Aug 2, 2018, Huntsville, AL, ABC31: How local schools are keeping students safe http://www.waaytv.com/content/news/How-local-schools-are-keeping-students-safe-489899641.html All week long WAAY 31 is showing how school districts are preparing for the new year. Now, we're focused on the one thing every parent fears the most, a school shooting. … As mass school shootings piled up last school year, Madison City School leaders started to re-evaluate how they keep students safe…. When Madison students return to class on August 7th, they will notice two new additions to their hallways. "Every school is covered with a mental health counselor and we feel like that is going to be a great service to our kids. We have an SRO at every school now," added Parker. The district aimed to raise $750,000 to pay for the extra school resource officers and additional counselors. People sent in a little more than $20,000 worth of donations. Now, discretionary funds are paying for the rest of the bill. That money is typically used for extra teachers and classes. "When you fund school safety, you're funding fewer teachers and less offerings. And we have to find that balance, school safety is an unfunded mandate," said Parker. Parker is also in the process of hiring a Safety and Security Coordinator to his staff….
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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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