NAPERVILLE, Ill. _ When Naperville North High School student Tessa Newman heard about the suicide of a classmate last school year, she was outraged.
Furious, not at the classmate, but at a culture she said exacerbates the pressure she and many of her fellow students feel. So Tessa took action.
"I was just so angry and overwhelmed, I got on my Chromebook at 2 a.m. and essentially wrote down my feelings," says Tessa, 17, now a senior at the school.
Within days, Tessa had posted a 1,458-word essay on Change.org. The petition, "Naperville North Pressure Culture Must Change," soon went viral, striking a chord nationwide and prompting fierce debate on the topic.
"At Naperville North there is one path to success," Tessa wrote in the piece. "From the age of 13, every prospective Naperville North student understands that this path makes no exceptions, and those who wander off or fall behind are left for failure. Everyone here understands that there is no worse fate than failure."
If nothing else, the essay and the response it generated show how much the topic of student stress and educational anxiety is on the minds of kids, parents, teachers, counselors and administrators _ some of whom are calling it a burgeoning mental health crisis.
"When I first wrote the essay, it wasn't meant to be shared, but I knew I had something important to say," Tessa said. "I thought to myself, 'If I don't do it, who will?' "
But Tessa _ and her fellow students at Naperville North _ aren't alone. High-performing teens at elite public high schools across the suburbs, from Highland Park to Hinsdale, and La Grange to Lake Forest, are feeling the same strain.
"Many parents want their children to either meet or surpass what they have achieved, but there's not a whole lot of room to surpass the success of a parent who is a CEO of a Fortune 500 company," said Timothy Hayes, assistant superintendent of student services at New Trier High School in north suburban Winnetka.
For months, Pioneer Press has explored the problem of student anxiety and school-related stress. Reporters spoke to students, parents, administrators and public health experts and examined school data on topics ranging from how often kids are sidestepping gym class to how many request school counseling services.
The research showed a pervasive, increasing and potentially dangerous problem that affects every aspect of students' lives _ from their emotional and physical health to their future college and career paths.
In many top-performing schools, students and experts describe an atmosphere of intense, sometimes disabling, pressure connected with test scores, college admissions and Advanced Placement course loads.
Those interviewed say the issue clearly is not comparable to the trauma and stress felt by students in violent or impoverished neighborhoods. However, the experts argue, academic anxiety has real consequences.
Parents are sending their kids to therapeutic day schools at hospitals that treat adolescent mental health issues. Teachers are changing their curricula to factor in students' anxiety and stress. And kids are facing what they say is a constant, grinding strain throughout their academic careers.
"There is a double-edged sword. We want kids to challenge themselves, but not at the expense of their mental well-being," said Emily Polacek, a social studies teacher at Hinsdale South High School in west suburban Darien, Ill.
'FALLING APART'
Tom Koulentes, a former principal at Highland Park High School, said that a decade ago, the North Shore school had roughly 10 students per year hospitalized for mental health issues of all kinds.
Now, he estimates, that number is closer to 60 to 70 per year _ and climbing.
"And that's just hospitalizations," said Koulentes, now principal of Libertyville High School. "There are a larger number of parents calling who have significant concerns because their children are falling apart at home."
Public records also reveal a sharp uptick in demand for counseling services at some high schools.
In Highland Park, officials report the number of students participating in various types of support groups through the high school's drop-in center rose 58 percent in five years, from 164 students in 2011-12 to 260 students in 2015-16. The school currently has 2,026 students enrolled.
And officials said 75 percent of students who received individual or group counseling at the high school during the 2015-16 year reported issues of anxiety, up from 35 percent five years earlier.
The same trend is evident at north suburban Deerfield High School, where 73 percent of students who received individual counseling from a social worker or psychologist were experiencing anxiety issues, according to school data.
Officials at both schools say the primary causes of stress vary among students and can include not only academic anxiety but also worries about family problems and social situations.
There are some common threads, however, officials say. Many teens don't get enough sleep because of increasingly rigorous college prep courses and the demands of juggling several hours of homework each night with extracurricular activities required to burnish college applications.
"So now, everyone is taking the hardest classes, but it's not just grades, because they're told they not only have to be involved in clubs and sports, but they need to be the leader or captain," Koulentes said. "And they also need a high test score on the ACT and SAT."
Koulentes says that can mean some teens are in class from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., followed by sports, music or other extracurriculars until 7 p.m. After that, it's an evening ACT or SAT prep session.
And the problem isn't all grades and class rankings. Technology has emerged as a new stressor for kids, and administrators are finding it challenging to address.
Koulentes said with the expectation that grades will be updated on a digital portal and that email will be answered 24/7, students and teachers are finding it harder and harder to decompress, even on weekends.
"A child gets a test back in math class, and they find out they got a D, so they text mom and dad, even before the teacher has walked back to their desk," Koulentes said.
Not to mention the set of ultra-competitive teens seeking admission to Ivy League schools; they're feeling compelled to launch nonprofits, apply for patents or develop new apps, he said.
"I've had conversations with former students who have told me, 'College is actually easier than high school,' " Koulentes said. "In high school, they're dealing with hard, hard classes, and then they have three, four or more hours of homework each night."
Data from area school districts show increasing numbers of students taking Advanced Placement classes.
This trend can be observed at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, where the proportion of students taking AP courses has been steadily on the rise. While about 55 percent of Stevenson juniors were enrolled in at least one AP course in 2011-12, the percentage stood at 71 percent during the 2015-16 year, school data show.
About half of all sophomore students were enrolled in an AP course in 2015-16. Among seniors, the figure was about 82 percent.
