Proposed bill would make mental health education mandatory in Illinois secondary schools

CHICAGO (WGN) — There’s a mental health crisis for teens and young adults across the United States. Two suburban high schoolers are looking to the state to address the epidemic.

Abhinav Anne and Sai Ganbote are 17-year-old Illinois Math and Science Academy juniors. They helped draft HB2960, which would make mental health education mandatory in Illinois middle and high schools. Both joined WGN’s Evening News at 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 20, and say they have lived the crisis firsthand.

“I think something that we’re seeing on a day-by-day basis throughout middle and high schools is that education is unable to address this issue,” Anne said. “Bullying, anxiety, how to combat depression…we teach students how to recite tables and memorize every state and country on a map, but we’re not really teaching students these fundamental issues…we’re seeing this gap in knowledge.”

Ganbote spoke about the implementation options in schools should the bill pass the legislative process.

“First, a mandatory unit in [student’s] health classrooms or P.E. classrooms…and cross-curricular integration,” she said.

Illinois State Representatives Faver Dias and Lindsey LaPointe are primarily sponsoring the bill. Illinois State Reps Costa Howard and Gregg Johnson have also joined in co-sponsorship. 

A vote on the bill was expected to take place on Thursday, with a strong indication that it would most likely pass.

Watch the entire interview in the video player above.