CPR:
This is the first installment in CPR's series Teens Under Stress, a months-long examination of the pressures adolescents are under and what can be done about it.
On a chilly May night last spring, hundreds of teens crammed into the entrance of Highlands Ranch High School. The kids, sad and angry, were there for a memorial for a teen killed in a school shooting less than a week prior. And in an instant, all their emotions about that night, about what their lives are like, about the help they’re not getting, came out in a chant:
“Mental health!” they cried. “Mental health! Mental health!”
It was chilling. It was deep anguish. This group of teens demanded attention be paid to their frustrations. Their stories about what school’s like, the pressure they’re under, how they see the world – poured out.
