Some schools in the United States have begun introducing various forms of “meditation” in their classes, including such techniques as yoga, in an alleged effort to help students improve their mental health.

As reported by ABC News, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has endorsed such tactics being used in schools as a means of combating the lingering effects of the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic, which disproportionately affected schools and significantly stunted childrens’ growth and education across the country.

“We know that our teenagers and adolescents have really strained in their mental health,” said CDC Director Mandy Cohen. “There are real skills that we can give our teens to make sure that they are coping with some big emotions.”

The CDC claims that, in 2023, over one-third of all American students reported feeling “persistent sadness” and “hopelessness” in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic lockdowns and the subsequent disastrous impact on education. As such, the agency has recommended the implementation of “mindfulness practices” in order to deal with students’ emotional states.

Various schools have been working to implement such measures through contracts with companies and other organizations that seek to promote these concepts in school. One such example is GreenLight Fund Atlanta, a network that matches communities with local nonprofits in the Atlanta area; GreenLight has partially paid for Inner Explorer, an audio program, to bring its “mindfulness program” to multiple schools in the state of Georgia.

Inner Explorer uses audio cues to guide students for sessions of breathing, meditating, and reflecting over the course of 5 to 10 minutes a day. It is used in over 100 school districts across the country.

But as with most public education initiatives, some advocates have tried to claim, with no evidence, that these issues predominantly impact non-White students. Joli Cooper, the executive director of GreenLight Fund Atlanta, claimed that “when you look at the numbers, unfortunately, in Georgia, the number of children of color with suicidal thoughts and success is quite high.”

“When you look at the number of psychologists available for these children, there are not enough psychologists of color,” Cooper added, thus endorsing the idea that only non-White psychologists should be used to treat non-White children.