STOCKTON, Calif. — For 9-year old D'Artagnan Vargas of Rio Linda, distance learning has been anything but easy.
"He was throwing up so much. He wasn't even able to concentrate on his classes," D'Artagnan’s mother Deanna Vargas said.
With another 9-year old son and 7-year old daughter, Deanna has her hands full. D'Artagnan is also a special-needs student and, at one point, felt like giving up.
"He does battle depression with his anxiety. And, for several weeks we fought every day with him telling me that he just wanted to kill himself," Deanna said.
UC Davis child psychologist Tara Niendam said parents and guardians need to pay attention to the signs.
"Avoidance, sadness, or the other thing we've really seen is kids making very negative self-statements. ‘I can't do this.’ ‘I'm not good enough.’ ‘I don't understand,’" Niendam said.
If there are weapons or items at home that children could use to harm themselves, experts say they should be securely stored.
"We encourage them to store [guns] through some sort of locking device, whether that's a safe, a storage box, a locker," Bill Romanelli with www.projectchildsafe.org said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a 2017 study found that more than 1,300 kids under the age of 17 die from gunshot wounds. So, what can you do to know what's happening in the mind of your child?
"Five minutes, one-on-one each day, where they can talk and just listen," Niendam recommends.
Deanna said D'Artagnan is doing much better now. She realized he missed being with his friends at school. So, she came up with an alternative.
"We have three good families that we trust and we know are being safe. And, so we allow him to go to those three families and hang out and play. And, that seriously has been the biggest game-changer," Deanna said.
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