During COVID-19, School Counselors Are Here For You, Too

As if students did not have enough social, emotional and hormonal struggles going on while trying to get a proper education — a pandemic hit. In this new reality, with students adjusting to masks, social distancing and at-home learning, nothing has been “normal,” and we are not sure when it will be normal again. As a school-counselor-in-training, I have witnessed firsthand what this day-to-day school environment looks like.

A school counselor is a critical member of the education team. They are trained to provide academic assistance, social and emotional development, as well as college and career guidance at the K-12 levels. School counselors ensure that students grow to be productive, thriving, well-adjusted adults.

As you can imagine, the pandemic has thrown us for a loop. Of course, school counselors worked hard before: nonstop parent phone calls, emails, student check-ins and schedule changes. Now that schools have moved to online learning, counselors are presented with a daunting load of additional tasks. They perform Zoom tech support, address Zoom attendance, and help students submit assignments through the random apps teachers are using.

On paper, this workload seems busy, but manageable. But in the student-parent meetings I have witnessed — which often take longer than anticipated — the school counselor receives multiple phone calls, ends up running late to supervise a club, and has about five similar meetings lined up right after, often carrying into the night!

The content isn’t light, either. I’ve seen counseling sessions that have become major interventions, ushering students to get up, stretch and take care of themselves in between sitting in front of the computer screen. I’ve had conversations about students failing Zoom P.E. because they are not doing jumping jacks, failing because they are taking too many snack breaks, and failing because they simply feel unmotivated and have not attempted any homework assignments. Then there are other conversations, where students tell me they miss their friends and ask the million-dollar question, “when are we going back to school already?”

The emotional toll we feel from COVID-19? Students are feeling it, too. But we aren’t being graded on it.

Counselors can be a much needed balm in these situations. When I work with parents and students, I start almost all of my meetings with an empathetic and reassuring statement about “the difficult times we are in.” But I catch myself laughing when I think about it — I am not sure what I would say to parents if we weren’t in “difficult times.” Would I blatantly tell them their child is failing without any remorse or understanding? Of course not. But the unprecedented times we are in have added another layer of struggle to address and empathize with.

The unprecedented times we are in have added another layer of struggle to address and empathize with.

That is what everyone (student or not!) needs right now: to be empathized with, to be listened to. I’ve seen teachers who are trying their best, a single dad who is torn between being a disciplinarian and being a friend to his isolated child, school counselors who are hustling, and, of course, students. Everyone is trying their best.

To that end, during COVID-19 student counseling has transformed into counseling for everyone in the school community. Counselors are the people that parents, teachers and the community lean on to give a helping hand, to ask for advice, to console a family in crisis and to sit on hold with Zoom tech support so students can participate in classes. But it is all part of the job. The job we choose and love to do.

Maybe some of it is “the school counselor’s job,” and some of it is not. But none of that matters now. Your child’s school counselors ethically and lovingly stand prepared in any way to help your child grow, flourish, and be safe — whatever their circumstances may be. I know for certain that this commitment is always the heart of the school counseling job, COVID-19 or not.

Melody Hashemieh is an aspiring school counselor and writer from Los Angeles.