June 24, 2018, Denver Post: Colorado schools get $400,000 in grant funding for suicide prevention but many say much more is needed https://www.denverpost.com/2018/06/24/colorado-school-funding-suicide-prevention/ Colorado schools will soon divide $400,000 into small grants to pay for suicide-prevention training for all campus employees, including teachers, front-desk attendants and custodians. The training, supporters say, is designed to bolster the fight against a rising tide of suicides by youths. … The school training grants — from $5,000 to $10,000 for each campus — will be available in January and must be used to train all school personnel on the warning signs of impending suicide attempts, diffuse crisis situations and connect troubled people to mental health services…. “I believe our youth are under so much pressure to try and fit in,” Hawley said. “Always after the latest fashion trying to be like their rich music idol. Trying to be part of something by taking part in a foolish online challenge.”… …Hawley said. “Suicide does not discriminate on age. We have 10- and 11-year-old babies who are taking their own lives.”…
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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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