These Teens Saw How Poor Mental Health Hurt Their Peers. So They Got a Law Passed.
April 23, 2018
By: Debbie Truong
Source: The Washington Post
Lucas Johnson’s résumé is characteristic of any high-achieving high school senior.
There’s the raft of Advanced Placement classes, a dozen during his four years at Monticello High School in Virginia’s Albemarle County. There are the extracurriculars — tutoring and Model United Nations and student council and cross-country.
During his junior year, there was the stress that accompanied all of it — stress that, at times, made him ask: “What is the point of all of this?” The 18-year-old witnessed distress among his peers, too — troubling Facebook and Instagram posts, bullying that went unaddressed, students without a place to turn.
So Johnson and two other Albemarle County students, Alexander Moreno and Choetsow Tenzin, sought to fix that. They lobbied for more mental health resources in their schools before setting their aim higher: a law requiring mental health instruction for Virginia’s ninth- and 10th-graders.
The legislation…