Aug 12, 2018, KXAN-TV, Austin, TX: 'No one magic solution'; Lawmakers recommend school safety steps https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/-no-one-magic-solution-lawmakers-recommend-school-safety-steps/1359630684 Nearly three months after a deadly school shooting, Texas lawmakers say they're making progress toward legislation to improve school safety. "Everyone agrees that we've got to do what we can to stop and prevent these types of events from occurring in the future," said State Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood. His district includes Santa Fe, where a teenager shot and killed 10 people and wounded 13 others in Santa Fe High School. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick chose Taylor to lead the Senate Select Committee on Violence in Schools and School Security…. The committee held hearings throughout the summer. "We did learn through this process that there is no one magic solution to this and so it is going to take a series of things," Taylor said…. Ideas that did get support from the committee include steps to help schools pay to add metal detectors and "hardened" entrances, legislation to pay for training for school marshals who can carry guns on campus and ways to make school counselors more available to students and ways to provide additional mental health training to school employees.
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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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