Where’s the Class for Grief? Why Schools Must Make Healing Mandatory Kanika Cousine Read the original article on Afro https://afro.com/wheres-the-class-for-grief-why-schools-must-make-healing-mandator

Schools Treat Therapy Like an Add-On

In many schools, mental health is treated as an optional extra rather than a core necessity. A single school counselor might be assigned to 400 students or more. In some schools, there is no dedicated mental health staff at all. This is especially true in underserved communities, where schools are underfunded, resources are scarce, and students face higher rates of poverty, violence, and systemic neglect. The message is clear: you matter, but not enough to help.

We would never ask a student with a broken arm to carry the entire school day without accommodations. So why do we ask students with invisible wounds to push through and perform like nothing is wrong? Trauma sits in the back of the classroom. It walks through metal detectors. It takes notes while grieving. And when we ignore it, we fail every student forced to carry it alone.

Healing Should Be Part of the School Day

Mental health support should not be something a student must request. It should be a core part of their education. What would it look like if every student had access to therapy like they had access to math or science?

Imagine if public schools offered weekly one-on-one therapy or group healing circles as part of the curriculum. Imagine classrooms where emotional literacy is taught alongside English. Imagine trauma-informed teachers who know how to respond when a student is in distress rather than punishing them for acting out.

This is not a radical vision. It is a necessary one. In communities where trauma is common, especially in underserved schools, healing must be standard. Without it, students are left to navigate grief, instability, and systemic inequities alone.

Schools Must Become Spaces of Safety, Not Silence

Many students spend more time in school than anywhere else. If that space is not emotionally safe, then we are failing them. Youth drop out, not because they lacked intelligence or drive, but because no one ever stopped to ask how they were doing.

We expect students to prepare for their futures while ignoring what they carry in the present. We want them to focus on exams, but how can they concentrate when they are still mourning a friend who was killed just blocks from campus?

The truth is that we keep asking our kids to show up, to be strong, to achieve. But we are not showing up for them in return.

This is About Justice

Access to therapy is not a privilege. It is a right. In neighborhoods where youth are disproportionately impacted by violence, poverty, and systemic neglect, that right should be fiercely protected.

Education without healing is incomplete. It is unfair. It asks too much and gives too little. We cannot keep asking our students to survive what we are unwilling to address. We cannot keep building schools that ignore the pain of sitting quietly in every row.

It is time to build a new kind of classroom. One where healing is expected. One where therapy is built in. One where students are not punished for their trauma but supported through it.

No child should have to walk into a classroom the day after losing a friend and pretend nothing happened.

Because grief deserves a seat in the room.

Because healing should be mandatory