Parents, students seek help for schools
Town hall focuses on mental health, gun violence
Students, teachers and parents called for an increase in mental health services and more school counselors on Monday night during a discussion of gun violence held in Delray Beach.
About 120 people attended the session, prompted by Feb. 14 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 students and staffers and injured 17 others.
Students expressed frustration about the lack of resources dedicated to public schools.
If there were more counselors, “every single one of these killers could have had help from someone who would listen,” said Jackie Pinos, an Atlantic Community High School student who said she was diagnosed with a mental illness. “I am sick and tired of mental illness being a taboo. People say they care but then they turn their backs on us.”
Pinos was one of 11 people on a panel who spoke about what politicians and schools need to do to make schools safer. Others on the panel were teachers, law enforcement, school board members and the discussion sponsors, U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, and state Sen. Kevin Rader, D-Delray Beach.
“This is not a place you want to raise a kid or have an illness,” said school board member Erica Whitman. “This is the place where I think we need to focus our effort and our money.”
Florida lawmakers last week passed a