The latest Youth Risk Behavior survey of more than 300 high school students in the Mascoma Valley region didn’t lead to a mass gathering of concerned parents fretting about imminent dangers to their children. Only a dozen parents and staff members came to a recent presentation at the high school, according to staff writer Rick Jurgens’ account. Are adults experiencing crisis fatigue?

Or perhaps society is coming to grips with a new normal. In a time when drug overdoses are killing more people in New Hampshire than highway accidents, with more than 400 overdose deaths last year, it isn’t as alarming to hear that about 30 percent of Mascoma Valley Regional High School students had used alcohol in the last month, or that 20 percent had consumed marijuana.

But the findings suggest that the teenage years, long turbulent, have become even rougher waters as mental health issues come to the fore. One in three students reported feeling sad or hopeless in the two weeks prior to the survey. One in 10 reported attempting suicide, which is surprising and alarming.

One in five boys had been bullied, and two in five girls. One in three students lived with someone with a substance use disorder.

There were some improvements among the findings of the survey, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has been conducting nationally since 1990. Mascoma students reportedly are smoking and drinking less, presumably showing the effects of long-running public awareness campaigns. That suggests that change can happen, but only when society makes a sustained commitment and allocates resources. It takes time to change cultural norms and actual behaviors.

Although we assume that the Mascoma Valley is similar to the rest of the Upper Valley in facing issues such as these, its rural nature does bring added challenges. There’s less public transportation there, observers said, and fewer after-school programs for teens. There’s no easy fix for that, but community leaders should keep the issue before them.

Meanwhile, there’s much for Mascoma Valley parents and educators to consider in these results, particularly the depth of mental health issues. Colleges have been reporting greatly increased demands for mental health services these days, so it’s not surprising that high schools are experiencing the same thing. After all, classroom teachers have been contending for years that education is becoming a harder business, because children have more needs and bring these personal issues to school. Educators feel they are being called upon not just to teach children, but also to help raise them.

It’s to the Mascoma Valley Regional School District’s credit that it now has a social worker on staff, said to be a first in the Upper Valley. That is likely to be a growing trend, and one that shouldn’t be pooh-poohed by adults who weigh costs using their memories of simpler school days. This is the way it is now — more serious challenges arise during the hard task of growing up — and schools should be equipped to help. Needs that aren’t addressed now can lead to costs, some tragic, down the road.