Bullying.
Suicide.
Childhood trauma.
Substance use.
All are issues that educators and parents hope will not define a new school year.
The Center for Safer Schools has focused this week on how to ensure school personnel have the skills to address a wide variety of issues that can impact school climate and safety.
“Statistically speaking, schools are very safe places,” State Superintendent Catherine Truitt told members of the NC Council of State on Tuesday. “But when I talk to parents and when I look at surveys of parents, school safety is their number one concern.”
While the center was created by legislative mandate about a decade ago to serve as a hub for our school districts, Truitt said it’s worth noting how much is being done in the state right now to address school safety, not just from a physical safety standpoint but also a mental health standpoint.
“We’ve recently received about $46 million altogether from the federal government to start building a pipeline for more mental health commissions and mental health workers in our schools,” Truitt explained. “[But] that pipeline, in some instances, just isn’t there right now.”
A 2022 national report on youth mental health found North Carolina had just one school psychologist for every 2,527 students. The recommended ratio 1:500.
“We need to continue to focus on the mental health of our students,” Truitt said. “The leading cause of death for 10- to 14-year-olds in our state right now is suicide.”
At this week’s 2023 RISE Back to School Safety Summit in Gastonia, educators and law enforcement are taking part in a new training known as Asist: Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training. The program teaches participants how to develop a collaborative safety plan to keep someone who is stressed and struggling safe and alive.
Another new tool on the horizon will be House Bill 605, requiring a threat assessment team in each school with trained individuals who are ‘hyper-vigilant’ — to use the superintendent’s words — when it comes to the mental and physical safety of students.
In March, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction released a report showing more than 11,000 acts of crime or violence during the 2021-2022 school year.
Truitt said a partnership between the Center for Safer Schools, the Department of Public Instruction and the Department of Public Safety funded by the legislature will put in panic button in every single school this fall. The Rave panic button is actually an app that alerts authorities to an active shooter, medical emergency, fire or other crisis. Simultaneously the app sends out a notification to other teachers and staff on campus.
“I just want to reassure parents that our schools are safe places and that leaders in this state are doing everything they can to ensure that when parents send their best to us, that our educators are making sure that they are returned home safely.”
Additional resources, personnel depends on state budget
Governor Roy Cooper reminded Council of State members that whether the focus was on childcare, mental health supports or higher education, much would depend on the work of budget writers on Jones Street.
“We’ve all got issues with the budget that we’re all waiting for,” said Cooper in acknowledging the state spending plan that’s now a month overdue.
“The good thing about it is that the money exists to be invested to do pretty much everything everybody’s talked about at this table today. The question is what the priorities are going to be. Are there going to be yet even more tax breaks for the wealthiest among us and corporations? Or will they choose to invest in these things that we talked about?”
We’ll see what they come up with in the next few weeks, said the governor.
