While I have posted in many other posts, that there are many reasons why people go off the derech and I feel that one of the solutions is to have mental health professionals in every yeshiva and bais yaacov; I would like to relate a story that I’m dealing with now. In the hospital, I’m helping treat a drug addict suffering from a bone infection. Like most of my patients, I talk to them. This one noticed my yarmulka, beard and payos and told me she learned in frum schools in Flatbush, not necessary Bais Yaacovs, but within the frum spectrum. She didn’t come from a frum background, but she probably would be frum from the schools- being that’s all she went to till the end of high school.
What turned her off was the fact that the other girls constantly made fun of her due to her lack of knowledge of frumkeit. So here we have another case due to the school(s). It might not be the direct fault of the Hanhalla, but they should have instilled the proper middos to the girls, not to make fun of others. I don’t think adminstrators can do a good enough job alone anymore, so I reiterate my call for mental health professionals in all schools.
One lesson that can be learned for everyone is -when you do something you don’t know what your action can cause in the future. This patient might ch’vs die (only in her 20’s); all due to drugs- due to going off the derech – due to her experiences in her school!