We talk big about valuing children in our communities but our actions don’t match the talk.
Schools with fewer than 1000 students in MN don’t get a licensed school nurse – schools with 30,000 students could be relying on one nurse.
There are more and more sad stories about violence in schools and the serious mental health issues facing teachers every day. Add to that the complex physical medical conditions schools are mandated to deal with.
Think about what it’s like for that one nurse to miss a day or a week of work. Who steps in to manage the needs of 5, 10 or 50 students?
In more and more schools there are as many or more police officers per student in the schools as their are medical people. That is almost certainly true when comparing police presence to qualified mental health personnel in schools.
Think about these two decades old mental health statistics;
1/3 of foster children have mental health issues serious enough to be forced onto psychotropic medications.
Of the 2 million youth arrested in America every year, 70% or them have mental health issues – half of them have severe, chronic and often multiple diagnosis.
That’s what teachers and schools face every day with one school nurse if they are lucky enough to have one.
Much of the information for this article is from Erin Golden’s Star Tribune article this morning.
KARA has been reporting and speaking on critical issues impacting abused and neglected children for many years.
this article submitted by long time CASA guardian ad Litem Mike Tikkanen
Please share this with teachers, law enforcement and social workers in your circles
