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* Columbia Chronicle…
During her senior year of high school, Amina Henderson-Redwan was leading a peace circle at Gage Park High School on Chicago’s Southwest Side when she felt an anxiety attack coming on.
As she tried to walk away, she said she got into a conflict with a school security guard and was arrested and detained for about five hours before being taken to a juvenile detention center.
Three years later, Henderson-Redawn is lobbying with the Voice of Youth in Chicago Education for legislation that will provide grants to fund mental health professionals in Illinois public schools. House Bill 4208 by state Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Westchester, in December 2017, aims to do that.
“This bill is important because what I needed at that moment in time was a counselor. Someone who I could actually talk to, not be put in handcuffs while having an anxiety attack and feeling as though I couldn’t breathe,” Henderson-Redawn said. “I’m passionate about this bill because too many youth feel like their mental health is being ignored.”
Welch, a proponent of mental health services in schools, said the bill will create the Safe Schools Healthy Learning Environment grant for statewide schools to apply for and allocate funding where needed, whether it is school psychologists, social workers or after-school activities.
I’m not sure what the answer is, but something most definitely needs to change.
* More bills…
* Illinois debates effectiveness of racial-profile data: Jim Kaitschuk, executive director of the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association, said it’s time for the program to end. Individual departments can collect the data if they want, he said. “Originally, the traffic stop data was set up to be temporary, where we’d evaluate the data and see what needs to be changed,” he said. “Fourteen years later and we’ve kicked the can on (doing anything with) the study. What’s this data providing?” The 2016 report, the most recent one available, shows minorities statewide were 38 percent more likely to be stopped than whites. That’s up from the previous year, when minorities were 25 percent more likely to be stopped.
* Gun bills have seen mixed success in General Assembly
* Illinois moves closer to bump stock ban: Critics say it’s a redundancy of a federal law and could put people traveling through the state in prison.
* Illinois House approves required $40,000 salary for teachers
* Measure to allow state treasurer to use investment money to pay Illinois bill backlog advances to House
* Urban Farm Tax Credit Plan Gets Illinois House Approval
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 11:39 am
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– The 2016 report, the most recent one available, shows minorities statewide were 38 percent more likely to be stopped than whites. –
I think that’s pretty good information to know. What’s the good reason that the sheriff’s don’t want people to know that?
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 11:43 am
Something is not being said
Why did she get into a conflict with school security?
I know, like most of us probably do, people who have anxiety but they don’t get arrested.
Did the school overreact? Probably but there is more to this story then just what we know.
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 11:47 am
==people who have anxiety but they don’t get arrested.==
Those people probably don’t go to overpoliced schools in poor minority neighborhoods.
Comment by PJ Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 11:52 am
“Critics say it’s a redundancy of a federal law and could put people traveling through the state in prison.”
If you’re traveling through Illinois with a ‘bump-stock’ and do anything to bring you to the attention of police, you deserve any and every thing that happens to you.
Comment by Springfieldish Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 11:55 am
===but there is more to this story===
Evidence?
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 11:55 am
Well yes Anonymous, there are details about the actual interaction with school security that we don’t have, but you’re kinda taking a leap to assume what those details are, that they would exonerate the officer and implicate the student. And actually a lot of mentally ill people do get arrested. This is complete speculation, but imagine a student running out of a room and a guard stops them and asks whats wrong. The student doesn’t like being forced to stop, being accosted, and tries to break away from the guard because they need to get out now now now, guard decides they’re up to no good and restrains them, adding to the panic attack and the situation just gets worse and worse. Trying to trap someone who is panicking is not helpful.
Comment by Perrid Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 12:15 pm
We absolutely need more health care professionals in schools. Over the last 5 years I have experienced an exponential change in the need for mental health services. IN our district with roughly 60% of our students in poverty, the resources outside of school are drying up.
=school psychologists=
they generally healp with testing for special education services not counseling, but if we could get a clinical/therapeutic psychologist I could keep them busy 5 days a week, 20 hours a day.
Comment by JS Mill Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 12:24 pm
A school security guard, in most instances, shouldn’t probably be physically stopping a high school student from leaving the premises. The guard should tell them to stop, and if they don’t… report the student to the administration and let them deal with it.
Comment by Just Observing Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 12:55 pm
The specific details of Ms Henderson-Redwan’s case are not important. It should be uncontroversial to say that more mental health services are needed in schools.
Comment by KSDinCU Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:08 pm
==I know, like most of us probably do, people who have anxiety but they don’t get arrested.==
That’s nice. You are obviously an expert on mental health issues because, you know, you know people.
Unless you have experienced what she experienced first hand you have no idea what sort of a mental health issue she was facing.
Your attitude is part of the reason why mental health treatment is in the state it’s in.
Comment by Demoralized Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:15 pm
I don’t suffer from anxiety atracks but I’m sure it is very difficult for people who do.
What is difficult to accept is how many people in our state are impacted by insufficient services even though we have a high tax burden. In a state with a diversified economy and close to 13 million people, you would think there would be a way to provide critical services.
How sad that greed prevents people from receiving the help they truly need.
Comment by SSL Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:16 pm
I looked up Raouls bumbstock bill. He did a good job on the definition. It’s narrow enough to affect trigfer cranks & Bumpstocks without targeting more routine stuff. Some of the initial definitions were way too broad.
As for the traveller conceen seems simple enough to exempt non residents provided weapon stays secured & cased for the entire journey
Comment by Mason born Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 2:06 pm
Demoralized - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:15 pm:
You are 100% wrong
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 2:34 pm
I dug up some contemporaneous reporting about Ms. Henderson-Redwan’s interaction. A security guard (not cop) bodily blocked her, and she tried to go past him, bumping him as she went. Two other guards responded by grabbing her, throwing her against the chalkboard, and cuffing her. She was detained, handcuffed, in the school for five hours before being transferred to juvenile detention. She was criminally charged, but the charges were dropped (apparently because there was nothing to them but a ridiculously overreactive security guard).
I suppose in an absolutely perfect world a child having a panic attack should carefully follow unspoken instructions from random security guards, but in an absolutely perfect world the adults charged with the safety of these children wouldn’t be terrified Rambo-wannabes who are so frightened of a teenaged girl, and so prone to violence as a response to imagined threats, that they react to an upset child by throwing her against a wall and cuffing her because she was trying to flee a room in tears.
Comment by Suburban Mom Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 2:35 pm
==You are 100% wrong==
Unless you have lived it you don’t have any idea. As someone who has lived it and who has also been in a similar situation with law enforcement I can tell you from personal experience saying you have “friends” doesn’t cut it.
Comment by Demoralized Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 2:56 pm
I’m not sure we need a mental health professional in every Illinois public school. Perhaps the schools could receive funding for mental health doctors via the Internet with “Doctors on Demand” or go back to the old days of having a “Guidance Councilor” in every school.
Comment by Mama Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:47 pm