Behavioral Health

Our country is still in shock over the recent shooting incident in Tucson, Arizona regarding Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Whatever the motivation was for Jared Loughner to gun down a government representative and innocent bystanders, one may ask what does this have to do with education? After all, we are educators who are insulated from the harsh outside conflicts of the world and focused in on developing the minds of children.

This violent behavior of a disturbed and confused college drop-out has everything to do with education. Luckily, members of the higher education community responded to his threatening in-class outbursts and online ramblings in order to prevent campus violence similar to that of Virginia Tech a few years ago. Mental illness, such as that exemplified by Loughner, often has its onset in the late teens and early twenties. By the time he reached college age, Loughner's distorted thinking had a fully manifested grip on him.

But what had been done for him in the earlier days of his school career? It is unlikely that his symptoms were as obvious then as they are now. But it is likely that he may have had behavioral issues with attention deficit, depression, withdrawn social habits, difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy, frequent relationship conflicts, identity problems, strong emotional insecurities, lack of impulse control, and a host of other signs of a possible brain chemical imbalance.

How many other children have we encountered in our careers who have exhibited some of these behaviors? We labeled them ADD, ADHD, "BAD", or as trouble makers. They are indeed stressful to have in the classroom and often disruptive to the learning process there. We struggled to control them, to defuse their influence on others, to help them overcome the distracters within and without that made learning a frustrating and unrewarding experience for them.

Usually teachers flounder alone with such students as we are trained to handle our own problems and are expected to show our colleagues that we can control our class. How much help does the school system offer in dealing with behavioral health issues in the classroom? Probably there is very little support in most cases.

Special education departments deal expertly with cognitive, speech, and physical handicaps of children, but many seem to have an unspoken hands-off policy for the emotionally handicapped. One wonders whether this is due to a lack of special education training in the affective domain of the brain or because of the stigma of behavioral health issues. Regardless of the reasons, it is time that the mental health of students becomes as crucial as the physical and academic health of our schools' youth.

When special education professionals contract with psychologists to administer a plethora of tests to academically challenged learners for remedial placement at no cost to parents, why are the same psychologists not allowed to test the emotionally challenged as a service to parents? Often the parents have to take their referred child to a family doctor for testing with full responsibility for payment and for follow-up with educators. If the parent cannot afford a private doctor and testing and Medicaid is not an option, then the parent, child, and teachers are left to their own desperate measures.

The Tucson incident, which was possibly an avoidable act of violence, should wake up not only politicians but also the educational community to our negligence in dealing with those with brain disorders. The responsibility is ours as well because most mental illnesses exhibit symptoms even at early ages.

Depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD, ADD, autism, As Berger’s Syndrome, and others make learning, social behavior, and relationships trying and exasperating. Schizophrenia may not manifest until the teen years or later. Any way you look at it, these brain chemical imbalances infect the young as well as the more mature.

Mental retardation, learning disabilities, speech deficits, and physical handicaps have come a long way in our educational system since my days as a youngster. The mentally retarded and speech challenged then were laughed at and ridiculed, the learning disabled were labeled dumb and usually failed in grade promotion, and the physically handicapped were invisible and sometimes sent to state homes.

Today children and adults with brain diseases are stigmatized, called crazy, and blamed as if it were their fault in having this "character flaw". Whose fault is it for not helping them? Surely, there are many sectors of society who share in this responsibility. But the most basic institution where this help should begin is the school.

Besides the family, educators are the first members of society to encounter these suffering individuals. Of course, the cost of diagnosis and treatment are factors for schools, but the question should be can we afford not to initiate assistance? We must take a long look at the impact of the Tucson shooting and the answer should be very clear.