Fund US, Not Them.
Turned out my education reform was mental health care reform
I have always thought of myself as an “education first” soldier. I surprised myself today by saying—out loud—my number one concern as a citizen is not education; I believe the first change that must be funded in order to create a safe community, without police violence, is our mental health system. In fact, education is fourth on my list: Mental Health Care (including addiction services), Healthcare, FOOD, Housing, and Education. Mental health care has always been very close and personally important to me as well as education. Now, I can’t believe I ever separated the two issues.
Even those who feel strongly that education is the number issue—i.e. making our schools safe and better will do the most to influence our society for the better—recognizes that our education system has a wide variety of problems. Every teacher I talk to says different kids have different problems and all of those problems make it harder for those kids to learn. (I can’t help but insert and “no duh” moment here.) If you were hungry on a regular basis as a child, sitting down at a desk to read or be expected to engage on topics that won’t fix your hunger is a ridiculous expectation. Fear and trauma engulf the brain and control the chemicals that allow us to focus and sleep (lack of sleep even impacts our memory). Educators are battling the whole host of our socio-economic failings: racial prejudices, sexual harassment, homelessness, abuse, hunger, drugs. And all that baggage comes to school with the students.
Child labor laws put a stop to some kinds exploitation. At some point, we legally required children to be sent to school, at least, up to a certain age. So, instead of having your kid never go to school at all—because having another wage earner was the difference between dinner and starvation—they could wait to drop out until 10th or 11th grade depending on the state. For those in poverty, they are just waiting to drop out…or they are skipping to make money some other way. Are there parents around? Are the parents capable of caring? And I haven’t even mentioned other kinds of learning disabilities.
This is where the education part breaks down for me and the mental health issues takes over. No one can get an education if they are sick or surrounded by sickness. To suggest that mental health is not as important as physical healthcare is to ignore all the medical information available (I know how much that has been encouraged during this COVID pandemic). To suggest that mental health isn’t the root of many if not most social issues is naive. To expect teachers to ignore the needs of their students means you are asking them to perpetuate our failure.
Police are equally ill equipped to support the country’s mental health needs. Clearly, they are instigating and reinforcing trauma. At least one officer has already made it clear that their gun does nothing to preserve safety, that they feel useless when showing up to take a rape victims report—the few that actually come forward to report them—and how rarely they can actually prevent the thing they are called for in the first place. (“Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop,” Officer A. Cab, https://medium.com/@OfcrACab/confessions-of-a-former-bastard-cop-bb14d17bc759)
The problem is teachers are not equipped to meet their students needs either. They are significantly outnumbered for one thing. Bottom line: We need more counselors, more therapists, more access to mental health care on premises of all school ages AND separate therapist access on campus for the teachers. You want to identify abuse, at risk of addiction, exposure to addiction, clinical depression…more than one expert on campus everyday will protect and preserve their lives and education more than any police officer trying to get to a robbery in time to stop it. Supported teachers in tandem with onsite counselors can create an atmosphere of compassion and destigmatization, tolerance and calm. Then, kids can be taught. Then, they can learn. They can learn not only curriculum that reflects our true history and art and chemistry and geometry; they can be taught equality and sustainability. You want to know how to create a community that doesn’t need police. This is how. Teach kids when they are young—as early as possible—how to acknowledge and communicate mental health needs. That is what “Defund the Police” means. Take most of their currently huge budget and put it somewhere else, somewhere better. Put it into mental health access, medicine and programs:
Mental health in schools;
Mental health in hospitals and the doctor’s office;
Mental health with the Social Worker;
Mental health in the military;
Mental health in the police force…
I’m not saying mental health is the only issue that needs addressing. But, if we address mental illness from the beginning it will enable real education. It will lead to well-adjusted, smart adults prepared to choose a job—one they know they want and are good at. It will lead to better ideas, better construction and implementation of programs that will create the change we need; programs that will diminish hunger, homelessness, drug-abuse, racism and inequality until we don’t need them anymore. That’s the community to fight for, the society we aim for when we say Abolish—not defund—the Police. I do not think that I am for complete abolition. I can’t see it, not yet. I am in total support of EXTREME defunding. People need care, food, housing, and schools. We do not need a second army. Don’t fund police, fund us.
I promise, I am really not saying mental health is our only problem. It is, however, a major culprit of our underlying, systemic problems. Fear, prejudice, and hate are driven by mental illness and ignorance. The skewed perspective that comes from deep depression, self-loathing, narcissism and mania (to name a few) unbalance the world. Mental illness is not a dirty word and should not be shamed like one. It can be treated. It is a terror though, one that takes away our pride and dignity. Hiding from it, or pretending it isn’t there—like most things—only makes it worse. Mental illness can live forever given a shadow and a blanket. Meanwhile, it stops us from thriving.
May nerd-dom abound!
Katrina Pavlovich
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/
https://thelovelandfoundation.org/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/magazine/wp/2019/09/11/feature/how-activist-rachel-cargle-built-a-business-by-calling-out-racial-injustices-within-feminism/
This is a PDF of what pediatricians are looking at when we talk about trauma. Learning about the tools doctors use helps us understand what to look for and how to ask better questions while trying to identify if a child needs help. Types of Trauma and Development Disruption.