Rising Student Misbehavior in the Post-COVID Classroom: How to Handle it?

By Zainab Cheema 

After students returned to face-to-face classrooms following pandemic lockdowns, teachers noticed the effects of distance learning on their social emotional development. Student behavior referrals are climbing across colleges and K-12 schools. Social norms and civilities that we took for granted as part of the pre-pandemic classroom experience had to be explained and broken down for students. What is causing the rise in student misbehavior, and how do we solve it?

Mental Health in Higher Ed and K-12

Pandemic-related stressors are one factor. Dr. Tali Raviv, the associate director of the Center for Childhood Resilience at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, calls this tentative return to F2F a “a prolonged adjustment period.” Raviv observes that the high stress triggers the “survival” brain, leading to increased levels of adrenaline that can more easily set off outbursts in teens and children. Students experienced alongside their families, the effects of fear, anxiety, economic uncertainty, medical crises, and death. According to a Spring 2020 survey by Active Minds, over 80% of college students reported that COVID-19 has brough about increased isolation, loneliness, stress, and sadness into their lives. Unquestionably, students are still carrying additional mental and physiological burdens tied to COVID or COVID-related stressors. Educators are having to engage with such burdens that students are bringing back to physical learning spaces.   

Have we forgotten how to socialize?

Additionally, the past 18 months of social distancing means that students have either forgotten or simply haven’t learnt how to interact with one another. Institutions are reporting more conflict between students, as well as between students and their educators (this includes teachers, professors, lecturers, adjuncts, staff, coaches, and more). Developmentally, COVID lockdowns meant that teens and children are missing critical years of social emotional learning. In younger children, providers observe “delays in speech and language as well as trouble sharing and being in groups.” College and high school students are demonstrating increased levels of misbehavior or and low motivation for interpersonal interactions. One high school in Connecticut that had returned to F2F teaching temporarily returned to remote teaching because of student misbehavior. In his letter to parents of students at New Britain High School in Haverford, CT, Principal Damon Pearce explained that “we are hitting the refresh button and restarting the beginning of the school year” in order to “identify those students who are struggling” with school expectations and to “develop programming for them in preparation for a full return.”

Battlegrounds in Ed: Politics and Race

It’s not all due to COVID-related stress and isolation. Politics has something to do with this issue too. Specifically, the politicization of education through the recent furor over critical race theory and other topics. While discussion over what a public curriculum should or shouldn’t include is an ongoing one, the weaponization of certain branches of scholarship and research for short term political gain is not a beneficial outcome. Instead, it has led to increased distrust in a number of students and their families with institutions of learning. Conflicts between stakeholders in education who are from different racial, ethnic, and national backgrounds are growing. Schools and colleges are reflecting the United States’ sharpened political divisions, and this is having a negative impact on institutions’ ability to teach students key skills such as collaboration, interpersonal civility, and social emotional learning.

Solutions

Because I believe in exploring solutions alongside the issue, the question we now come to is what to do about this issue. Solution for COVID-related anxiety and stress are a bit more evident. Many schools and colleges are investing increased resources in therapy and counseling services for students. This includes expanded in-house counseling services, as well as contracts with telehealth and mental health online platforms and apps. Inside Higher Ed recently covered the campus-driven boom in virtual mental health services. “We’ve seen that a lot of schools are focusing more on their services and making sure that they have an offering for health and well-being such as telehealth and teletherapy,” said Seli Fakorzi, director of mental health operations at TimelyMD, a telehealth provider. Some schools and colleges are also beefing up their art and theatre programs, which not only serve to reduce stress but also help to socialize students.

The US Departments of Justice and Education jointly released a fact sheet on October 13, 2021, urging Higher Ed institutions to support students’ mental health needs in the COVID-era. Called “Supporting and Protecting the Rights of Students at Risk of Self Harm in the Era of COVID-19,” the fact sheet provides a number of useful governmental resources and hotlines.

Solutions to Race and Politics related Misbehavior will be addressed in the next blog post. Stay tuned.