At 8:05 a.m. a student ran into a classroom in tears, spoke with an educator until the bell, then went to first period no longer wanting to go home and more prepared to learn. In 2024, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles hired and trained 16 health educators to expand the Wellbeing Center project, bringing mental and sexual health services to public high school campuses. Educators staffed more than 20 centers with plans to reach 50. Wellbeing Center classrooms operated with open doors four days a week, offering students passes to access trusted adults, resources, information and nonjudgmental listening. Students disclosed issues including assault, suicidal thoughts, cheating, exam anxiety, bullying, and family crises.
In 2024, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles hired and trained 16 health educators to expand the Wellbeing Center project, a program designed by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to bring mental and sexual health services to public high school students right on their campuses. I was in that new cohort of educators, working with others to staff more than 20 centers at L.A. high schools, with plans to expand to 50 in the coming years.
I know critics of such programs think students shouldn't get to take mental health breaks at school because it isn't what happens in the "real" world. They miss the point. Wellbeing Centers are about what the world could be like. They are places where young people have agency to ask questions without fear, where they find mentors who don't grade or discipline them, where they can practice self-regulating their emotions instead of cutting class and storming off campus.
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