June 14, 2019, Alpena (MI) News: Alpena seeks help with student behavior https://www.thealpenanews.com/news/local-news/2019/06/alpena-seeks-help-with-student-behavior/ Wilson Elementary School Principal Lisa Hilberg on Thursday asked the Alpena-Montmorency-Alcona Educational Service District Board of Education for help dealing with behavior issues in her school and other schools in the region. Hilberg spoke during public comment about how some children with trauma struggle with the demands of coping in a regular classroom. “Their struggle comes out in their behaviors,”Hilberg said to the board. “They involve hitting, biting, kicking, running off, throwing objects, knocking over desks, and throwing chairs. Classrooms are evacuated.” Hilberg said elementary schools nationwide are dealing with those issues, including local school districts. She said there needs to be resources at schools to help students who are struggling with trauma with the end goal of getting those students back into the regular education classroom. Three ideas were suggested to the ESD board by Hilberg: update the ESD strategic plan to reflect the need of a behavior room where students experiencing trauma and behavior issues can go so they don’t disturb their peers, consider opening a special education plan to reflect the need for a room, and consider what the ESD would be able to offer for a behavior room. “I understand that our ESD does not have the funding that other ISDs (intermediate school district) have, but perhaps you can contribute something,” Hilberg said. “Other school districts in our ESD have a need for this room, so I think our ESD should have some involvement.” Hilberg spoke to the board because she wanted to create public awareness of what’s going on in the schools and to get a behavior room to support those children. Alpena Public Schools Superintendent John VanWagoner said in an interview with The News that, across the region, resources are not available to handle the type of trauma that students experience. He said the district is struggling to have the resources to have a few social workers or school psychologists. The hope is to create a behavior room within Alpena schools soon….
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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