Assembly Bill 2122 was introduced in the State Assembly on March 9, if passed, it would require all California Community Colleges and California State University (CSU) campuses to require Mental Health Hotline numbers on the back of Student identification cards.
If passed, the bill would follow Senate Bill (SB) 972, which already requires schools and colleges in california to print out a suicide hotline number on the back of student identification cards.
The new requirement would also follow SB 316, which holds the same premise as SB 972. However, instead of a suicide hotline, it is a domestic violence hotline. Both bills are meant to help students get accessible help to their needs, and AB 2122 is written with similar intention.
“Mental health is often overlooked until it’s too late – students start suffering from extreme burnout, disengagement, dropping grades. There’s so much schools can do to help students before they reach that point,” said Léo Corzo-Clark in an interview with EdSource, a recent high school graduate from the Bay Area who helped originate Bill 2122.
In a recent report from the CDC, 37.1 percent of students experienced poor mental health during the pandemic, and another 44.2 percent of students had experienced persistent feelings of “sadness and hopelessness.”
“I’d love to see this bill signed into law. But just introducing the bill is a way to start a conversation and let the Legislature know that this is a priority for students,” Corzo-Clark said. “Students are saying, ‘This is what we need.’”
Although the bill has intentions to try to help alleviate these numbers and students’ needs, some feel as though it won’t live up to its hype.
“I honestly don’t think it would be that beneficial. At my high school we had hotlines [on] the back of our ID cards and they were simply a joke. They would be the subject to jokes instead of their actual purpose,” said Delta College student Jasmine Castillo. “I honestly feel like that [the hotline] is not enough. I feel as though teachers should implement discussions on mental health in classrooms.”
Despite the concerns on whether the hotline would be useful, some students remain optimistic about the idea and encourage its benefits.
“I don’t see the harm in showing some people that there is help out there. I mean college alone is hard and with minimum wage staying low, and prices increasing, I think people knowing that there is help and that they are not alone would be beneficial,” said Delta College student Robert Queirolo.
State legislative guidelines don’t allow the bill to be acted on for 30 days after it’s been introduced. At the time of this article’s release, the State Governor will have 10 days remaining to either veto or sign the bill into a law.
