Aug 3, 2018, Long Beach (CA) Signal Tribune: County Board of Supervisors votes to expand school-shooting prevention team https://signaltribunenewspaper.com/38571/news/county-board-of-supervisors-votes-to-expand-school-shooting-prevention-team/ The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a proposal by 4th District Supervisor Janice Hahn and co-authored by 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger to expand and strengthen a program that aims to prevent shootings and violence at LA County schools. . The School Threat Assessment Response Team (START) is a program established under the Department of Mental Health (DMH) made up of mental-health professionals who respond to principals, counselors, school security officers or parents worried about students who have talked about suicide, exhibited concerning behavior or made threats. After receiving a credible threat, START members visit the school, evaluate the student and go to the student’s home, according to Hahn’s office. In most cases, START can recommend counseling. In more serious cases, the student might be put on a 72-hour hold or arrested if a crime has been committed. The START program currently is made up of 10 staff members. However, in response to the increase in high-profile school shootings across the country, in February Hahn and Barger proposed examining ways the team could be expanded and strengthened. … The DMH provided a report back with several recommendations including expanding the START program, developing an education outreach program to train students, teachers and community members to recognize and report threats, and develop a countywide communications awareness campaign. … With passage of this motion, the DMH will partner with the Los Angeles County Office of Education to reach out to all LA County school districts to provide resources for a school-violence prevention-awareness campaign, training modules and a school-violence prevention video for school orientations ahead of this coming school year. “In partnership with law-enforcement and our schools, the START program is an important tool that can work to prevent tragedies by responding to clear warning signs and cries for help by those who may be a danger to themselves or others,” Barger said. “We must ensure that our schools, parents, teachers and students help us gather information and so that mental health professionals can effectively assess and address concerning behavior.”
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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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