Rock Hill, NC: "New problem for educators": "student mental illness, related misbehavior"

May 18, 2018, Rock Hill (NC) Herald: 'Epidemic': Rock Hill educators forced to confront rise in student mental illness http://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/education/article211118264.html It's a new problem for educators. They're now forced to confront the issue of student mental illness, and related misbehavior, in the classroom. … Rock Hill has established new strategies to deal with the increase in students who have a variety of mental health problems, Turner said. Schools across the state are seeing more students dealing with mental illness, said Melissa Reeves, a nationally certified school psychologist and psychology professor at Winthrop University who helps train educators. “There’s not a school district that I work with that is not reporting that they’re seeing a tremendous increase in the mental health needs,” Reeves said. According to a 2017 youth risk behavior survey from the South Carolina Department of Education, 17 percent of high school students reported that they had made a plan to kill themselves, and 15 percent of those have attempted suicide. In the same survey, students indicated bullying, fighting and feelings of sadness and hopelessness were some of the problems they face…. “This is a widespread epidemic,” Turner said. “The outcomes are being displayed in our classroom. So many children are suffering from varieties of mental illness. We need to put more tools and resources in our teachers’ and administrators’ hands.” Peter Kosko, assistant director of exceptional student education for Rock Hill, said he is seeing diagnoses of schizophrenia in younger children. “It used to never happen,” he said. “We’re now seeing it at age five, six and seven. This is the 'new now,' and we have to figure out how to address those small children.” In each Rock Hill school, teams of school administration and mental health professionals now are trained to recognize warning signs, and determine how likely children are to harm themselves or others, Reeves said. The threat assessment teams, which also are established in Fort Mill, Charlotte-Mecklenburg and other school districts, create intervention and support plans, Reeves said. She helped train the Rock Hill teams. …