Dear President,

"Hey..I called you out to talk to you about how you've been acting..well your friends say you've been distant and quiet and a bit mad, is everything okay? Do you need to talk to someone like a counselor or a therapist perhaps..? If so..we need a copy of your insurance and for either we talk to your parents or you talk them about how you want therapy, no pressure." Um.. No. Why do schools need a copy of an insurance if students need therapy? I just think that's wrong because i know some parents believe that their child doesn't need therapy when really the student feels like they do...

For example, my parents don't think i need therapy but I believe that I need therapy, so I went to my teacher for some help, she said she could find me someone who could give me therapy without my parents knowing if that was the problem. I talk to the lady that she recommended me to talk to, we start talking cool and everything is going fine until she asks me the biggest question that I've never been asked before..."Do you think you need therapy?" I said yes because i was going through some paranoia and getting depressed all over again...she then says "We need a copy of your insurance to be able for you to talk to a therapist in school and your parents approval". I instantly got embarrassed and quickly said never mind, that it was all in my head and i walked out of her office quickly. 

All that was going through my mind was the presentation we had in health class about the Valley Teen Clinic about how if we ever need condoms or a checkup without our parents knowing, we make an appointment and tell the nurse at school and we can easily leave school and return back to school once the appointment is finished, without our parents having to know anything. My thoughts are why does that get an excuse where insurance doesn't matter but for therapy it does? Like i understand the insurance depends whether you can get a good therapist or not but at this point everyone just needs someone who they can talk to and get some advice because sometimes the problem might even be with your friends or it might be too personal to talk to with a friend.

All I'm really asking from you is that the students or anyone just has someone they can talk to without it being a huge problem because sometimes it can be dangerous because people may feel alone more than they already feel because they know their parents won't accept it and who knows what deep thoughts people have in their mind that can cause them to even kill themselves or do drugs. Like myself, I never got the therapy I feel like i need, so I paint my feelings if there is time in the day as my own therapy because i know my parents wouldn't let me take therapy because they think it's all just in my mind and that I'm actually fine. Sometimes if i don't paint for like more than 3 days, I become mad and everything makes me cry and i become very weak and not hungry that sometimes my friends worry about my health. 

Maybe if we can have a psychologist or someone that students can talk to or a place where students can do art during class to express their feelings or any sort of way that people can just express how they feel because, I, myself hardly has time to paint my feelings or relax since I'm always busy..but please help me and other people get the help that we need..

With lots of love and energy,

Julyana Vega