HB 18 attempts to solve the problem of school violence by creating a state bureaucracy – a coalition of psychiatric and psychological experts in medical schools – to STUDY the problem. This involves multiple assessments of all school children with invasive questions about children and their homes and families. We believe that mental health care must remain in the control of parents and that if tax dollars are appropriated for this purpose, they must be distributed at the request of families.
Take action:
- Call Gov. Abbott at (512) 463-2000 or contact him here and say this:
- Please veto HB18.
- While we recognize the mental stability of each child contributes to their learning capacity; and
- Recognize that the disruptive antics of disturbed children affect, and in cases endanger, entire classrooms,
- We, however, object to turning our schools into mental health clinics using assessments by mental health researchers to label ALL children on some researcher’s “mental health scale.”
- We object to using vital funds for this experimental study when those funds can actually remedy some of the frustrations in classrooms and schools by making low cost/no-cost mental health centers immediately accessible in local communities.
- This is a huge misdirection of tax-payer funds to solve a problem that it is incapable of solving.
Pray that the voice of reason from citizens of Texas will be heard by the Texas governor. Remember that a portion of Proverbs 24:6 says, “In a multitude of counselors there is safety.”
Thank you,
Ann Hettinger
State Director
CWA of Texas