Aug 25, 2018, Stroudsburg, PA, Pocono Record: Madden hosts school violence panel http://www.poconorecord.com/news/20180822/madden-hosts-school-violence-panel Securing schools from violence was the focus of a Tuesday panel discussion hosted by state Rep. Maureen Madden at Hughes Public Library. Madden and fellow state representatives from across Pennsylvania are on the House Democratic Policy Committee, whose panel holds periodic public discussions throughout the year on issues affecting communities in the Commonwealth. At each of these discussions, the panel hears from a series of speakers presenting on topics…. In April and June, the task force held six community meetings at schools throughout Pennsylvania, Brown said. These meetings focused on preparing schools and emergency personnel for mass shootings and threats, better addressing students’ mental as well as physical health needs and training students and staff in being alert and addressing problems before they reach the point where emergency personnel are called. Identified at these meetings was the need for improved communication and information-sharing, enhanced social and emotional learning for students, more nurses and mental health professionals, more access to mental health services, stronger school security and stronger connections between schools and their communities, as well as other strategies, Brown said…. Hamilton discussed assessing the traumatic impact of adverse childhood experiences on children and how likely they are to act out this trauma in destructive ways when older. She also discussed building resilience in children to help them overcome this trauma before it leads to problems. The last speaker, Helena Tuleya-Payne, coordinator of Millersville University’s School Psychology Program, discussed the importance of school psychologists, counselors and social workers providing mental health services to students at risk of violent behavior. Just as important is students reporting “leakage,” or a student sharing his/her plan to do something violent in school, to the proper authorities, Tuleya-Payne said.
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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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