May 22, 2019, Fort Wayne (IN) Daily Journal: Lawmakers leave schools ill-prepared on mental ills http://www.dailyjournal.net/2019/05/23/lawmakers_leave_schools_illprepared_on_mental_ills/ Less than a year after a student shot a classmate and teacher at Noblesville Middle School, Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a school safety bill incorporating recommendations from a task force formed after the shooting. … Better prepared, perhaps. But not best prepared. Bowing to pressure from powerful conservative groups, legislative leaders stripped language from the bill that would have allowed school safety grant dollars for mental health services. Advance America, a special-interest group, claimed in a post-session message to followers that the legislation “would have forced students to answer very personal and inappropriate questions from a federal government survey about their sexual activity — without prior written parental consent!” In fact, the language reflected recommendations from the months-long work of the governor’s task force and referenced mental health more than 100 times. Task force members rightly observed that enhanced mental health services are key in preventing school violence — ahead of safety equipment, technology, tools and training. But the outside influence of a small group of powerful conservatives prompted lawmakers to ignore the counsel of educators and public health and law enforcement officials. State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick, speaking at Ivy Tech’s Coliseum campus last month, said her Department of Education staff had to “literally beg” to get references to social-emotional learning in any bill. It’s important because educators now recognize students’ success hinges on preparing them for real-world experiences — managing emotions, adapting to change, handling relationships and more…. “There is no greater need in schools today than someone to help teachers, help our kids with mental health issues and social-emotional issues,” said Rep. Wendy McNamara, the author of the bill and a high school principal. The new law allows grants from the state’s safe schools fund to pay for training school personnel in “evidence-based practices that contribute to a positive school environment, including … social-emotional learning.”…
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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.
Loss of Brain Trust features over 9,000 news stories published worldwide since January, 2017
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
CHECK OUT MY SUBSTACK:
https://annedachel.substack.com/
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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