Having to deal with school shootings is just one of the factors taking a toll on teachers' mental health.
2022 Nebraska Teacher of the Year Lee Perez holding his first child, his daughter Natalia, after she was born in Omaha, Nebraska.Dr. Christine Crawford, associate medical director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said that exposure to horrific events like the Uvalde shooting "can elicit symptoms that are consistent with a trauma response, almost."
Irma Garcia, a 4th Grade Teacher at Robb Elementary, was killed in the school shooting on May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas.Benavides says he's taking it "day-by-day." But Perez, his state's first Latinx and English as a Second Language recipient of the top teacher honor, said the shooting in Uvalde also hit close to home.
"It really adds to that anxiety that has been brought on by all the stuff that's happened two years ago," Perez said. "As educators, we always tell families, communities and our students, 'you are safe at school,' but then this happens, and then the question becomes, well, 'are students safe at school? Is anybody safe at school?'"
Experts have been monitoring the effects of the pandemic on the mental health of Americans over the last two years. Since April 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been documenting self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression, using. These metrics, compared with similar data collected in 2019, show a dramatic increase in symptoms.
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