Dollars More Important Than Kids: Accidental Death, Suicide, Tragedies Highlight Safety Net Cuts

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/steve-young/48018/dollars-more-important-than-kids-accidental-death-suicide-tragedies-highlight-safety-net-cuts

Dollars More Important Than Kids: Accidental Death, Suicide, Tragedies Highlight Safety Net Cuts
by Steve Young | February 9, 2013 - 11:15am

The adults rolled the dice and the kids lost.

Bucks County, home to such literary giants as James Michener and Pearl Buck, is also home to a school district that is crafting an embarrassing non-fiction story of financial irresponsibility and worse, child neglect.

Neshaminy School District of Langhorne, PA, where teachers and the school board have been in a four-year contract battle, approved budget cuts that resulted in reductions to student safety nets. First they did away with The Learning Center, the highly-successful alternative program for high school student in need of extra emotional and/or behavioral support. Then, after disbursing the TLC faculty/counselors and placing the approximate 57-85 TLC students into the regular Neshaminy High population, they cut the number of counselors/social workers who served the high school BEFORE the additional students were transferred in. At the same time, they closed the high school's Sanctuary Room, a safe haven space for distraught students, where they could speak with a counselor about their issues.

In the past month alone, one 10th grader was killed by a train, another committed suicide and one more was seriously injured in a terrible bus accident. This isn't to necessarily say that the decision to close down TLC or The Sanctuary Room contributed to any of these tragedies, but certainly, the repercussions -- student grief and confusion -- are no longer dealt with through a day to day support system, but by a crisis to crisis intervention. Bandages instead of cures.



unhappycamper comment: And who is the big winner in the $$$$ sweepstakes?