The unprecedented mental health crisis for children in the United States often surfaces where they spend much of their days: school. With that in mind, Google’s philanthropic arm is directly financing high school wellbeing projects on a classroom crowdfunding platform.
Google.org on Monday flash funded all mental health-related listings on DonorsChoose, an online charity where members help purchase supplies requested by public school teachers. With $10 million in new gifts and the help of actress Selena Gomez, the Silicon Valley giant hopes to center mindfulness as an educational goal at the start of the academic calendar.
Districts have turned to teachers for psychological help after the coronavirus pandemic brought alarming levels of childhood depression, anxiety and fights. But experts say that increased attention has not translated to more philanthropic money overall toward mental health.
Google.org committed earlier this year to back nonprofits that support kids’ mental health and online safety. Monday’s announcement — which will also provide $500 vouchers for eligible DonorsChoose campaigns in the near future — ups that pledge to $25 million.
The move comes amid widespread criticism and lawsuits claiming Google-owned YouTube and other social media sites have fueled the childhood mental health crisis by deliberately designing addictive features.
Justin Steele, Google.org’s Director for the America, said its initiative highlights Google’s efforts to lead this “important conversation” and “be one part of contributing to positive solutions.”
Its internet browser’s own data has showcased the rising interest; Steele said searches for “teen mental health” doubled over the last four years.
“Obviously, we want people to be able to take advantage of all the amazing things technology has to offer,” Steele said. “But we also want them to be able to do it in a healthy and safe way.”
Google.org is giving $6 million overall to DonorsChoose. The technology company also announced $1.5 million in donations to the Jed Foundation, the Steve Fund and Child Mind Institute — groups focused on emotional wellbeing among young adults, people of color and children, respectively. The organizations will design half-hour training sessions to help educators navigate new mental health challenges. Teachers can earn $200 DonorsChoose credits upon course completion.
Gomez’s Rare Impact Fund, which seeks to drive more money into this “underfunded field,” is receiving $1.25 million.
The “Only Murders in the Building” star has been vocal about her own bipolar diagnosis. In a Monday blog post, Gomez said she knows firsthand that “caring adults” can make a big difference for teenagers.
“As young people find their way through the world, it’s crucial that they get guidance in building healthy, positive and productive mental health habits,” Gomez wrote. “Few people are in a better position to help do this than teachers.”
The need to address behavioral issues in high school was further emphasized by a recent report from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Students said they faced bullying and missed school due to safety concerns at higher rates than previous years in data released August 6.
Yes, Mindful Philanthropy Executive Director Alyson Niemann acknowledged, the greater focus on mental health has brought minimal funding boosts for nonprofits in this space. But she said the dollars don’t match the new levels of awareness.
One major barrier is that donors don’t know which solutions work, according to Niemann. School-based mental health support is one of the most effective remedies, she said. That’s where many students begin the path to treatment and find trusted adults in teachers or coaches.
DonorsChoose CEO Alix Guerrier emphasized that teachers are not substitutes for mental health professionals. But he said DonorsChoose has seen a fourfold increase over the past four years in the number of mental health submissions. Such requests include saucer chairs for a “calm corner” and meditative stuffed animals that guide deep breathing.
“There is no limit to teachers’ creativities," Guerrier said.
Mental health has long been a priority for Aileen Gendrano Adao in her Los Angeles classrooms. The high school English teacher said she asks students to ground themselves with three deep breaths at the start of class. Wall posters affirm students’ self-worth.
She said DonorsChoose gives her the freedom to creatively engage with students — especially when districts lack the money to meet needs that emerge in real time. As Asian Americans faced racially motivated attacks during the pandemic, she obtained graphic novels about Asian American identity.
She hopes this additional funding encourages educators to prioritize mental health.
“Schools are transforming in a way that’s needed and necessary to heal from post-pandemic chaos,” she said. “There’s an investment. People are seeing us and wanting us to be better and whole again.
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
In this image provided by Google, actress Selena Gomez, center, interacts with Eagle Rock High School students at a mental health event in Los Angeles, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. (Brandon Ogden/Google via AP)
FILE - Selena Gomez takes part in the featured session "Mindfulness Over Perfection: Getting Real On Mental Health" at the Austin Convention Center during the South by Southwest Conference on Sunday, March 10, 2024, in Austin, Texas. Google.org, the technology giant's philanthropic arm, is donating $1.25 million to Gomez's Rare Impact Fund as part of its recent commitment to nonprofits focused on youth mental health. (Photo by Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — In what appears to be a sophisticated, remote attack, pagers used by hundreds of members of Hezbollah exploded almost simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria Tuesday, killing at least nine people — including an 8-year-old girl — and wounding thousands more.
A U.S. official said Israel briefed the U.S. on the operation — in which small amounts of explosive secreted in the pagers were detonated — on Tuesday after it was concluded. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the information publicly.
The Iran-backed militant group blamed Israel for the deadly explosions, which targeted an extraordinary breadth of people and showed signs of being a long-planned operation. Details on how the attack was executed are largely uncertain and investigators have not immediately said how the pagers were detonated. The Israeli military has declined to comment.
Here's what we know so far.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah previously warned the group’s members not to carry cellphones, saying they could be used by Israel to track the group's movements. As a result, the organization uses pagers to communicate.
A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press the exploded devices were from a new brand the group had not used before. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press, did not identify the brand name or supplier.
Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said Wednesday it had authorized use of its brand on the AR-924 pager model and a Budapest, Hungary-based company called BAC Consulting produced and sold the pagers. Further information on BAC wasn't immediately available.
Nicholas Reese, adjunct instructor at the Center for Global Affairs in New York University’s School of Professional Studies, explains smart phones carry a higher risk for intercepted communications in contrast to the simpler technology of pagers.
This type of attack will also force Hezbollah to change their communication strategies, said Reese, who previously worked as an intelligence officer, adding that survivors of Tuesday's explosions are likely to throw away "not just their pagers, but their phones, and leaving their tablets or any other electronic devices.”
Even with a U.S. official confirming it was a planned operation by Israel, multiple theories have emerged Tuesday around how the attack might have been carried out. Several experts who spoke with The Associated Press explained how the explosions were most likely the result of supply-chain interference.
Very small explosive devices may have been built into the pagers prior to their delivery to Hezbollah, and then all remotely triggered simultaneously, possibly with a radio signal.
By the time of the attack, “the battery was probably half-explosive and half-actual battery," said Carlos Perez, director of security intelligence at TrustedSec.
A former British Army bomb disposal officer explained that an explosive device has five main components: A container, a battery, a triggering device, a detonator and an explosive charge.
“A pager has three of those already,” explained the ex-officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he now works as a consultant with clients on the Middle East. “You would only need to add the detonator and the charge.”
After security camera footage appeared on social media Tuesday purporting to show one of the pagers explode on a man’s hip in a Lebanese market, two munitions experts offered opinions that corroborate the U.S. official's statement that the blast appeared to be the result of a tiny explosive device.
“Looking at the video, the size of the detonation is similar to that caused by an electric detonator alone or one that incorporates an extremely small, high-explosive charge,” said Sean Moorhouse, a former British Army officer and explosive ordinance disposal expert.
This signals involvement of a state actor, Moorhouse said. He adds that Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, is the most obvious suspect to have the resources to carry out such an attack.
N.R. Jenzen-Jones, an expert in military arms who is director of the Australian-based Armament Research Services, notes that Israel had been accused of carrying out similar operations in the past. Last year, AP reported that Iran accused Israel of trying to sabotage its ballistic missile program through faulty foreign parts that could explode, damaging or destroying the weapons before they could be used.
It would take a long time to plan an attack of this scale. The exact specifics are still unknown, but experts who spoke with the AP shared estimates ranging anywhere between several months to two years.
The sophistication of the attack suggests that the culprit has been collecting intelligence for a long time, Reese explained. An attack of this caliber requires building the relationships needed to gain physical access to the pagers before they were sold; developing the technology that would be embedded in the devices; and developing sources who can confirm that the targets were carrying the pagers.
And it's likely the compromised pagers seemed normal to their users for some time before the attack. Elijah J. Magnier, a Brussels-based veteran and a senior political risk analyst with over 37 years experience in the region, said he has had conversations with members of Hezbollah and survivors of Tuesday's pager attack. He said the pagers were procured more than six months ago.
“The pagers functioned perfectly for six months," Magnier said. What triggered the explosion, he said, appeared to be an error message sent to all the devices.
Based on his conversations with Hezbollah members, Magnier also said that many pagers didn’t go off, allowing the group to inspect them. They came to the conclusion that between 3 to 5 grams of a highly explosive material were concealed or embedded in the circuitry, he said.
Jenzen-Jones also adds that “such a large-scale operation also raises questions of targeting" — stressing the number of causalities and enormous impact reported so far.
“How can the party initiating the explosive be sure that a target’s child, for example, is not playing with the pager at the time it functions?” he said.
Hezbollah issued a statement confirming at least two members were killed in the bombings. One of them was the son of a Hezbollah member in parliament, according to the Hezbollah official who spoke anonymously. The group later issued announcements that six other members were killed Tuesday, though it did not specify how.
“We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that also targeted civilians,” Hezbollah said, adding that Israel will “for sure get its just punishment.”
Associated Press journalist Johnson Lai in Taipei
People donate blood for those who were injured by their exploded handheld pagers, at a Red Cross center, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
