the resources Dr. Hoet mentioned and others are in the show notes for this episode. At the end of the day, mental health supports matter because public Education Matters. It's the thing that unites us and the key to unlocking the full potential of every child, without exception. OEA members have dedicated their lives and careers to helping shape their students lives and opening a world of possibilities for each one. And OEA wanted to say, thank you. That's why OEA was so happy to host four rallies on September 30, at the Columbus Zoo, Toledo Zoo, Cleveland Zoo and the Newport Aquarium to bring thousands of educators and their families together to celebrate the first ever Public Education Matters Day in our state. Listen to what OEA Vice President Jeff Wensing and told the crowd at the Columbus celebration about the meaning of the day and what makes this day so meaningful.
Jeff Wensing 21:39
Let's start this off by if you are a current educator, a member of the Higher Education Association, if you are an aspiring educator member, basically an OEA retired member, or please stand by let's recognize you please stand up. So I was supposed to have mentioned that we have some challenges in education. And sometimes it seems like we're under attack, especially from some members of the Senate like Matt Hoffman, who wants universal vouchers and build more private schools. But I want to accentuate more on the positive. So I'm talking about legislators and our reality in Ohio. Even though that we were challenged with that situation, we have built relationships on both sides of the aisle. And we were able to get some significant wins for public education in the recent budget. So like, for example, we got a continuation of the Fair School Funding Plan. For years and years and years, the way we've funded schools is unconstitutional. Well, we started to end that. So with one more budget, we will fully implement the Fair School Funding Plan with the next General Assembly, but this current General Assembly passed the implementation. And because of the way we advocated for the formula for it to be funded, for the next two years, we will have an extra $1 billion for public education. That's something to celebrate! We were able to raise the minimum teacher salary, it's now the law, to $35,000. We have 747 locals in OEA. And that affects roughly 70 locals. And you can imagine that there are 70 locals out there where the starting teacher salary isn't $35,000. That's amazing. We are going to continue to advocate for our ESP members. We have a report coming or Well, I'm sure there'll be some salary recommendations for ESP members as well. Also added to the budget, we were able to get - you know there are free and reduced lunch? Well the kids that are getting reduced lunch now getting free breakfast, and lunch as well. Like we got about another $9 million. So that's a big deal that that hungry kids do not learn as well as well fed kids. So that's a big deal. And if we have third grade teachers in the room, we were able to get that retention, that mandatory retention piece under the third grade reading guarantee removed. So now you can promote third graders. It doesn't eliminate retention. If the team of educators and parents think that that student needs to be retained, that still exists. But generally research shows that promote those kids with him intense intervention and support will catch them up, keep them with their peers. So those are some big wins. Also a couple of more our brothers and sisters in Youngstown were able to settle their strike for 18 days they ran a strike. They got a fair contract, proving that this takeover, state takeover of schools does not work. We're getting our schools out of that range already out. We got pathways for Youngstown and East Cleveland to get out. And we crushed the No vote on Issue One in August that special election. Our efforts overwhelmingly voted no. For us it was about protecting school funding. And if it comes to a constitutional amendment with their legislative maps if you notice the news lately that has been introduced as well. So as we navigate our way through the political waters here in Columbus, I mentioned that we have friends on both sides of the aisle, Republicans, Democrats, so much so - a little bit more in the House that we do in the Senate, I have to say - we were able to get a fabulous proclamation from the Ohio House of Representatives that I'd like to read to you at this time. So, again, sponsored by Alison Russo, who is the Minority Leader in the House. "We are pleased to recognize the Ohio Education Association as they observed the 30th of September 2023 as Ohio Public Education Matters Day, and whereas the existence of a strong effective system of free public education for all children in Ohio is essential to our democratic system of government; Whereas a commitment to quality education requires involvement with and support of educators, parents, students, and the general public and this General Assembly; Whereas the 1.6 million public school students of our state should be afforded high quality public education, regardless of their race, background, or zip code; And whereas Ohio's public educators and public schools, who serve the 1.6 billion public school students of our state should be held in high regard, reflecting the value that our state places on public education; And whereas members of the Ohio Education Association from Central, North Central, and Southeastern Ohio on the 30th of September 2023, join thousands of Ohio Education Association public school educators and their families across the state to celebrate public education in Ohio; Now, therefore, be it resolved that we recognize the 30th of September 2023, as Public Education Matters Day in Ohio, and applaud public educators in public schools in Central North Central Southeastern Ohio for their efforts to ensure the 1.6 million students will receive a high quality public education, no matter their race, background, or zip code from a trusted qualified educator who is committed to helping every child reach their full potential." Thank you, Ohio House of Representatives! So we have representatives from Central over at this table. North Central at this table and Southeastern at this table, thank you for all the tchotchkes and support of this event. You probably know that we have similar events going across the state today at the Cleveland Zoo, and the Toledo zoo also, and then the Cincinnati area at the Newport Aquarium, which I believe is in Kentucy, but we're working on that. It is our intent to continue having events such as this as we move forward. We're going to continue to talk to our legislators about honoring the Day each year celebrating public education. So this is a day to celebrate you, your students, and the work that you get done in your community who support you. I know we have levee season coming up and school board races. And it's important to get out there and support those in your local schools. Because those community members really do want to support the work that you're doing. You have huge numbers when it comes to popularity and support what you do. It's in the 88th percentile. Sometimes we lose track of the community. All we hear is from people who complain all the time. The people that complain have louder voices; the people that are happy, don't like to stand up and say much, but we do a lot of polling, your approval rating, like I said it is over the 88th percentile, off the charts, so don't forget that. So in closing, I just want to thank you one more time for what you do for your students here in this area and all of our educators across Ohio. Have a great day and thank you for being here.
Katie Olmsted 29:17
Of course even with Public Education Matters Day behind us, public education matters every single day of the year. And we're keeping the conversation about why public education matters going here on this podcast. New episodes drop every other Thursday, but you can connect with us anytime. Email me at educationmatters@oea.org Or check out OEA's social media pages. We're @OhioEA On Facebook, Instagram and X. Until next time, stay well. And remember, in Ohio, Public Education Matters.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai