July 24, 2018, New Orleans Advocate: St. Tammany Sheriff's Office set to staff 25 schools with resource officers https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/communities/st_tammany/article_a0625c3e-8f70-11e8-82b4-7b4a33f7d2ce.html An ambitious plan to provide a school resource officer at each of St. Tammany Parish's 55 public schools by Aug. 9 is mostly on track, with Sheriff Randy Smith announcing Tuesday that his agency will provide 25 of the officers. All eight of the system's high schools and six of the 12 junior highs already have resource officers assigned to them, but the officers will be a new addition to elementary and middle schools. … The move follows the school system's recent decision to pay for police officers and mental health specialists in each of the parish's public schools, a response in part to the mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in February…. School system officials estimated the cost of the extra officers at $4 million and said that it would be covered initially with FEMA money and the school system's share of the BP oil spill settlement. A permanent funding source has not been determined…. The committee, which included law enforcement personnel, medical professionals, school leaders and parents, recommended police and mental health specialists be placed in each school to help thwart potential crises, and the parish School Board agreed with the plan. Schools spokeswoman Meredith Mendez said the system expects to have mental health providers at all 55 schools by the start of the school year. …
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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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