The students at a high school in Georgia experienced a shooting on the first day of the school year. Every citizen in our country wants these shootings to end.
Let’s look at this through a wider lens.
We have a national mental health crisis. Children and adults are struggling. Our schools are facing gun violence. Part of the solution is in our schools. Our kids need mental health and behavioral support right now. Our schools are the place where mental health needs can be addressed.
The gun did not pull the trigger. For many reasons, our kids are in a household with an adult or adults in a mental health crisis of their own. Some homes do not have an adult able to teach or guide emotional health for the children in the household. These children do not have an adult to demonstrate healthy ways to cope with anger.
The kids behind the weapons are screaming for help, and no one is listening. Our schools are a place to address the youth mental health crisis and support the needs of our kids.
Children need support with reading and math skills. The teacher reaches out to the other staff members in the building to assist struggling children with reading or math support. Schools have staffing to work with students struggling in reading or math.
The staffing for mental health is not there to support the children in a mental health crisis. A teacher has no one to count on for the students in her class struggling with mental health. A growing child needs support and guidance to develop and strengthen their coping skills and to support their emotional health.
One of the first things a teacher learns is the importance of developing a relationship with each student in the classroom for learning to accrue. It is through the relationships teachers make that a teacher is able to gain a better understanding of each child’s academic and emotional/behavioral needs.
Teachers then reach out to the other professionals in their school community for added assistance for the students needing support with reading and math. Teachers know one person does not have all the solutions. The school community is where the many can work together to find solutions. The academics of the day do not allow time for the classroom teacher to give the level of support some of the students need with mental health.
After 40 years in a classroom, my experience has been that the best resources for every school are within the walls of the building. The professionals in the school do all they are able to do in support, not only of the academic needs of students but also the emotional needs of the students in their school.
If you have been listening, teachers, school counselors and the support staff of schools all across America have been asking for help for their kids, to no avail. Just as a school community comes together to find solutions, the community around the schools can come together and can find solutions.
People, this is not a blaming thing, a political thing, a religious thing or a left-wing or right-wing thing. This is a people thing.
The current practice is for administrators and government to determine the staffing for schools. It comes down to dollars. Outside the school buildings, the decisions to close schools and cut staffing are being made with no thought of looking through a wider lens to the future for our kids and for our communities.
