U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona speaks with reporters during a visit at Spring Valley High School Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., listens at right. The visit was part of a two-day tour of Vegas schools to talk pandemic recovery.
Friday, Feb. 25, 2022 | 2 a.m.
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona visited Las Vegas schools on Thursday to hear from students about the setbacks in learning they faced during the school closures brought on by the pandemic.
“These last couple of years have been pretty rough, right?” he asked a biology class at Spring Valley High School during a break in a lesson on decoding DNA.
“Yeah,” class members said, trailing off.
But they’ve been resilient, Cardona told them, and that’s inspiring.
Cardona came to Las Vegas from Washington, D.C., to see what schools need, academically and socially, in the post-lockdown era. At Spring Valley, he focused on mental health.
A panel of students told him and Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., how counselors and teachers reached out regularly when school was online last year. But it was still difficult.
Nykita Rustad, a senior, said one of the best ways to cope with the isolation was through the Hope Squad, a peer-led suicide prevention program. The group continues to connect with students who need emotional support.
Nykita said making connections was still challenging. Nathan Alemeseged, the senior class president, said his peers had a tough time opening up and don’t seem as comfortable at school as they used to be.
Sophomore Alijah Adem, who plays basketball, and junior Madeline Virissimo, who plays soccer, said sports were important for them socially.
Senior Miguel Torres, who is part of the Japanese club and the public service society, said activities gave students a safe space.
“School for a lot of people is where students go to express themselves… to feel included,” he said. “After a year of online school and all of the extracurriculars being put to the side, reestablishing that and rebuilding that is a really, really big challenge.”
Students utilized a simple, color-coded online screening system to let staff know how they were feeling. If they rated themselves yellow or red, a counselor reached out — to the surprise of some students, said Principal Tara Powell.
Alemeseged said he used to think counselors were just doing a job, but during distance learning he felt their concern was real. Virissimo said her “COVID year” history teacher, whom she only knew through a laptop, now greets her in the halls.
Natalie McLintock, one of Spring Valley’s eight counselors, said having at least one licensed therapist on campus would be ideal for situations that go beyond counselors’ jobs, which are wide-ranging and also include college and career readiness. Colleague John Tyler agreed.
“Teachers, admin, even us counselors are pulled in so many directions,” he said. “The kids are coming in with a wide range of issues that weren’t there two years ago. The pandemic brought them out.”
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The education secretary’s visit comes about two weeks after Rosen and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, introduced the bipartisan Youth Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Act, which would direct federal funding to K-12 schools for mental health promotion and suicide prevention efforts.
The funding is available for colleges and universities, but not for younger students. President Joe Biden also made doubling the number of counselors and other mental health professionals in schools a campaign promise.
“We want to be sure that you’re OK and we’re here today to listen,” Rosen told the students. “We want you to know that we see you, we hear you, we’re here for you and we have your back.”
Cardona said schools needed to be open and students needed to catch up academically after the pandemic closings. He said it was clear that relationships also mattered.
“Reopening is the baseline. We need to do better. Our schools moving forward have to be better; our students deserve it, our parents deserve it,” he said. “We’ve gone through a lot as a country. We have (pandemic relief) funding now, we have strong leadership here. We know that providing mental health supports is a bigger part of education moving forward.”
