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More mental health staff needed, Hanks says

Weatherford Democrat - 3/17/2018

March 16--The district is looking at increased mental health help for children as a concept separate from security, said Weatherford Independent School District superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Hanks in an interview with the Weatherford Democrat.

Mental health support for students need not be tied to an increase in security protocol, and should be about an increase in help for students, Hanks said.

Hanks' comments came amidst WISD's push to increase security protocols, including the decision to arm teachers and/or hire additional school resource officers.

Parker County District Attorney Don Schnebly echoed Hanks' comments last week regarding the role adults should play in monitoring students' mental health.

"Adults in all arenas -- parents, educators, law enforcement and community members -- need to pay attention to safety concerns that are raised by either juveniles in crisis or their peers," Schnebly told the Weatherford Democrat. "If children are struggling with mental health issues, they need to know of the services available to assist them."

While school counselors are capable of providing some mental help, testing standard protocols and other administrative taskings have been put upon them over the years, Hanks said.

"Traditionally the school counselor has been someone that's very well-versed in academic programs of the district," he said. "They can set up a graduation plan for students so that you can work through a course of study and graduate with all of the required credits you have to have."

The rise of standardized testing increased school counselor responsibility as well, but counselors should have more time to focus on students, Hanks said.

"Testing then came into that and they've been responsible for a lot of different aspects of testing and organizing for that," he said.

Counselors should have more time allotted for dealing with student life, Hanks said.

"What it seems counselors get very little time to do is really work with kids ... with the multitude of issues that kids are dealing with on a day-to-day basis. It doesn't have to rise of the level of a crisis, but for that child, it probably is a crisis," he said.

Much of the stress students face can be electronic or physical in nature, Hanks said.

"I think you could list a long litany of things that the kids are dealing with the access to communications and social media especially and the bullying that goes on online, the access to information that young children shouldn't have access to that seems to be readily available out there, there's just a whole lot of things," he said. "It's not all technology-related, there's just a lot that goes on, families working a lot of hours and not having the time to go to their children sometimes is a factor and teachers fill that role a lot."

A variety of internal and external stress resolution for students is pivotal, Hanks said.

"It's everything from divorce to abuse, to mental health, to all of the different things that our children are having to deal with and they need somebody there that can be a touchstone that can help them work through and navigate," he said.

Such a shift would be positive, Hanks said.

"I don't even know how many of the people are out there that we could bring in, but it's a change," he said. "We're still going to need counselors that are well-versed in the academic programs that can do the traditional things that school counselors have done," he said.

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(c)2018 Weatherford Democrat (Weatherford, Texas)

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