Eight university students have died since the beginning of term one, meaning that at least one student has died every single week for the past month. Coronavirus has had a devastating impact on so many groups of people, for so many reasons. In no way am I trying to belittle anyone else's struggles when I write this, and I understand that it isn't just students who are suffering right now, everyone is. However, I am speaking out here as a student myself, and someone who has lost a sister to suicide whilst she was at university, and it is consistently breaking my heart to see how students are being treated throughout this pandemic.
"If you lockdown young people because of Covid-19 with little support, then you should expect that they suffer severe anxiety", writes Matthew Kitson, father of Finn Kitson, who took his own life in Manchester university halls in October. The same university halls that, just weeks later, thought it would be acceptable to erect prison-like metal fencing around the campus as a so called 'security measure' without giving any warning or explanation to the students before they did it. Whatever the university want to say to 'justify' why they put the fences up in the place, makes no difference to me. I invite you to imagine the anxiety you would feel if you looked out of your window one morning, and your back garden and front door had been surrounded in seven foot tall metal fencing. It is completely beyond me how my university seniors, supposedly of the highest education, thought this reckless and emotionally insensitive decision was in any way going to be well received.
Students are 'strongly advised' not to return home under any circumstances, being told by government representatives that returning home is selfish, and students will be "risking the lives of loved ones", yet offering no alternative that could make the option of going home accessible. The mental health support being offered is abysmal, with the waiting lists growing longer and longer. The prospect of online counselling in university halls has not been thought through in the slightest, with the majority of students living within four, thin walls where you can hear your next-door neighbour sneeze as if they are in the room with you.
I don't want to sound like a broken record, and from reading Tweets, and Facebook comments under any article about students being fined, or breaking the rules, it's clear as daylight to me that a percentage of the UK population have no sympathy for students whatsoever. If you disagree with me, then that's fine, but nobody deserves to be fined ten thousand pounds for having a party. No one. That's a completely ridiculous and life altering amount of money for a 20 year old to be expected to pay.
Even when you look at statistics of LGBTQ, BAME, and students with disabilities who are already at a greater risk of developing mental health problems at university or when you consider students who are being forced to self-isolate - why has no further support has been given? It doesn't make sense to me. My heart breaks for the eight students, and their families, flatmates, and friends. It makes me question, how many more deaths do we need to endure before student mental health is taken more seriously?
If you are struggling, please speak to someone or contact Samaritans on 116 123 at any time. You can also contact Anxiety UK on 03444 775 774, Mind on 0300 123 3393, and Calm (Campaign against living miserably, for men aged 15 to 35) on 0800 58 58 58.
You are enough. You matter.
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