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We’re kids. You’re adults: Parkland student, survivor
Like you, our hearts were broken on Valentine’s Day when reports of yet another school shooting started trickling in. As we mourn the 17 lives lost (and brace ourselves over the possibility that the death toll could rise) in Parkland, Florida, we join those voices demanding sensible gun safety laws and encourage intense scrutiny of politicians who feign powerlessness to enact them.
Thousands of children have been put at risk, maimed and killed in the more than 290 shootings on school grounds in the U.S. since the Sandy Hook massacre on December 14, 2012. That’s more than a school shooting every week!
Years of public pressure spurred in memory of the heartbreaking killing of children at their schools have not moved the needle one iota for elected officials. While the numbers of school shooting since 2012 is completely unacceptable, the bigger picture is even more alarming.
In 2017, the number of children in the U.S. injured or killed by gun violence was 3,966.
Within hours of the mayhem in Parkland, shooting survivor David Hogg, a 17-year-old Douglas High student, demanded action against guns from politicians, telling CNN, “We’re children. YOU guys are the adults.”
Not to be outdone from the litany of head-turning pivots by the President in his first 12 months, his first tweet about the mass murders blamed students for not reporting the shooter’s previous erratic behavior.
The President’s decision to focus on mental health issues was especially cynical since one of his first acts in office was to strip the regulations that prevented people with mental disabilities from legally being able to purchase guns.
That President Trump avoided the topic of guns after a mass shooting isn’t entirely a surprise. The National Rifle Association contributed more than $30 million for his presidential bid and his allegiances were in full display at the organization’s annual rally last year, saying, “You came through for me, and I am going to come through for you.”
Most Americans are concerned about the powerful influence the gun lobby has over the nation’s elected officials. Here in Pennsylvania, most of our members of Congress accepted hefty,influence peddling contributions from the NRA.
But we wanted to take a moment and discuss the realities of mental health supports and children.
While the President’s budget proposal included increases in mental health funding, mainly for opioid addiction services and support for veterans, the budget reaffirms his hopes to repeal Medicaid expansion. More than 40% of those who received coverage under Medicaid expansion have behavioral health conditions.
Surely the President’s budget will make it even harder for children and families to access mental health services in the years ahead. As if it wasn’t hard enough already.
Nationally, there are about 8,300 child and adolescent psychiatrists to treat the country’s estimated 15 million youth with behavioral and mental health issues, according to the AACAP.
The group recommends 47 practitioners for every 100,000 children. Pennsylvania, according to a 2015 count, misses that mark by two thirds with 16 child and adolescent psychiatrists per 100,000 children. That’s 422 psychiatrists to about 2.7 million children and teens.
Those aren’t very good odds that kids will get the support they need.
“We’re children. YOU guys are the adults.”
We need adults in the room that will get as serious about getting dangerous weapons out of our communities, just as we need them to provide children with the behavioral health help they need.
At this point, we’d settle for adults who are able to feel a modicum of shame in the wake of a righteous lecture from a traumatized teen.
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