BDR3 Could Have Adverse Mental Health Effect on Kids: Letter

The following letter was written and submitted by Leslie Mendoza Temple, MD.

My name is Dr. Leslie Mendoza Temple. I am the Medical Director of the Integrative Medicine Program at NorthShore University HealthSystem and an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. I am representing my own views here.

“Do no harm”. This is a principle physicians live and die by. I will revisit this principle later on.

Children already face many transitions, many of them expected, others, not so. It’s a part of growing up. An example of an expected transition going from elementary to middle school, then middle school to high school. But for us to apply an additional, significantly stressful transition in the middle of elementary school will undoubtedly cause some harm to those children and families affected. In the world we live in now, unfortunately, our children have enough threats to their well-being and sense of stability to now additionally impose trauma on them in grade school.

I come here wearing 2 hats, one as a physician concerned about our community, and the other as a mother of 3 sons who attend Red Oak Dual Language. BDR3 would break up the dual and monolingual programs and the relationships there. The children at Red Oak have cultivated friendships with their classmates from both programs-- and now face disruption of that safety net of friendship with this plan.

To break up the kids at Ravinia into multiple groups at different schools also causes me great concern.

In my clinic, I see kids with predominantly stress-related conditions. I see children on medications and in therapy for anxiety, depression, adjustment disorder, early substance abuse, eating disorders, chronic migraines, IBS, ADHD, chronic insomnia, and others. These issues can travel well into young adulthood if not properly addressed. With this added stress at a pretty young age, we run the risk of creating a new, large subgroup of children in need of extra support- some more than others.

Let’s think about the mental health impact that this move may have on our children.

I’m not just worried about my own kids selfishly. I am worried about this large cohort of children from a community health perspective.

My children are pretty resilient, and I know that we can persevere and adapt to change. However, if the proposed change is not based on iron-clad financial principles, it is well worth investigating further. And, is NOW the time we need to make these life-changing alterations for our kids?

For the sake of our children, and for the principle to ‘do no harm’ we need to SLOW THIS DOWN until we study this more thoroughly. Let’s not put our children at a disadvantage so early on.