OUR OPINION: Rebuild America’s mental-health system
December 27, 2012 at 4:03 pm in Grand Forks Herald
Close to 100,000 public schools dot the American landscape. And on the question of how much it would cost to staff each one with an armed guard, estimates range from $3 billion to $10 billion a year. But would this be the best way to spend that sum? No because schools already are extremely safe. Continue Reading
Rebuilding our mental health system would be the better option. It would benefit work places, shopping malls, cinemas, schools … in other words all soft targets. Spending the money to put guards in schools would only benefit schools … if even. Now if only our country wasn’t broke.
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“because schools already are extremely safe.”
No. They are not. But the danger isn’t bullets, it’s bullying.
And that isn’t going to change until the police and court system are involved. As long as the school district can cover it up, it’ll continue for the next hundred years just like it has been for the previous hundred years.
If the school districts could genuinely take care of bullying, they’d have done it years ago.
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Schurkey: You nailed it. In the last couple of years, there’s been more attention to bullying. But, that effort has a long, long, long way to go. Until acts of bullying are confronted with meaningful consequences, the problem will continue. Consequences such as long term or permanent expulsions and counseling, at the bullying family’s expense. Perhaps consequences for those who know of active bullying and don’t report it?
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As with other situations in the public schools, this generally begins at home, where the bully learns the craft from his parents. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were proud of the little sociopath’s actions. I once saw a bumpersticker which read “My kid beat up your honor student.” This is the mindset your up against. Generally, these are the same parents who expect the schools to raise and feed their kids.
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Gene is correct. Bullying is a societal, not an educational problem.
Bullying was not just invented. It has been going on since Cain and Able. What is different is the severity. I honestly believe kids are just meaner today than in the past.
Numbers could have a lot too do with it as well. There are more people so there are more bullies.
Either way the school will not cure it. It can help contain it, but in the end the answer lies with society making that type of behavior verboten. Right now it is not.
Children today are seriously lacking in heroes. Look up to a drug addled rock star? Or a gangster rapper who glorifies abuse against women and putting your enemies in the ground? I can count on one hand the number of big name sports stars I would want my child emulating.
Society is much more rotten than it used to be. The school is not going to cure that.
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As an aside, I do not believe it is possible to “bully” someone into committing suicide. The LGBT community has attached themselves to this mindset to the detriment of their members.
Suicide is a solo act. It happens 100% between the person’s ears. You cannot force someone to do it. Blaming someone other than the person who committed suicide is just as misguided and wrong as blaming the dealer for the user’s overdose.
Bullying is wrong. It hurts people and can ruin lives. That said, how the person chooses to deal with it is up to them.
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In general I’m not around kids that much so I don’t really see a lot of them. I can believe your assesment about kids being meaner than in the past because I’ve seen what I’ve considered as a lack ofcivility or manners in general. I think a lot of the kids of today are from parents who were in the thick of the “Me” generation of the 80′s. There’s little wonder that their kids would grow up with an attitude that they are at the center of the universe
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It is very, very near-sighted to state as ‘fact’ that today’s society (even if just talking the US) is ‘much more rotten’ than those of the past. Think about it.
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As with other situations in the public schools, this generally begins at home, where the bully learns the craft from his parents. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were proud of the little sociopath’s actions. I once saw a bumpersticker which read “My kid beat up your honor student.” This is the mindset your up against. Generally, these are the same parents who expect the schools to raise and feed their kids.
Please expand upon your last sentence. Who are the parents who expect the schools to raise their kids? How would I recognize this ‘behavior’ in a parent? Same goes with the parent who expects the school to ‘feed’ their kids? How would this parent be recognized among any other parent?
Yes, the bumper sticker is stupid. BUT so is a bumper sticker that brags about a kid being an honor student. So what.
Brilliant students grow up and do not so brilliant acts. Average students grow up and do brilliant acts.
What most people fail to understand is that the mindset behind a bumper sticker that states “My kid is an honor student.” has as much potential to promote bullying as one that says “My kid beat up your honor student.”
It’s so damn easy to point to bumper stickers or systems or even parents to try to ‘explain’ why bullying occurs. Bullying is a SOCIAL issue and there are many contributing factors – many of which most of us buy into and perpetuate on a DAILY basis – without even thinking about it.
And, Gene, I’ve got news for ya. The kid who arrives at school in designer jeans and probably had a grand breakfast at home cooked by a nanny or stay-at-home parent – that kid has the same potential to bully as the kid who arrived at school hungry, ate a free breakfast at school, and is wearing shoes two sizes too big. EXAMINE your own attitudes.
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I guess we don’t see eye to eye on this. For me there’s a big difference in a parent expressing pride (which you characterize as “bragging”) in a child’s academic achievement, and one who expresses the same pride in assault and battery. I’ll admit that my view is colored by personal experience: in first grade, my son was attacked, with the result being a broken arm and dislocated elbow. He was in a cast for six weeks, the other kid got a 5-day suspension. btw, that same kid, 21 years later, is doing time in the Bismarck pen. So I’ll admit my judgement of this subject is harsh.
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Hmmm, so it’s ‘academic achievement’ vs. ‘assault and battery’ in your mind? That’s the difference to you. Well, then there isn’t much use in my wasting my time on this topic with you. Personal experiences matter – as a part of the picture, but not the entire picture.
I won’t even start on the topic of the problems of our penal system.
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Bullying isn’t just happening within our schools or with our youngsters. Let’s use the last article on Heidi Heitkamp as an example. More than one adult bullied her based solely on her weight. Grown-ups did this to another grown-up.
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Speaking of Heidi, I see the Herald just put up a pic of what she really looks like.
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Listen … I saw your photo on UND’s website. People … check it out for yourselves and tell me who is prettier … Gene or Heidi. I’m going with Heidi. She has more hair.
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I have never criticized Heidi, my knock is on the Herald, who knowingly printed an image of her during the campaign which was decades old. This is reflective of the type of “journalism” it has practiced for years.
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You implied she gained a substantial amount of weight. Yet your comment was mild compared to a couple others. But irrelevant to the article. Face it … you and your partners bullied that woman.
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No implication was needed; anyone could arrive at a conclusion comparing the photos. As for bullying, your definition is so broad that any observation which one finds untoward is bullying.
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Heidi won. From a purely practical point of view it had very little if anything to do with the Herald’s picture. They said vote for the other guy. Remind me next time I run for office to make a plea that Forum Communications endorse the other guy.
Heidi won because as the story said, people liked her. I would say she won because she bothered to campaign. Look at the number of events she held compared to the other guy.
People bullied her because of her weight, but did that help or harm her. Palin & Bachmann are both much better looking, yet America seems to be able to look past window dressing with very little difficulty.
The most successful female politician of our time is anything but glamorous; yet very few people on either side of the isle are willing to tangle with her
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I presume you’re referrring to Margaret Thatcher.
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They are darn near twins now that you mention it
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You guys have a poor idea of what constitutes bullying.
Commenting on a persons weight when they are a public figure is not bullying, if it is then CNN and MSNBC should be ostracized for pointing out that Gov Christie would not likely be a candidate in 2016 because of his weight and appearance.
Bullying takes on a lot of different forms but we must demand that as a society that we at least show a bit of thick skin, everything in life cant be kittens and rainbows.
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It influences our children Cap. They here this stuff coming out of the mouths of adults and follow the lead. We can’t stop bullying unless we change our behavior. This is why it will never happen.
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Why is it I never see my typos until after I hit submit? The other day I wrote higher instead of hirer.
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Yes…Maybe we can get a petition together to have them put an “Edit” function on here. Either that or a much bigger box to type in so it’s easier to proof
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You can edit and delete your comments on Enage The Spoons.
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This opinion piece is a dead-on bullseye. We were told two decades ago that with the closing of Mental Treatment facilites, county jails would eventually house many of those who might have been treated medically. I scoffed at the suggestion at the time. I can tell you, it happened just as predicted.
This is a mental health problem, not a gun control problem. Re-open Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Center. Even if it costs a lot, it is cheaper than building new jails or letting these people go untreated and un-noticed until they perform some violent act.
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I used to work in a level 1 psych facility (last step before the state hospital). Many of our repeat offenders simply were not able to function in society. When they took their meds they had a modicum of stability (they were still crazy as a bed bug, but could carry out their activities of daily living); the trouble is they did not take their meds.
Most of these people would be better served by half way houses and residential treatment facilities. These types of places are few and far between. There is less than half for what is needed.
Institutionalization is not the answer. Institutionalization leads to abuse of a very vulnerable population. The other extreme is also true: they cannot be expected to survive unaided in society. They are crazy. That does not get better.
What we are talking about is a system of life long care. These people will not be cured with a pill.
Our system spends more on viagra than mental health care (true story). The mentally ill have zero political power and very few champions. Don’t expect this to change any time soon.
PS: The next group you see falling into this “need life long care but are not receiving it” are our veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. America has no idea the true number of permanently injured warriors there are. We are not talking just PTSD. The number of vets with severe traumatic brain injuries is truly astounding. Many of these vets will require life long care. Many more will have emotional problems and violent tendencies for the rest of their lives.
We will be paying for GWB hubris for a very long time
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I would have agreed with you right up to the point you decided to be another blind man that likes to assign blame which is ill placed.
You are just another of the lemmings that refuses to use one single ounce of common sense and continues to blame Bush for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Did that Liberal Arts degree not require a civics class? If it did you would have learned that only Congress can authorize sending troops to war.
This vote took place and plenty of Democrats voted to go.
Its high time you and all the other lemmings realize that America went to war because we were attacked on 9/11 and stop pretending it was just Bush wanting to play Army.
If you want to do something constructive, maybe explain why our troops are still in Afghanistan being killed and injured everyday when we rid the earth of Bin Laden over a year ago?
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btw, as i recall you are the first one up on the soap box screaming to cut the defense budget.
Guess where the VA hospitals get their funding from.
Your problem is you talk out both sides of your mouth too often.
Cut this, cut that, but fund this and fund that……..
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Negative Captain: I am the first one to decry wasteful defense spending. Specifically unwanted & unneeded infrastructure & procurements in excess of needs (M1A1 tanks) so that some congressman gets reelected.
This wasteful spending (remember I don’t want to close GFAFB, the Air Force does) is what prevents the war fighters from doing their job, & society from doing its (taking care of returning vets).
As for GWB, he is at the hospital holding vigil over a man who won his war. You cannot deny the fact that if W had done as good a job as his father, there would be no need to hide behind congressional resolutions.
W took a bad situation & made it worse. Then he spent the better part of a decade digging the hole deeper.
Barry is not much better. There is absolutely no reason one American troop remains in either Iraq & Afghanistan.
We got kicked out of Vietnam & we will likewise lose both of these wars.
Bush #1 knew when to stop. GWB did not. It really is that simple
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What is the difference between residential care and institutionalization? Aren’t they both staffed by health care professionals and monitored by the state?
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Residential care facilities are generally open (the patients/clients are not locked in). They strive to keep the client functioning in society to the best of their ability.
They help the client to remember to take their meds, they assist them to get to their doctor’s appointments, they make sure they shower, have clean clothes, & are fed.
In short they act like an extended family.
Institutionalization is prison under the guise of healthcare. They cannot leave, the system is ripe for abuse, & your life expectancy drops by 10-20 years just by walking through the doors.
Residential treatment facilities are like assisted living or board & care homes for the elderly. A step before the nursing home.
Psychiatric institutions ARE NEEDED. A subset of these people will never be able to live in society. They are too disorganized, too violent, & too ill to ever cope except in the most structured of environments.
They are the exception, not the rule.
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Some of the bigest outrages to vets that I ever heard of was during the damn Bush years. There were cases where they had people coming to the VA hospitals to try to get the vets to sign away their rights for future treatments, cases where they tried to even charge the vets for equipment they left behind when they were wounded and often unable to do anything being knocked out. Who would even consider such outragous behavior….The very people who sent them to two unecessary war fronts in the first place.
And as far as Bush and the Dems who knew better even with the crap that was being touted. One of America’s darkest times is still with us because all those war criminals who got so many killed with their lies……And not even one brought up on charges…..That basically makes us all accessories to the crime for not insisting that charges be brought up. Basically what we’ve done is mad it possible for some other power hungry monarch want to be to do the same damn thing again…Because he knows he’ll be able to escape ever having to answer for anything…
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¨cases where they tried to even charge the vets for equipment they left behind when they were wounded and often unable to do anything being knocked out.¨
I find this staement very hard to believe Tundra. Anyone who´s ever been in the military and in a war zone knows that once you enter a war zone you are not responsible for anything you have been issued by Uncle Sam. If you lose it or it gets destroyed you don´t have to worry about it.
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You’d think so right? They actually presented a vet who lost limbs with a bill for his weapon, and some other equipment…..Huge mistake because once it hit the press people were up in arms. I don’t know who was trying to squeez the vets there for a while, but they pretty much got their arse handed to them really quick for these actions.
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I implied that this was something created through the Bush administration when I guess it could have been some dumb ass down the chain who thought they would get noticed for recouping money. The part that really made my blood boil was that even after he informed them that he was flown out nearly dead and unconscious that they still insisted that he was responsible for the equipment because of something they make them sign about turning equipment in after deployment. Who the hell thinks like that? After that was when he went to the press.
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Good articl…Good points….But in the end it all is far too logical to ever get passed…Nice to have dreams though
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Children’s behavior will never change unless adults stop behaving like children.
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Hmmm, so it’s ‘academic achievement’ vs. ‘assault and battery’ in your mind? That’s the difference to you. Well, then there isn’t much use in my wasting my time on this topic with you. Personal experiences matter – as a part of the picture, but not the entire picture.
I won’t even start on the topic of the problems of our penal system.
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The above comment was intended for a post above and has been re-posted there.
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