In the last decade, the number of children reporting suicidal thinking and feelings of hopelessness has increased by 71% while completed suicides by children have increased by 56%. These grim statistics were true even before the overlay of social isolation and anxiety created by a global pandemic, when children lost loved ones and parents lost jobs. The closing of schools isolated them from the normative social, educational and developmental experiences of school and sports and play. As pointed out by the New York Times, the school closures at the same time isolated our children from the teachers and school staff […]