It’s school spirit week at Mountain Heritage High School in Yancey County. Students are dressed in pajamas and funky hats. Teachers are wearing Disney character costumes. Neon red and green campaign posters for the homecoming court emblazon the walls.
But despite all these fun and familiar high school traditions, things feel “eerie to everyone right now,” observed Sarah Laws, an earth and environmental science teacher.
That's because last year’s spirit week, held in late September, was interrupted as Hurricane Helene began its approach up the Blue Ridge Escarpment.
As classes were canceled, Laws recalled, “Everyone kept saying, ‘What are we going to do about homecoming? Are we gonna finish spirit week?’”
Homecoming quickly became the least of their worries when the storm thrashed the region with landslides, flooding and widespread utility outages. Students and teachers shifted to a month-long state of survival mode. Some of the unluckiest kids lost homes and loved ones. All told, students across the region missed weeks, and in some cases, months of school. Mountain Heritage students, along with the rest of Yancey County, missed more classes than anyone else.
A year later, the posters and costumes, while spirited, serve as a reminder of all that’s happened in the wake of Helene, Laws said.
“We've been through a lot. And it still continues,” she said.
“And anytime that we have flood warnings, anytime that we think there's going to be strong rains, you can definitely feel it amongst the kids. They're anxious. They're worried,” Laws said.
For instance, some roads in the rural, mountainous area are still battered, resulting in some students taking hour-and-a-half bus rides to school. Other typical routes missing entirely.
“And anytime that we have flood warnings, anytime that we think there's going to be strong rains, you can definitely feel it amongst the kids. They're anxious. They're worried,” she added.
That reaction is not just happening at Heritage High. A year after Helene, students and teachers across Western North Carolina are wrestling with heightened mental health challenges, including anxiety and depression, sleep issues, aggression and substance use. In a region already short on school therapists, Helene-related mental health struggles are expected to span years, jeopardizing students’ grades and the longer trajectory of their lives.
Disaster-related absenteeism can affect test scores and worsen gaps in a student’s understanding, according to research from the Northwest Evaluation Association. For instance, middle schoolers who miss a week of school due to inclement weather actually lose out on the equivalent of three weeks of learning reading, and almost four weeks in math.
Dr. John Nicholls, chair of psychiatry and behavioral health for teh Mountain Area Health Education Center, oversees the medical nonprofit’s School Based Therapy program. The service operates in 50 schools across the region, offering free weekly therapy sessions for students.
Since Helene, MAHEC has received 1,280 new referrals — a 34% increase compared to last year — for post-disaster trauma, depression and anxiety, Nicholls said.
“It looks different for every kid,” Nicholls said. In some cases, they’ll worry about random things that seem unrelated to Helene but are rooted in the trauma of losing a home, a routine or a loved one. In other cases, depression can manifest as irritability or substance use, especially among older students.
“The things to look for could be nightmares, could be worry, even if they say they're not worried about anything related to the hurricane, maybe they're not. But it might have its roots in that tragedy, in that natural disaster,” he said.
“We also look for what we call externalizing behaviors. Kids acting out, doing things that are really out of character for them. Other simple things, at times, may be a lack of sleep, a lack of appetite, more apathy, sometimes feeling more withdrawn.”
‘Meltdowns and crying spells’
Savannah Jefferson, an eighth grader at Asheville Middle School, said she saw a big change among her classmates after Helene. Students were quieter, and more conflicts erupted.
“After the storm, it seemed like we didn't even like each other anymore,” she said. “Everybody was really low. Like you could visibly see everybody was hurting.”
A classmate, Abby Rodriguez, broke into tears when asked about how the storm affected her mental health.
“It did do something to me mentally, ‘cause it's like, I've never gone through it,” Rodriguez said. “You're never really prepared for it.”
“It did do something to me mentally, ‘cause it's like, I've never gone through it,” she said. “You're never really prepared for it.”
LeVette Campbell is the lead social worker for Asheville City Schools and serves at Asheville Middle School. In a recent interview with BPR, she had to pause in the middle to help a student through a “little altercation.”
“All right, well, come give me a hug,” she told the student before turning her attention back to the interview.
After taking a moment for a deep breath and gathering her thoughts, Campbell reflected on how the storm had affected students.
Like Nicholls, she’s seen big behavioral changes that stem from when Helene hit last year.
She also noted how, for many students, displacement and economic insecurity are still happening. Often, students are carrying some of the anxieties that are burdening their parents, who are dealing with smaller paychecks, fewer work hours and unstable living arrangements, she said.
“There are kids just having meltdowns and crying spells. Once you begin to process with them, it's really them being overwhelmed,” she said. “You know, ‘I'm scared that we're not going to have a place to stay,’ or ‘My mom's car broke down. She can't get any help. She's about to lose her job.’”
An uphill battle
After Helene, North Carolina received $9.7 million through FEMA to fund crisis counseling services for people impacted by the storm. State lawmakers approved an additional $5 million for mental health support at public schools, along with $1.25 million for community college students. The state granted also the Department of Health and Human Services around $35 million to support child care centers and individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Still, 16 school districts in the state have no full-time psychologists, according to the North Carolina School Psychology Association. That includes three counties in Western North Carolina: Cherokee, Mitchell and McDowell. Avery and Madison counties only have one full-time psychologist each.
Statewide, North Carolina is far above the recommended ratio of students per mental health worker, according to reporting from North Carolina Health Newsline. There is an average of one social worker for every 995 students. The recommended ratio is one for every 250. In April, the Trump administration’s Department of Education canceled hundreds of millions in grant funding that would have expanded the presence of mental health services in schools.
Campbell, the social worker at Asheville Middle School, put it simply: “We could use about three more of me.”
Outside of school, it can be more difficult to find a youth therapist, said Meredith Switzer, director of All Souls Counseling.
“There is a greater scarcity of practitioners to see young people under 18,” she said. “And the truth is, if you are a parent who has a child who has mental health needs, you can't afford to wait six months.”
Nicholls, the MAHEC Psychiatry Chair, says that the School-Based Therapy program offered by MAHEC and several other health organizations throughout the region helps fill a critical gap for students. Because the therapy happens during school hours, it makes regular counseling much more accessible for families.
But it’s still an uphill battle to reach everyone.
“In Western North Carolina, more rural parts of the state, we always have a shortage. Not just of psychiatrists but of therapists as well,” he said. “So I don't really know how to meet the need that is out there right now. I can only say there's always a big need and we're always doing our best to try to meet that need. It's a very hard thing to do.”
A $1 million grant from a private foundation is helping MAHEC expand its School Based Therapy program. This year, it’s expanding from 50 to more than 80 schools in Western North Carolina.
“We would like to expand even further to more remote areas north and west of us,” Nicholls said. “That costs money. So we will be continuing to look for resources and funds to be able to do that.”
‘They worry that this is going to be their lives’
Meanwhile, in the classroom, educators are doing their best to help equip their students with tools to navigate the mental, emotional, and systemic challenges they’ve faced since Helene.
Sometimes, it’s little things, like making the classroom more comfortable.
Laws, the environmental science teacher, fundraised about $7,000 to buy fidget toys to help the kids at her school self-regulate. In her classroom, there’s an eclectic lineup of items: wobble stools, meditation coloring books and chair bands. She even replaced the fluorescent lightbulbs.
“A lot of kids get headaches and things from the fluorescent bulbs,” she said.
She’s also trying a new “resilience curriculum” that was developed by Duke Marine Lab and North Carolina State University. It includes somatic exercises, like tapping, box breathing, and five-minute check-ins that help students ground themselves.
“So much of this generation, they don't even realize how much trauma they've been through, between COVID and this storm,” Laws said. “They need these tools and they need outlets more than they realize.”
“So much of this generation, they don't even realize how much trauma they've been through, between COVID and this storm,” Laws said. “They need these tools and they need outlets more than they realize.”
Many of her students express feelings of “climate doom,” Laws notes.
“They worry that this is going to be their lives from now on. Like this is going to be like Florida, and hurricanes are going to just happen all the time now,” she said.
“‘I constantly tell them, ‘You guys are the reason why I'm a teacher, because I know you guys are going to be the generation that makes a difference and changes things.’”
