Oct 21, 2018, Daytona Beach (FL) News Journal: Volusia County schools still implementing plans for security, mental health services https://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20181021/volusia-county-schools-still-implementing-plans-for-security-mental-health-services After a difficult summer for Florida school districts as they struggled to revamp their security efforts before August, Volusia County is still working to tie up a few loose ends. New state mandates after the Parkland shooting in February called for security personnel on all school campuses, new additions in physical security and increased mental health services. … The district last week announced its participation in a state-mandated program called Fortify Florida. It’s an app and website where anyone can anonymously report school safety concerns to law enforcement and school administrators. … The district opted to create five mental health response and intervention teams — groups of three that will be tasked with identifying students who need help and getting them the support they need. Originally there was some trepidation that it would be difficult to hire for the teams, but district officials have already received an “overwhelming response of qualified, interested applicants,” and the job openings haven’t been posted online yet.
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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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