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At the beginning of the school year, the Radio 101 class at R.J. Reynolds high school was tasked to look into the issue of teen mental health. Through research, interviewing local and national experts in the subject, and surveying over 1,600 students in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school district, Dispatches from Within was born. This series of stories looks into some of the biggest issues affecting teens’ mental health nowadays: lack of equitable access to resources, perceived pressures from society, school shootings, self-worth, and substance use to just name a few.

Correction: An earlier version of this broadcast erroneously reported that the suspect in the Mount Tabor shooting was apprehended a couple of days after the incident. He was actually apprehended on the same day.

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Artwork courtesy McKenna Jones/R.J. Reynolds High School

WFDD's Radio 101 has chosen to use only the first initial of the student in the following story due to the sensitive subject matter and to protect the students' privacy.

As an experiment, grab your phone right now, open Instagram and look at the “Explore” page and the “Suggested posts.” If in the past 30 days you’ve interacted in any way with an account or post that promotes unattainable body standards, your “Explore” page will probably be full of similar images. More and more pictures of seemingly perfect people with perfect bodies doing perfect things. Now, do a second experiment and check how much time you (or a teen of your choice) spend on Instagram looking at those pictures.

The Facebook internal documents published by The Wall Street Journal earlier this year revealed that the company is aware that Instagram is an app engineered towards “social comparison.” The same report showed that Instagram spotlights users’ bodies and lifestyles. And L, a 16-year-old girl struggling with bulimia, is aware of this.

“I'm not necessarily seeing all these girls with different body types,” said L. “But people get into all these mindsets, and they see all these people on social media, who are either — they have a flatter stomach, or they have more of a chest or a butt than they do, or they're more muscular, or just even have more meat on their bones … but it's not you. You might never get to the body that you want.”

According to the National Organization for Women, half of American girls are not happy with their bodies, and this number climbs up to almost 80 percent by the time the girls reach 17. Some of them will resort to dieting and food restriction to try and achieve what they believe is the body that will make them feel happy. Others, like L, will resort to more extreme behaviors.

“It took me so long to be able to articulate it,” said L. “And I finally was like … like I had to do a motion with my fingers, because I couldn't like I didn't know how to say it. And I was in tears, like, choked up trying to say it.”

She had been purging food. She was diagnosed with bulimia at the end of 2020. She’s been getting treatment ever since.

“I don't necessarily like how I look. But like, I don't know how to get to that point,” said L. “And I hope I can one day because I feel like accepting yourself for who you are, is the biggest thing for you. And I can't wait until I get to that.”

The road to recovery is a long one. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, relapses and backslides are more the norm than the exception. Stressors like going off to college, or starting a new job, or moving away from home can prompt previous unhealthy behaviors to re-emerge. An individual with an eating disorder has to relearn normal eating habits and coping skills and at the same time work on the underlying issues that set off this disorder in the first place. For L, it means learning to not care about what other people might be thinking about.

“We have a cafe here. One time I got like two small like … a little packet of Sour Patch Kids. And I tried to hide one in my bag. I tried to get there [the register] really quickly,” said L. “Because my rationalization was ‘what if people look at what I'm holding, and they look at what I'm eating, and then they think about how my body looks and then make a judgment based off that?’”

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Megan McDonald, a student at West Forsyth High School, made this art and wrote the following statement. "The piece symbolizes the unity that the city of Winston-Salem displayed shortly after the events. The school supplies on top use a trompe-l'oeil effect and symbolize the innocence and youth of the victims. Spartan Strong. These words don’t mean much to people outside of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. But to my fellow students, parents, and teachers, 'Spartan Strong' means unity." Image courtesy of Megan McDonald.

WFDD's Radio 101 has chosen to use only the first name of the student in the following story due to the sensitive subject matter and to protect the student's privacy.

For Ben, and every other student at Mount Tabor High School, September 1 started like any other school day.

“I was at the career center first. So I had a couple of those tests out of the way. And then I went to Tabor, and I was just going to eat lunch like a normal day,” said Ben.

But just after noon, things quickly took a turn. What started as a fight quickly escalated and a student pulled out a gun and shot William Miller Jr.

“Everybody was getting up, and kind of going to go move towards it to watch it,” said Ben. “The administrator screamed that he had a gun. And so that's when everyone started running. And then I was like, 'oh,' and so then I was like, it took me a while to process it. But as soon as I knew what was going on, I instantly ran with them.”

This was the second time in a month that a gun had been fired at a school in North Carolina since the beginning of the school year. But this time, the gunshot was fatal.

Ben and his classmates were escorted out of the school by a S.W.A.T. team. They were reunited with their parents after what was probably one of the most traumatic days of their lives. A week later, they went back to school. And this is where this story really begins.

“We know that after a mass casualty event, whether it's one person or many, there are basically five elements that are impacted, but also, you can leverage for long-term recovery,” said Dr. Douglas Walker, chief program director at Mercy Family Center in St. Louis. “The first is the sense of safety. Without a safe environment, which we consider schools still to be, individuals cannot learn.”

The second element mentioned by Dr. Walker is a sense of calmness. This basically means being able to put your mind at ease. In other words, to turn off or dial down your flight-or-fight response. After a traumatic event like this, the brain becomes really sensitive to sounds or sights that can trigger memories of the event.

The third element is connectedness. “And that can be difficult in terms of shooting events because there are a lot of sides that can immediately be taken,” said Dr. Walker. “There are stories that would never, probably ever be told. The backstories of a lot of individuals who are involved. So coming together as a community may not be as easy as people believe.”

Self-efficacy is the fourth element that Dr. Walker explained. The American Psychological Association defines self-efficacy as our ability to behave in ways that would bring about a specific outcome. In other words, it's this idea that if you are going to school to learn, you should not have to worry about being caught in a crossfire, because the only outcome of that behavior should be learning.

“And finally, the fifth element that we always look for, comes in various ways, is this idea of hope,” said Dr. Walker. "That we can become bigger than ourselves, and that we can attach ourselves to good in this world and move forward.”

Moving forward after an event like this can be tough. But according to many experts, the first step in that direction is to acknowledge the feelings that you might be having. Acknowledge that something happened. This can come in the form of a ritual or a ceremony, or even just a group meeting.

“So, oftentimes the conversation is around when do we end remembering or recovering, begin getting back to our normal or new normal in learning again,” said Dr. Walker. “That is probably the most difficult question or conversation that I have with the school administration. Because that grieving process is going to be different for everyone. When do you begin asking students to do homework, to do tests? When do we move forward, but also look back and remember, you know what's happened.”

Ben has not forgotten what happened. He probably never will. But he’s trying to make something out of the pain. “A lot of people at Tabor are a lot closer now,” said Ben. “Because there's people in my classes that I have literally never talked to, but they checked up on me and I checked up on them also. And it's just like, everybody around me has reached out to me and made sure I was okay. It is just, it feels amazing that people care that much about you.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story erroneously reported that the suspect in the Mount Tabor shooting was apprehended a couple of days after the incident. He was actually apprehended on the same day.

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WFDD's Radio 101 has chosen to use initials in the following story due to the sensitive subject matter and to protect the students' privacy.

A few years ago, T found herself struggling with thoughts of self-harm. She was being bullied by a group of girls at school and she wasn’t feeling like there were that many people rooting for her.

“I just wanted to, like, just die,” said T. “So I started writing notes to myself saying that I should kill myself to try to hype me up to do it. And one of my friends gave it [the notes] to the teacher and she gave it to the guidance counselor. The guidance counselor told my mother, and my mother said that I was just looking for attention.”

At the time, the guidance counselor gave T a notebook where she could write about her feelings as a way to process them. But T’s mom wasn’t convinced there was actually a problem. She took the notebook away and told T that she could use it only during school hours.

“Like I literally felt like my mother did not care,” said T. “She was like, ‘Why are talking about killing yourself? You should be happy you had both parents’ and stuff like that.' And I was like ‘O.K.’ and I told her that I was sorry and then like pretty much she did not help me feel better. She pretty much made me feel worse about wanting to kill myself, which made me want to like do it more because I was like bro I'm making my mother suffer.”

Talking about mental health is tough. Talking about mental health when you’re not sure if the person you’re talking to is going to be receptive, is even tougher. This is particularly true for Black people. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a history of prejudice and discrimination in the healthcare system, plus provider bias, and a lack of cultural competency can result in misdiagnosis or inadequate treatment. For example, NAMI reports that Black people tend to describe bodily aches and physical pain when talking about depression. A physician might not see these as symptoms of a mental health issue. Moreover, the stigma around mental health in the Black community is pervasive. One study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison showed that over 60 percent of Black people believe that a mental health condition is a sign of personal weakness.

“That's not something new — that for some reason our ancestors believed it was a sign of weakness to admit that you were not O.K. And that has continued. So therefore what goes on in my house stays in my house, right?” said Keisha Horton, Licenced Clinical Mental Health Counselor and Licensed Clinical Addiction Specialist. “That was a very common belief and still is in some homes. That you don't talk about your stuff. You just deal with it. Or you take it to God.”

And according to Horton, it is this failure to acknowledge that there is a problem that is at the root of a lot of what we’re seeing nowadays. “Hurt people, hurting people, and they're not dealing with their stuff because they've been told it is a sign of weakness,” said Horton. “To deal with this stuff, parents have to be more conscious and more aware that if your child does not talk about their things, whether it's with a therapist or with them, you know, talk to your children, then eventually that stuff is going to come out.”

So, on the one hand, we have teens (and grown-ups) that, for cultural reasons, are not given the space to talk about their mental health. And on the other hand, these same teens are constantly bombarded with traumatic events that could have a big impact in determining how that child is going to grow up. In 1996 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention commissioned a study that looked into how specific childhood events could have an impact on the development of a person. Racism made it onto the list.

“Our childhood experiences really impact who we become more than people like to admit, and so there are some experiences that happen in certain cultures more than others,” said Horton. “There are certain cultures, you know as we're speaking about African American culture, that deal with more certain things than others. So sometimes we have a lot more racial trauma.”

A study from Rutgers University found that Black teens average over five racial discriminations per day. Other studies have found that around 90 percent of Black teens have self-reported perceived discrimination and racism.

“[With] what has transpired over the last year with George Floyd and all the things that that brought up for us, I do believe there was a space in there where you did need someone that could relate to what you were feeling due to the color of your skin,” said Horton. “You may have a better result with someone who is of the skin color because your trauma or your symptoms are related to the color of your skin and having a white therapist may trigger what you're feeling because a part of your problem is that you feel hurt by them or you feel violated in some way due to their race.”

And that might be hard to find. According to the American Psychological Association, only 4 percent of the psychology workforce is Black. But that number almost triples when looking at early career psychologists, so in time, it might be easier for Black teens like T to get the help they desperately seek.

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Artwork by Morgan McDaniel/West Forsyth High School. "The meaning behind my piece is to highlight the struggles that some are too afraid to talk about but also the light that comes with that. My piece at first was not supposed to look like this, I thought I was going to go down a more realistic path but clearly that didn’t happen. Yet again that is what COVID 19 was like, unexpected."

If you, or someone you know, is in crisis, please call the National suicide prevention lifeline. It’s a free 24-hour hotline at 1.800.273.TALK.

During the fall of 2021, the Radio 101 class surveyed over 1,600 students in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school district. In that survey, we asked students to anonymously share their experiences with suicide ideation and attempt. Almost 40% of the respondents said that they had thought about harming themselves or attempting suicide. We asked them to share their story. Some sent us a voicemail, but some felt more comfortable writing. These are just a few of the responses. We are not using their names to protect their identity.

“I've struggled for years with my mental health and while I've never attempted, I've had the thought and struggled with it. I have self-harmed, however. I'm about a month clean. Things are hard with my sexuality and gender and family. I can't come out because of safety reasons, and I've been in the closet for coming up on five years. My family hasn't always treated me the best and it's hard,” said one 14-year-old student.

"I was raped and I thought I would never be better, you know? Like I hated myself, my body, everyone literally. I couldn't trust any guy ever again. I didn't feel comfortable being alone with guys and stuff. I even attempted to take my life, but it took baby steps for me to feel better about myself. Until this day the assault still affects me but i have two of the best people i can count on and who make me feel better about everything and make me want to live.” another 14-year-old said.

“I was just down and out and scared of making people disappointed and I thought I wasn’t really worth the air I was breathing, so I just did it.” said one 16-year-old student.

Radio 101 reporters Melvin Abuaku and Chase Orie reached out to Vice President of Research at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Dr. Jill Harvaky-Friedman, to try and understand what drives a teenager to take their own life.

Interview Highlights: Chase Orie: One of the things we noticed because we did a survey is how many students have considered suicide. How does a teenager come up with this idea?

Dr. Harvaky-Friedman: So as we understand suicidal behavior, we know that there are connections between thinking about it, making [an] attempt, and dying. So we know a lot more about what leads someone to die by suicide, and we're learning about what leads someone to think about it. Often when somebody's thinking about it, they feel that there’s no options for them. They might feel depressed, or they may be using substances — drugs, and alcohol; they may have anxiety, they may be having unusual thoughts that they can't make sense of. And so there's often a mental health component. And then, of course, for people who die by suicide, they have to have access to lethal means — things that they can actually kill themselves with. So we try to help people keep those away from people who are in distress so that they can get through the time when they're thinking about it without actually taking their life.

CO: Which teens are more at risk to go through with the suicide attempt?

Harvaky-Friedman: There's a good chance that they have a mental health condition that, by the way, can be treated, and they can get help for it. Often, they're keeping everything inside. And so they may be pulling back from friends and activities. So, that the places where they would get support, they're not engaging in, and so they are limiting the resources to help them feel better. We know that when people are at that point, they isolate, they withdraw. They may do reckless things. But we're still trying to figure out what takes someone who's thinking about it, to actually engage in the behavior. Their thinking is not as clear and flexible. And they don't see the options, and they think this is what is going to make them feel less pain.

CO: Can we talk about how, in your opinion, COVID-19 has changed the landscape of mental health and teen suicide?

Harvaky-Friedman: We have seen an increase in thinking about suicide and also seeking medical help for suicidal ideation. But fortunately, so far, we have not seen an increase in suicide rates. And I think that's because, from the very beginning of COVID-19, we all started talking about how this is impacting our mental health, that we need to take care of our mental health ... and we've been sharing ways to do that. So by doing that, I think we've helped people to get through those difficult moments. I also think that there are more people showing up in emergency rooms, because kids are with their parents, or their family more. They're also talking more about their thoughts and feelings, which is really helpful and important.

Melvin Abuaku: What are some warning signs and red flags that parents should be on the lookout for?

Harvaky-Friedman: if you notice a change, a change in mood, a change of behavior, or a change in what people are saying, it's important to pay attention to that. So for instance, what people say — they may talk about suicide, they might talk about taking their life — but they may be more subtle. They may say, "oh, next year, this won't matter" or "after the final, I won't have to worry about school anymore." They may give things away that are important to them. They may say that they were a burden. They say that they don't fit in anymore. So, they give these kinds of subtle clues. Now in behavior, particularly in teens, sometimes we'll see more reckless behavior — doing things that can get them into trouble or physically hurt. So, if you see your friend engaging in reckless behavior, using more drugs or alcohol, withdrawing from people or activities, isolating, and not joining in where they normally would, those can be signs that they're not feeling connected. And we know that feeling of connection is what keeps people going.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

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Artwork by: Beck McAllister/R.J. Reynolds High School

WFDD's Radio 101 has chosen to use initials in the following story due to the sensitive subject matter and to protect the students' privacy.

It only takes one night for a life to change forever. M, a 16-year-old high school student, learned this in the harshest of ways.

M grew up in an unstable family environment. A verbally abusive stepfather and other members of her family who themselves were struggling with mental illnesses made it so M could not ever truly feel safe at home. When she was around 10 she started to struggle with anxiety and depression. According to her, some days, even getting out of bed to go to school was a challenge, which led her to start failing classes and having to switch schools frequently. When she was 13, M started to self-harm as a way to cope with what she was going through at home. Nobody in her family knew. Nobody in her family would know what was really happening with her for another three years.

In the fall of 2020, M changed schools once again and it was in this new school that she met a friend, K. K felt like a breeze of fresh air. They would do everything together. When they were hanging out, M would be able to forget the problems at home and feel like she didn’t have a worry in the world. But it was also with K, that M started drinking and using drugs.

“It's easier to drink and forget than to deal with your problems,” said M. “And I'm not gonna lie, that's how it was at the beginning. It was great. It felt amazing. It was so nice not to have to deal with that type of stuff. But it gets to you fast. Like, after a while, it starts to hit you harder. And then you know, the addiction type part starts rolling, like where it's like, it's mid-afternoon, but I need a beer. But like, the more you get, you know, you build up a tolerance to those types of things. And that's how an addiction settles in. And so it's like, the more tolerant I got, the more I smoked, the more I drank.”

Data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration shows that the majority of adolescents will engage in some sort of substance use before they graduate from high school. Legalities aside, the main issue with underage drinking is that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, teenagers’ brains are still developing. So, while it’s easy to pursue pleasurable rewards and avoid pain, it’s really hard for them to know when to stop. An apt metaphor for a teen’s brain is a car with a fully functioning gas pedal (the reward system) but weak breaks (the prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain in charge of assessing situations and making sound decisions). And the use of substances can carry negative impacts well into adulthood. The latest Youth Risk Behavior survey states that “Youth substance use is associated with increased risk for delinquency, academic underachievement, teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, perpetrating or experiencing violence, injuries, and mental health problems.” All in all, risky behaviors, which brings us back to M.

One night M and K were invited to a graduation party. M started drinking with the party host. “There was this new type of beer that he was trying and he wanted me to try it,” said M. “And I was like, okay, cool, you know, give it a try. I thought it was revolting. I thought it was disgusting. Worst thing I ever tasted, but he, like, challenged me or, like, provoked me, ‘Oh, you can't drink it. You can't do it. You know, I bet you can't.’ And so you know, then I took it as a challenge. I started drinking. You know, I started dancing doing this and this.”

M blacked out.

What she didn’t know at the time was that her friend had filmed her at the party while she was black-out drunk. M found this out once she saw a video circulating on social media. In it, she could see herself stripping down and dancing around the house in a sports bra.

“To know that other people saw me like that, like, not only at the party but other people that weren't even there had the chance to see me like that,” said M. “And the fact that I didn't even I don't, I still don't even know how many people saw it. Or if other people sent it to other people and the video is still out there. It's just really, it just was really, really embarrassing to see that. That type of thing was out there on the internet.”

When M saw the video, she decided that something needed to change. “I have an old friend. And she is going through some things right now that, you know, not my story. So I'm not gonna share. But there's someone in her life who is a very heavy abuser of alcohol,” said M. “And it scares me to see that if I kept going down the road, I was going … that I could potentially turn into that. Because someday I want to be able to have a family, I want to be able to have, you know, nice things for myself.”

M did not seek professional help. While her mom is aware that M got really drunk at a party, she doesn’t know a video of that night exists. “That's something I don't think I could ever share with her until I'm way older,” said M. “But she does know about the events that took place and she was … she was ... a lot of people in my life were really disappointed in me but they weren't mad at me they were just disappointed that it got that bad.”

For M, the story seems to end there. She claims to be doing better, to have put the days of coping through alcohol and drugs behind and found new and healthier ways to deal with her issues. However, the available data suggests that M’s story is not unique at all. And not everyone out there might be able to stop this harmful behavior without professional help. For those people, know that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration maintains a free 24/7 helpline for anyone struggling with mental health or substance use issues. The number is 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

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Artwork by: Ciara LeGrand & Noora Hosseinzadeh/R.J. Reynolds High School

For many teachers and students, the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year was a surreal moment. All of a sudden you were in a classroom surrounded by 20 or so new kids like every other year, but now, you could only see the upper part of their faces. Their eyes.

Those facial expressions that you relied on your entire career in order to gauge understanding or interest were gone without a warning. But safety came first. The masks would help your students stay in school. And that’s what mattered the most. But the masks were hiding something else. They were hiding the pain after a year of loneliness, solitude, and isolation.

In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health. According to their statement, during the pandemic emergency rooms across the country saw a sharp increase in visits for all types of mental health concerns, including suicide. In the same statement, the AAP called for state, local and national agencies to work together to improve access to mental health care for young people. One of the proposed ways to do this is to "increase implementation and sustainable funding of effective models of school-based mental health care.”

School-based mental health care sounds like a logical approach. After all, a regular student spends an average of 1,215 hours per year in school. More than enough time for mental health professionals to provide the student with the help they need. That is if there’s a mental health professional available in that school.

“The current ratio is like one school psychologist to almost 2000 students. So if you're serving five schools and you're only able to be in one school one day a week, you're not able to provide as robust, comprehensive services, and it becomes an equity issue,” explained Jackie Zins, president of the North Carolina School Psychology Association (NCSPA).

According to the NCSPA, the nationally recommended ratio is one school psychologist per 500 students. North Carolina would need about 1,700 more school psychologists in order to have one per school.

“At least in our state specifically, we only have five school psychology programs and they tend to be smaller, and so they're only graduating about 40 to 50 people a year,“ said Zins.

In order to become a school psychologist in North Carolina, one has to complete an approved program in school psychology at the sixth-year level and also obtained the required score (147) in the NTE/Praxis School Psychology Educational Testing Service (ETS). And according to Zins, the incentive to do all of this, is not quite there.

“So in 2020 there were 281 licensed school psychologists in the state who weren't working in the role of a school psychologist in the public schools. About 209 responded to a survey and of the two hundred and nine, 20% cited leaving the field because of low pay and then a little bit more than half indicated that a salary increase would encourage them to return to work,” Zins said.

On November 18th, Gov. Roy Cooper signed into law the 2021 Appropriation Act which would grant a salary increase for school psychologists and the creation of a position in the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction dedicated to the recruitment and retention of school psychologists. Whether this will have the desired effect to ensure equitable access to mental health resources for all students across the state, we’ll have to wait and see.

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Emma Moore/R.J. Reynolds High School

For M, and every other trans student, the daily roll call at the beginning of the class can feel like a punch in the gut.

“When I first started switching names, I didn't really mind my old name. It didn't really bother me, but now I hear it and it just doesn't match with who I am anymore,” explained M.

M has been transitioning for a few years now. And this is very common. The process of transitioning is a long and complicated one.

“I'm nonbinary so I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do like transition-wise right away. So, I mean, I kept things the same for a while, I had two feet of hair, I wore skirts and dresses and stuff like that,” said M.

About two years ago M decided to cut xer hair (M uses xe/xer/xerself pronouns) and that’s when things started to change. M noticed that people were treating xer differently. They didn’t want to be in group projects with xer, or just avoided xer altogether.

“I think once I looked more trans people started to treat me differently; it became a little bit more difficult for people to stomach when it wasn't something they could ignore. There was everybody else and then there was me,” explained M.

The latest research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that LGBTQ+ students are at a higher risk of adverse mental health problems than their straight, cisgender counterparts. When looking specifically at transgender students, the gap widens. The Trevor Project, a worldwide nonprofit organization that advocates for the safety of LGTBQ+ youth, is reporting that in the past year one in three transgender youth reported attempting suicide, and almost one-third reported being a victim of sexual violence.

According to Casey Pick, senior fellow for advocacy and government affairs at the Trevor Project, for an LGBTQ+ youth, to have just one supporting adult in their lives reduces their odds of a suicide attempt by 40%. And this support can come in many different forms.

“We've seen some adults that will start with the introduction and mention their pronouns. I've seen some teachers that will include a small rainbow flag somewhere in their classroom, or a sticker on the door that says safe space. So there are lots of different ways to signal that," says Pick.

But I find that the most effective way to really communicate to young people that I am a safe and welcoming person is to make sure that I say things that are clear to that effect.

"Introducing my class as being this is a safe space where we respect everybody's differences, and that we embrace all kinds of families, just putting it out there, there's no reason not to,” explains Pick.

For M, that support would come in the way of people addressing xer the way M identifies.

“I think it would be really really great if there was some sort of like general education about nonbinary people and neopronouns that I could introduce myself, say my name, say that I use these xe/xer/xerself and all of that. And people would know what it meant and I could be done with just those two sentences, instead of having to go through the whole explanation of the history of neopronouns and like, where they come from and why they're not grammatically incorrect,” explains M.

While research has shown that LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculums at schools have a positive impact on the lives of students, as of right now, only six states in the country have implemented them.

North Carolina is not one of them.

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Owais and his sister Hana, at the movie theater.

Muhammad Owais Kamram

According to the Pew Research Center, nearly half of Muslims living in the U.S. said they’ve experienced at least one instance of discrimination in the past year. Radio 101 youth reporter Muhammad Owais Kamran shared with us one of those stories of discrimination, in the least expected place: the movie theater.

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The Wake Forest University Scales Fine Arts Center.

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A news study from Wake Forest University looks into how dance might help people with neurodegenerative diseases. For this story, Radio 101 youth reporter Shaun Kawalec talked to the main researchers about their findings so far.

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