Kansas City, MO: Schools can prevent violence by "expanding access to mental health services"

Mar 4, 2018, Kansas City (MO) Star: How can schools prevent threats of violence? Here’s one idea (EDITORIAL) http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article203090149.html With effective laws already on the books to address school safety, it’s going to take creative solutions to remedy the onslaught of recent threats of school violence. Expanding access to mental health services could be a start. … A 14-year-old Raytown Middle School student was charged Monday in juvenile court with one count of making a terrorist threat, a felony. The student is accused of taking images of firearms from Snapchat and posting them to Facebook. As it turned out, there was no immediate danger associated with the threats, police said. Still, officers received hundreds of phone calls. To help prevent such acts, school districts could improve mental health services for at-risk students. But a lack of funding makes that a steep challenge. … Mental health treatment cannot necessarily prevent threats to school safety, but it can make people more aware of the challenges young people face, said Jerry Keimig, the organization’s vice president of education. …