Public Education vs Mental Health

Discussions of mental illnesses that are common among children often touch on public education, since so many children attend public schools. Physicians often consult with teachers and school officials when diagnosing and treating mental illnesses such as Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Yet, until recently, many school systems were reluctant to evaluate a children with ADHD, and some schools may still refuse to perform such evaluations.

Amazingly, little has been written about the role public education may play in contributing to mental illness, exacerbating existing conditions or interfering with treatment. Indeed, the general public isn’t aware of the mental stress many of America’s teachers are under. Any parent of a child afflicted with mental illness who is enrolled in public schools should take the time to learn more about school politics.

A Corporate Nation

To cut to the chase, you should realize that corporations effectively run public education.

It’s amazing how many teachers aren’t even aware of this situation. Teachers who are aware of problems in education seldom speak out, either because they think it’s unprofessional or they’re afraid of retaliation. Other people cry “conspiracy theory” when they hear such talk. In fact, some of them are corporate operatives.

To put it in perspective, most people are aware that corporations wield tremendous influence in government, which is becoming increasingly corrupt. Political activists also talk about media corruption; indeed, the major media are corporations themselves.

Then consider the health care industry. Family physicians have largely been replaced by health maintenance organizations (HMO), for which the bottom line is profit.

It’s no mystery why prescription drugs and malpractice lawsuits are such hot political items. Corporations want to increase their profits and cut their losses, even if it means manipulating the government.

Privatized Schools

So how have corporations affected schools, and how do they impact children who are grappling with mental health issues?

We aren’t aware of any studies or surveys that have been done on this issues. Thus, we can offer little more than broad generalizations, anecdotal information and conjecture, focusing primarily on large, urban school districts. Some of the problems are presumably less severe in smaller school districts, and there are also likely differences between states.

So let’s start the ball rolling by discussing six major issues that could be major factors even for parents of children with no mental health issues: corruption, stressed out teachers, poor quality of services, high-stakes tests, lack of stability and social services agencies.

Corruption

Many public schools administrations are frighteningly corrupt. Many people would regard that as a shocking and even inappropriate statement, even as the evidence piles up all around us.

There are countless ways that school corruption can impact a child suffering from mental illness. For example, special education classes have become synonymous with lawsuits. (Type "special education" lawsuit into a search engine.) Children may be harmed by classmates in poorly supervised classes. Sex predators often find children who are mentally impaired easy prey.

Again, these are not pleasant things to think about, let alone discuss, but they’re reality. If adults don’t deal with them, who will?

You should know that school district corruption isn’t necessarily limited to the central administration. On the contrary, principals are often recruited to serve as “gatekeepers” charged with keeping teachers and parents at bay. Some teachers and parents may be part of the system; favoritism, including nepotism, is rampant in some school districts.

If your child is involved in an incident or situation that may put a school district in legal jeopardy or that threatens to expose corruption or gross incompetence, school officials will almost certainly protect their turf rather than your child. To put it another way, many school employees will protect a corrupt administrator at your child’s expense.

Stressed Out Teachers

The last thing children with mental health problems need are teachers with mental health problems. Yet the classroom has become synonymous with stress. (One educators chat board lit up like a Christmas tree when someone asked, “What’s your favorite anti-depressant?”)

Many teachers are charged with teaching and watching over thirty or more students, some of whom may have serious behavioral problems. They have also been buried under bureaucratic paperwork.

In addition, tyranny is rampant in public education, with principals commonly bullying teachers. In some school districts, teachers have sued principals for sexual harassment. Other lawsuits have been filed claiming age discrimination. Teachers are driven out of the profession at an extraordinary rate, and a few teachers have even been driven to suicide.

Parents should make special efforts to enroll children with mental health problems in classes with teachers who aren’t visibly burned out, cranky, etc. The flip side is that newer teachers obviously aren’t as experienced as their older peers.

Poor Quality of Services

The quality of America’s public schools has decreased dramatically over the past few generations. Ironically, the very forces that publicized bad teachers in the media have driven away many good teachers. It’s almost as if they wanted to recruit bad teachers all along.

Again, this state of affairs can affect your child in many ways. Newer teachers are less likely to be trained to deal with children with mental problems. They may be too overwhelmed fighting off a derelict principal to notice. Some teachers simply don’t care.

In addition, many school districts seem to be perpetually under funded, regardless of how much money the taxpayers give them. In fact, countless millions of dollars are lost each year to incompetence, embezzling and general corruption, diverting resources from the classroom and from special education services.

W. Douglas Tynan, PhD writes, “When many children with behavioral problems and academic problems are placed in the same classroom, the risk for continued behavioral and academic problems increases.” Yet classes will remain crowded as long as school funding is cannibalized by derelict administrations.

High-Stakes Tests

Why are children subjected to “high-stakes tests,” when they have even driven teachers out of the profession? A number of conspiracy theories have arisen to explain why corporations unleashed this new scourge on America’s public schools.

Some have even speculated that the education bureaucracy wants students to fail. A number of education activists see a connection between high-stakes tests and globalization, with an emphasis on outsourcing.

One thing even high-stakes test proponents agree on is that these tests are extraordinarily stressful. Some schools have even suspended recess so that children can spend more time cramming for a test that many educators say is useless at best. Many educators and parents worry that this extra stress isn’t good for normal children, let alone those suffering from mental illness or behavioral problems.

Some states allow children to opt out of high-stakes tests at parents’ requests. However, they may impose penalties.

Lack of Stability

Lucky you! You’ve found a first-year teacher who’s passionate about education and exudes a warmth and energy that light up everyone around her. There are no obvious behavioral problems among the students in her class. The principal seems like a nice guy, and the neighborhood is full of parents who are active in the community. It’s just the environment your child—who’s suffering from AD/HD—needs.

But something goes terribly wrong just three weeks into the school season. The district announces that it’s short $30 million, and it will have to lay off a few teachers. First-year teachers will be first to get the axe.

Or maybe your favorite teacher is transferred to a different school at the end of the school year. If the principal is a jerk and the staff begins speaking out, several teachers may be transferred. Or maybe your son’s teacher decides to join the throngs of broken-hearted idealists who flee education for good.

For all the above reasons and more, education is extraordinarily unstable. Of course, modern society in general is notoriously unstable. Instability increases stress, which is obviously bad news for children suffering from mental illness, not to mention their teachers.

Social Services Agencies

State social services agencies are often dysfunctional or corrupt. In fairness, their jobs can be pretty tough, and sometimes even honest officials make mistakes.

But state social services agencies have been involved in countless scandals. To get an idea of just how bad it can get, do some research on the “Wenatchee Witch-Hunt” in Washington State.

So whom can you trust?

Sadly, teachers and parents sometimes seem to have few friends these days, while children are often abandoned even by teachers and parents. While we have attempted to refrain from making this article overtly political—at least in a partisan sense—we feel a few comments are in order.

Liberals have traditionally been seen as the guardians of public education. They often take a visible stand against conservatives who want to use schools to promote religion and patriotism. Some liberals are up in arms over President George Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act and high-stakes tests.

Yet all the major political parties have failed education. The National Education Association (NEA) gives far more support to the Democratic Party than it does to its dues-paying members. Indeed, many teachers complain about being stabbed in the back by their local unions. The NEA has given some lip service to the high-stakes quagmire, but what has it really done to fight back?

Similarly, liberals often equate conservatives with bigotry when some of the most shocking examples of racism or racial politics in America are in public schools in large, liberal cities, like Seattle and San Francisco.

High-stakes tests and many other harmful agendas were dumped on schools by President Bill Clinton’s administration, which also opened the doors to globalization and outsourcing.

In our opinion, the Green and Libertarian parties have nothing to offer education, either.

Ironically, education is a perennial top-three campaign issue for presidential candidates, along with candidates for state offices, mayor and other local offices. In other words, it’s probably a prominent campaign issue more frequently than anything else except perhaps the economy. Yet you can study candidates’ web sites for new ideas and gutsy stands in vain. Democrats and Greens invariably beg for more money without accountability, while Republicans and Libertarians focus on privatization and free market principals, religion, etc.

There are countless corporate and private education organizations, reform groups, etc. Some are liberal, others conservative. Some are liberal organizations that pretend to be conservative and vice versa. Very, very few of these groups genuinely care about children, in our opinion.

Closer to home, you can talk to school officials, school nurses, teachers and other parents. But remember that some of them may have cronies or relatives on the school board or in the school district administration. It’s a very common practice.

In summary, parents of children with special needs may find themselves all alone in a bewildering and often frightening bureaucratic and political wilderness. Short of a polygraph test, it may be impossible to know who your friends really are. The best advice we can offer is to simply be aware of the stark realities we’ve described, and don’t blindly entrust your child to strangers—including school officials you don’t know personally.

Tips & Feedback

Unfortunately, we don’t have many tips beyond what we’ve already offered. Teachers who are coping with stress or administrative tyranny might want to check out the National Association for the Prevention of Teacher Abuse (NAPTA). Sadly, we don’t know of any similar organizations dedicated to protecting children from the education bureaucracy.

We hope we didn’t offend you with our little political outburst, which we tried to keep bi-partisan. If you are offended, or if you disagree, then at least we made you think. Feel free to tell us what you don’t agree with.

Better yet, help us collect information that will help us improve this article—which we believe may be unique. Do you have any anecdotes or horror stories to share with us? Can you offer any tips for parents of mentally ill children in particular states? Perhaps you’re aware of a particular local law that you find a hindrance...or helpful.

We welcome positive feedback, too. Please share your tips for navigating the system.

Are you aware of any studies or articles that shed more light on some of the topics we’ve discussed? If so, we’d like to hear from you.

We’d also like to invite you to discuss this article on appropriate forums, such as ConductDisorders.com, Attachment Disorder Support Group , The RadKid Forum on Delphi and Teachers.Net (note the state-specific chat boards in the lower right corner). We would like to solicit feedback from a wide variety of educators, parents and medical health care specialists in order to more fully develop this article.