IBCCES is the global leader in training and certification for healthcare professionals, educators and corporate partners who work with individuals with autism and other cognitive disorders. Our reach extends to more than 2 million people in all 50 states and over 70 countries around the globe. IBCCES Member Learning Community is provided as a free service to all IBCCES members who have completed one or more of our training and certification programs.
Parkland commission urges boost in mental health funding
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A commission investigating the Parkland school shooting is calling for improved mental health services, including more funding, to help schoolchildren deal with the stresses in their lives — a strategy the commission hopes will help prevent more violence from erupting at other Florida campuses.
The commission released its second report to lawmakers on Friday, 10 months after an initial report urged immediate improvements to school safety following killings of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year.
Lawmakers responded to the commission’s first set of recommendations by enacting a package of school-safety measures, including raising the legal age for gun purchases, requiring armed security officers on every campus and adopting a “red flag” law.
The 389-page document released Friday by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission advocates new laws that would allow authorities to act more quickly against threats of violence, including making it a felony to verbally threaten a mass shooting.
While the commission’s first report, released in January, focused on the suspect, Nikolas Cruz, and some of the specifics that led to the massacre, this one provides a broader analysis of systemic issues that the commission wants addressed.
Key among them, according to the commission, is mental health. Among its findings: Florida’s mental health system is inadequately funded.
The commission, noting Florida’s rank among the lowest of any state in per-capita mental health funding, recommended that the Legislature authorize more spending on mental health programs. The commission, however, did not suggest a specific amount.
Instead, the commission wants better coordination of services, including better information sharing, to help identify trouble before it explodes into a harmful situation.
The commission also wants to empower judges to intervene whenever they identify a child who might benefit from mental health treatment.
The report acknowledges that school safety has improved since the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting but it says more work needs to be done.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, who chairs the commission, prefaced the report by saying complacency and noncompliance — even resistance to the law — undermine the work being done to make schools safer.
“Complaceny is driven, at least in part, by the erroneous notion that a school shooting will not ‘happen here’,” he wrote.
“Everyone needs to proceed with a sense of urgency to make Florida’s schools as safe as possible because there will be another K-12 active assailant attack in this country — the only questions are when and where,” Gualtieri added.
Web Only
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.