I remember how it was -- JR
What Educating Our Kids Looks Like After COVID-19
Parents have spent the last two years dealing with lawmakers’ and school officials’ indecisions about school reopenings, a nightmare for many. Public officials have constantly alternated between remote and in-person learning, masking and unmasking, social distancing and not.
Now, many families are rejoicing as they see states lift their remaining COVID-19 restrictions. Getting their children caught up on two years’ worth of learning will be the only concern when they attempt to have a normal educational experience once again.
Or so one would assume.
A return to pre-COVID-19 conditions will not be enough to get American students on track when another major obstacle still plagues them: the youth mental health crisis.
There is no doubt the pandemic and many of the arbitrary policies made in response to it contributed to suffering. Children were not immune from mental grievances.
Locking youth populations down, increasing their screen time, and isolating them from their friends and teachers made them feel more stressed, clingy, fearful, helpless, and lonelier than ever before. As a result of these disruptions to their routine, every age group has seen a significant uptick in various mental health, speech, and developmental concerns.
In the first six months of the pandemic alone, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that hospital visits for mental health-related emergencies increased 24% for children ages 5 to 11 and 31% for adolescents ages 12 to 17. The agency found in a follow-up study that emergency room visits for attempted suicides also increased by 50.6% for teen girls and 39% for adolescents overall compared to the same period in 2019.
The situation is dire enough that the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association declared it as a national emergency last October. Psychologists collectively fear for American children’s futures because these mental health problems are set to peak and persist well after the pandemic.
According to a congressional testimony made last September by Dr. Arthur C. Evans Jr. from the American Psychological Association, untreated mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic disorder will affect their ability to meaningfully engage in learning and function in adulthood.
Untreated mental health issues make it more difficult for students to learn and are highly correlated with chronic absenteeism, school failure, and school dropout, which can lead to possible unemployment, financial instability, or involvement with the juvenile and/or criminal justice system.
For parents and students who know this disarray all too well, they are desperate for answers now.
And if traditional public schools have already proven themselves to be unreliable in preventing students from falling so dangerously behind, how can parents also have faith in them to put students back in a good head space when they are partially responsible for triggering their trauma?
This severed relationship between families and schools is all the reason why lawmakers should empower parents to choose how and where their children learn now more than ever.
Luckily, state lawmakers across the U.S. have already answered the call to introduce legislation on their behalf. Ever since the pandemic exposed how public education has failed students on multiple fronts, lawmakers in 19 states created or expanded public and private school choice options in 2021. Many more are considering these opportunities this year.
The youth mental health crisis gives more urgency to the school choice movement. It must be emphasized as much as the need for improved educational outcomes.
Education savings accounts are a solution state lawmakers should consider to address all these factors because they allow parents to customize their child’s learning experience.
With an account, state officials deposit a portion of a child’s funds from the state education formula into a private account that parents use to buy education products and services for their students. Parents can buy textbooks, pay private school tuition, and, critically, pay for education therapy services.
Parents of children with special needs have generally used these therapy services to help a child with special needs access therapies such as speech and occupational therapy treatments, but now, parents should be empowered to use the accounts for counseling services as well.
As lawmakers around the country consider these accounts, they should make sure that parents have the flexibility to meet a child’s unique needs, including their mental health needs. They can do this by ensuring there are also provisions that allow education savings account funds to be used for counseling.
K-12 students today are facing challenges related to learning losses, politicized curriculums, and an exacerbated mental health crisis on top of the standard challenges that come along with growing up. Although unique to their generation, they are not impossible to navigate through and heal from. Lawmakers can help by giving parents the ability to access whatever resources best allow their child to succeed in school and in life.
************************************************
Police probing women’s rugby team hazing allegations at Vermont university
A women’s rugby team at a Vermont university is being investigated for hazing after a player on the squad was allegedly branded and waterboarded last month, authorities said.
Police learned of the alleged behavior after responding to Norwich University, a private military school in Northfield, on March 20 for a report of someone being held at knifepoint, according to affidavit obtained by The Barre Montpelier Times Argus.
Officers discovered an intoxicated member of the women’s Rugby team, who was wielding a knife. Two days later, the woman spoke to police and shared disturbing allegations of hazing.
She told police that she had been “branded” using pliers and a lighter by other members of the rugby team while she was intoxicated.
The woman said she believed team members had broken into her room, so she grabbed the knife and threatened them with it. However she said she was shaky on the details of what had actually occurred because of her intoxicated state.
The victim said she was too intoxicated to say no, and would not have agreed to be branded had she been sober.
With the victim’s permission, police looked through her cell phone and found a video of another woman with a washcloth, or something similar held over her face while a third woman poured liquid onto the cloth. Police described what they saw as “waterboarding,” according to court records.
Last Friday, Northfield police executed search warrants at a residence hall at the university after the school reportedly refused to fully cooperate with the investigation, The Barre Montpelier Times Argus reported.
Northfield Police Chief John Helfant confirmed in an email Friday that police activity on campus was related to the investigation into the hazing allegations involving “branding and waterboarding of and by NU students,” the paper reported.
The chief also said university officials denied police access to students in their dorm rooms and would only allow police to talk to students in a conference room.
Helfant said police obtained search warrants for access to two dorm rooms and for electronic communications. The investigation is ongoing, he said.
A University spokesperson said the school has fully cooperated with the investigation.
“Norwich University is subject to federal student privacy laws and other restrictions on what it may disclose,” Daphne Larkin said in a statement to the newspaper.
“Sometimes, law enforcement officials become confused about the extent to which we may respond to their requests. Norwich University has fully cooperated with the Northfield Police Department in their investigation of the allegations surrounding this incident while ensuring the constitutional rights of our students and employees.”
***************************************************
‘Limbo land’: Daycares, preschools in NYC navigate shifting mask policies
Some Big Apple day-care centers and pre-schools say they are taking matters into their own hands amid the city’s and courts’ back-and-forth on the tot mask mandate — and will risk fines by making masks optional.
A director at one Manhattan facility said she sent a memo to her parents last week about allowing their children to go mask-optional, thinking the mayor would hold up his end and do away with the mandate for 2- to 4-year-olds Monday as promised.
But Friday, even after a Staten Island judge ruled in favor of lifting the mandate, Adams said the city would appeal that decision because COVID-19 cases were rising again and the mask order had to remain.
The director said that she didn’t know how to rescind her memo to parents.
“I’m not going to send another memo over to the parents to confuse them,” she said. “We can’t continue to have all these changes. It’s very disruptive.”
A pre-K director in The Bronx also said she would not enforce the mandate for families choosing not to mask their children.
“We’re in this limbo land of ‘it’s required, it’s not required,’ ” she said.
“We can’t keep doing this with parents. It’s very confusing and upsetting. I think it doesn’t create a lot of confidence.”
“Young children need consistency, and the messaging is not consistent,” she said, adding that the confusion predates last week’s developments.
“They’re taking the mask off for lunch, for rest, when they’re playing outside — then they’re putting the mask back on.”
https://nypost.com/2022/04/04/limbo-land-daycares-preschools-in-nyc-navigate-shifting-mask-policies/
***********************************My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
*******************************
No comments:
Post a Comment