In order to ensure that students have visual acuity, the Fullerton Union High School District mandated that all sophomores took a hearing test in September. 

The results from FUHS’s test this year are consistent with data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which show an increase in hearing loss seen among teenagers throughout the United States. 

In a survey conducted in 2020, the CDC identified teenage hearing loss as being on the rise. Of the 7,000 teenagers surveyed throughout the country, 17.5% reported some form of hearing loss. 

The startling statistic on teenage hearing loss has healthcare providers, like district register nurse Kristina Smith, shocked. 

¨I was actually surprised at how many [students] I had that failed,¨ Smith said. “I should have known this, but I’m not of the earbud-wearing generation.” 

Smith thinks that earbuds are the primary culprit.

Sophomore Calx Cortes has failed their hearing test three times.

Cortes suffers from poor hearing caused by listening to too much hardcore rock.

According to a report by The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, hearing loss is typically seen in Americans between the ages of 65 and 74. 

“I listen to heavy metal, rock, dubstep, Russian rap, Russian metal sometimes, and most of the time German metal,” Cortes said. 

When students like Cortes fail their tests multiple times, Smith must phone home and request that the child be taken to see a specialist. 

¨If a student should fail the screen, it’s protocol that we will repeat the screen in two to six weeks,¨ Smith said. ¨If I do the re-screen and they fail again then it’s a notification home to the parents saying, ‘Could you please have your child checked? ’”

However, a specialist can only do so much to combat stubbornness. As per the Federal Register, sponsored by the United States National Archives, deterrents that prevent Americans from using hearing aids include expensive hearing care, ageist stereotypes, and doubt about the effectiveness of hearing aids in relation to the high cost. 

“Current working knowledge is once those hair cells are damaged there’s no repairing them,” Smith said. “I tell young people to think about the type of work they want to pursue someday and consider how dependent we are on our hearing.”