Lecturer Emil Guillermo Addresses Student Mental Health

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

DIVERSE ISSUES IN HIGHER EDUCATION -- I’m still processing the coincidence of the noteworthy suicides of two rich and famous people and the release of new statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that say suicides grew at a 25-percent rate nationally from 1999 to 2016.

And then I thought about my students. I just finished teaching a class as an adjunct at San Francisco State University. Many of my students probably would have liked to have been Anthony Bourdain or Kate Spade, before last week.

So, of course, now I’m wondering if I missed any signs from any of my students this past semester.

At least three students, all students of color, talked to me about issues that they said required some treatment. No specifics were given. Remember, I’m an adjunct, not a doctor.

And, of course, they could’ve been looking for an excuse on a late paper.

But was it a muted cry for help?

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