Mentally Ill Students

              Can we imagine if there is a boy, who is sitting in the back corner of the classroom, suddenly getting angry and ruining the class? This incident rarely happens and just a few people aware of its existence. That boy who is suddenly in anger has his own label as mentally ill person. Mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person’s thinking, feeling, mood and ability to relate others functioning. Just like diabetes which has the disorder of pancreas, mentally ill person has disorder way of thinking and feeling. It is also unable to be detected since very beginning. The sudden attack surely harms the surrounding. Therefore, mentally ill students should immediately be expelled from school.

            High school students have unique characteristics because they are still in the progress of grow up and hormonal unstable. Every problem they face is a disaster for them. Besides, they also tend to gather in group which they choose by themselves. The existence of mentally ill student will ruin this harmony. For those normal students, making friend with mental illness person is very annoying. They always try to escape or bully that kind of person. It hurts that person’s feeling and it influences the development of the illness. The mental illness person feels isolated and tries to be recognized by others. He tries to take other’s attention by doing attractive things. Certainly, it disturbs the learning activity because students’ focus is not in study anymore. The mental illness person succeeded to distract other’s attention. Furthermore, there was an incident in USA which was a boy shot his classmate with no reason. Suddenly he was recognized had mental sickness. Therefore, the existence of mentally ill student in normal class is dangerous.

Schools’ system in Indonesia is not the easy one. It requires students to study all subjects though it is not their specification. It sometimes makes the students getting bored and some of them depressed by the big number of materials. Mentally ill students are there and they are not able to have full concentration as others. Mentally ill students feel that it is a big burden towards them. In addition, if they do not be expelled immediately and need to see the psychiatrist, they cannot attend the class fully. It means that they need extra time to get the latest information they left in. It is hard to reach as the same position as the normal one. The amount number of subjects also increases their burden in study. By having specific school and subject can reduce their pain. That is why it will be better if the mentally ill students have their own education.

Schools as a legal institution of education should be able to prevent and protect its students. There is a team of guidance and counseling teachers that has responsibility to protect and guide the students. Students’ problems can be overcome easily if the students know what exactly they want and how to solve it. It is different from mentally ill problem. Mental illness problem is not an ordinary problem. It needs special treatment from the expert of psychology. By expelling mentally ill students immediately after the teachers recognize it, does not mean that the school cannot protect its students. It protects the ill students from bullying of other friends. It also prevents the ill students before the illness is going worst. The school not only expels the ill students, but also gives suggestion to mentally ill’s parent to send their children to the expert. This is the right way for the betterment of schools and its society.

Mental illness students are also human. They have right to get education as well as normal people. They also need to be protected. However, they also need special treatment from the expert of psychology because mental illness is not an ordinary problem. It can ruin the effectiveness of the learning activity. Therefore school should take the right action as expelling the mentally ill students.