School Mental Health Programs Have Failed Our Children, Watchdog Group Says

CCHR says school mental health programs have failed given the increasing reports of disturbing behavior of the very young. Teaching “character building” and providing “mental health” screening and treatment may be putting teachers and students in harm’s way.

Los Angeles, United States - January 18, 2023 /PressCable/ —

The shocking news that a 6-year-old attacked a first-grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia is resonating across the nation. This and the general rise of serious disturbing behavior of the very young in schools has prompted the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International to reiterate that governments need to review the failure of infusing and massively funding school mental health programs.

CCHR wants state and federal governments to investigate the potential role of these programs and child psychotropic drug use in creating or exacerbating an aggressive mindset and culture in schools.

States, among them Virginia, mandate schools to provide students with character development and social and emotional learning. Whether the 6-year-old boy had undergone this is unknown, but the altercation with his teacher resulted in him making a potentially lethal choice to resolve it.

Newport News Mayor Phillip D. Jones stated in response to the Richneck Elementary School tragedy, “It is almost impossible to wrap our minds” around this. He added, “I do think that after this event, there is going to be a nationwide discussion on how these sorts of things can be prevented.”

CCHR says that it will never “wrap its wits” around such tragedies or prevent them without an honest review of failed mental health ‘solutions’ used to treat the problem of child and youth violence.

There can be numerous reasons for senseless behavior, including abusive family backgrounds. However, psychotropic drugs and “mental health treatment” in schools and in foster care and juvenile centers clearly aren’t improving or preventing child crime. They should be investigated as a pivotal point in helping to create or exacerbate the mindset behind the commission of aggressive behavior.

There are more than 25 international drug regulatory agency warnings citing psychiatric drugs causing mania, psychosis, aggression, and more, as addressed in CCHR’s report Psychiatric Drugs Create Violence & Suicide.

School mental health programs usually include mental health screening and “awareness” programs, and access to school mental health clinics. However, psychological and psychiatric programs arguably have only made matters worse.

CCHR warned against this path in 1999 when it testified before a Colorado government Ad Hoc Committee Hearing into psychiatric drugs creating violence in schools. The Colorado State Board of Education passed a precedent-setting resolution that called on teachers to use academics rather than drug solutions for behavior, attention, and learning difficulties in the classroom.[1]

Yet taxpayer appropriations have been funneled into everything but this.

The mindset of young children choosing to act out aggressively rather than rationally, as exemplified in the recent school event involving a 6-year-old, is chillingly irresponsible. While it begs questions about a child’s home life, it also raises an alarm about what “mental health” programs teachers are being mandated to teach in schools that could be causing harm they are unaware of.

The call for governments to investigate the failure of psychiatric screening, mental health programs, and treatment is even more vital in light of the recent shocking, senseless examples of child killers.

Read full article here.

[1] “Resolution: Promoting the Use of Academic Solutions to Resolve Problems with Behavior, Attention, and Learning,” Colorado State Board of Education, 11 Nov. 1999

Contact Info:
Name: Amber Rauscher
Email: Send Email
Organization: Citizens Commission on Human Rights International
Address: 6616 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90028, United States
Phone: +1-323-467-4242
Website: https://www.cchrint.org

Source: PressCable

Release ID: 89088501

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