Schools Must Screen for Mental Illness and Take Necessary Action

Three years ago, at a Congress on your Corner event, Jared Lee Loughner asked Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, “What is government if words have no meaning?” She was confused and didn’t know how to answer. According to Bryce Tierney, Loughner’s high school friend who accompanied him, when she didn’t answer, Loughner became convinced that she was covering up a government conspiracy. The rest is history.

I teach a middle school opportunity class in California. It’s a special class set up to give short-term help (no more than 45 days) to students who are not succeeding in regular education classrooms. Typically, I have three kinds of students.

The first type are those that cannot sit in a seat; they climb on the furniture; they do not follow simple directions; they talk nonstop; they cannot keep their hands, feet, or objects to themselves; they touch, hit, and punch others; they break the supplies; they argue with authority; they never complete classwork or do homework; and, according to them, they are never to blame for any of their actions. These students fail school at an alarming rate.

The second type sits quietly in a daze. They are never engaged unless the topic is of direct interest to them. They also never complete classwork or do homework. They are the victims of choice for the bullies. These students are passed along by teachers until middle school, where they begin to fail. Their parents typically tell me, “He/ she was a great student until this year,” even though their report card grades and comments, from kindergarten on, tell a different story.

The third type I can help to succeed while they are with me in my small class of ten. They are hyperactive, like the first type, impulsive, and do not follow directions, but they will do their classwork and homework if I allow them opportunities to move; give them a warm, safe environment; redirect them often; and give lots of positive praise and rewards. These are very exact conditions that cannot be replicated in the regular classroom, so when they return to regular classes, they start to fail again. If they are bright, these students can learn coping skills, and often become successful later on. Bill Gates was an example of one of these students. However, many other examples are residing in jail

I think I understand the question Jared Loughner asked Rep. Giffords three years ago. Referring to their inability to follow directions, I have often said to my colleagues about my students, “It’s as if words have no meaning for them.” Jared probably saw his problem from a different point of view; our government wasn’t following the directions set out in the constitution. The words had no meaning.

When social rules, classroom rules, workplace rules, and/ or government laws have no meaning to a person; when that person consistently crosses the boundaries of acceptable behavior; makes us uncomfortable; and even feel unsafe, then that person is suffering from a mental health disorder. We have to take action to help them and to protect ourselves.

How the heck do we do that? We need one standard place to start. I recommend that it be our schools. We already screen for eyesight and hearing deficiencies. No one raises a fuss when a school notifies a parent that their child needs eyeglasses. No parent has ever sued a school district, or made a school district pay the costs when their child needs a hearing aid. Yet, school staff members are not allowed to say one word to anyone if we suspect a mental disorder. It has been carefully explained to me that our school district could be sued, that our school district could be expected to pay all the costs associated with diagnosing and medicating the mental disability, and that the staff person could be targeted by the parents for “insulting” their child.

The non-partisan Center for Disease Control (cdc.gov) says that the most common brain disorder for school-age children is Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, or ADHD. It is present in 9.6 percent of our world population under 20 years of age, and the percent continues to rise. There are three types: the predominantly hyperactive type; the predominantly inattentive type, formerly known as ADD; and the combined type, where the students are hyperactive and inattentive. These symptoms perfectly match the three types of students that I serve in my OC classroom. It is caused by a physical alteration of the brain, is usually genetically based, and it is not caused by bad parenting. 67% of ADHD sufferers continue to be significantly impaired their entire life. Parents have nothing to fear, and everything to gain, by getting their child the help he or she needs as soon as possible.

My students would love to be successful in a regular classroom setting. They do not understand why they are always in trouble; why they are “bad, stupid, and lazy.” It is easy to see why these students, whose brains cannot process properly without medication or other intervention, grow up to be depressed, angry, addicted, uneducated, poor, and/ or incarcerated.

ADHD is the most common brain disorder, but there are many others such as bi-polar, depression, anxiety, oppositional defiance, and schizophrenia. Currently, these students sit in classrooms suffering, their teachers are frustrated, the other students feel unsafe, and nothing is done to help them whatsoever. Why can’t they be referred for screening, just as they would be if we thought they couldn’t see or hear well? Yes, it would be expensive. But look at the alternative. Eventually, citizens pay for their welfare, jail time, or their drug rehabilitation. Innocent people are hurt and murdered. Parents don’t usually see the signs, but teachers do.

I always think, “If I were their parent, I would want to know that my child may have an impairment that prevents him from properly participating in his education.” Even though I have been directly told not to, I have informed parents that I suspect ADHD, or another mental impairment, is keeping their child from succeeding in school. I have been yelled at and I’ve been politely thanked, but so far, not a single parent has taken their child to a doctor for diagnosis. I guess it is so awful to have a mentally impaired child that they would rather not know.

At this point in my fourteenth year of teaching, I avoid calling parents because I can’t trust myself not to say the letters A-D-H-D. I don’t understand why it’s sad for a child to be physically sick, but bad for them to be mentally ill. I don’t even understand the difference. Mental illnesses are associated with changes in the neurochemicals of the brain, which is as much a physical disability as a brain tumor. Because the changes are physical, most sufferers can be healthy, productive members of society by taking medication.

Why are we so sympathetic when a child must inject insulin, but disgusted if a child needs adderoll? Right now, the law gives parents the luxury to live in ignorance of their child’s need for mental help. Sometimes, with real luck, the child gets better. But what if the child grows up to be another Jared Lee Loughner? It’s happening more and more often. We need to give schools the power to get our youth the help they need. At least it would be a good place to start.