Posted on Feb 14, 2021
Record-high number of suicidal children forces San Francisco to sue its own school district to...
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The University of California-San Francisco Benioff Children's Hospital at Mission Bay reported record-high numbers of suicidal children seen and treated last month. "The UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital has seen a 66% increase in the number of suicidal children in the emergency room, and a 75% increase in youth who required hospitalization for mental health services, the lawsuit said, quoting pediatricians, child psychiatrists and emergency room doctors," USA Today reported. Doctors also saw an increase in anxiety, depression, and eating disorders among children.
The lawsuit calls for San Francisco's public schools to reopen, saying classroom closures are "catalyzing a mental health crisis among school-aged children." Schools have been closed for in-person learning since March.
The lawsuit filed by San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera includes "alarming testimony from hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area, doctors, and parents on the emotional and mental harms of extended distance learning."
"The medical evidence is clear that keeping public schools closed is catalyzing a mental health crisis among school-aged children in San Francisco," Dr. Jeanne Noble, director of COVID Response for the UCSF Emergency Department, said.
One San Francisco parent said her 7-year-old son had "uncontrollable meltdowns that turn (the) whole house upside down." Meanwhile, her 10-year-old daughter is exhibiting "depression and anger." The mother believes her daughter's "mental health will continue to suffer" as long as she is kept out of the classroom.
Another mother said her 15-year-old daughter cries often, is frustrated, and "losing faith not just in [San Francisco Unified School District] SFUSD but in the world."
The lawsuit highlighted that 114 of San Francisco's private, parochial, and charter schools have reopened to 15,831 students and about 2,400 staff. Those schools have had fewer than five cases of suspected in-person transmission, according to the lawsuit.
"Distance learning is a form of instruction; it is not school," the lawsuit says. The suit argues that children need the emotional, social, and developmental skills that can only be learned in-person. The lawsuit says that denying students to go to school "constitutes a substantial violation of their constitutional rights."
"SFUSD and teachers' union leadership need to step up. Get your act together, [district] leadership has earned an F," Herrera said. "It's unfortunate we have to take them to court to get it sorted out, but enough is enough."
Public health officials gave the green light for schools to reopen in September, but the district and teachers unions have not been able to reach an agreement to reopen classrooms. The San Francisco Unified School District's Board of Education did have time to bar a gay parent from being appointed to the Parent Advisory Council because he was white. School officials also found time to begin a campaign to rename several San Francisco schools that are deemed "inappropriate," including Presidents George Washington or Abraham Lincoln.
"We wholeheartedly agree that students are better served with in-person learning," the school district's spokeswoman, Laura Dudnick, said on Thursday. "Bringing students back to school in a large public school district is very complex and requires partnership."
"We are eager for the city to make vaccines available to our staff," Dudnick said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines on how schools should reopen, and the health agency declared that school reopenings should not be conditional on having teachers and faculty vaccinated.
In July, Dr. Robert Redfield, the now-former director of the CDC, warned about the psychological damage that lockdowns and remote schooling could inflict on children.
"But there has been another cost that we've seen, particularly in high schools," he said. "We're seeing, sadly, far greater suicides now than we are deaths from COVID. We're seeing far greater deaths from drug overdose that are above excess that we had as background than we are seeing the deaths from COVID."
The former CDC director also said in July that he would "100%" have his grandchildren go back to school.
Last month, the nation's fifth-largest school district declared that it wants to reopen as "quickly as possible" following a rash of student suicides. Clark County School District in Nevada saw double the amount of student suicides in nine months this year compared to all of last year.
The lawsuit calls for San Francisco's public schools to reopen, saying classroom closures are "catalyzing a mental health crisis among school-aged children." Schools have been closed for in-person learning since March.
The lawsuit filed by San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera includes "alarming testimony from hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area, doctors, and parents on the emotional and mental harms of extended distance learning."
"The medical evidence is clear that keeping public schools closed is catalyzing a mental health crisis among school-aged children in San Francisco," Dr. Jeanne Noble, director of COVID Response for the UCSF Emergency Department, said.
One San Francisco parent said her 7-year-old son had "uncontrollable meltdowns that turn (the) whole house upside down." Meanwhile, her 10-year-old daughter is exhibiting "depression and anger." The mother believes her daughter's "mental health will continue to suffer" as long as she is kept out of the classroom.
Another mother said her 15-year-old daughter cries often, is frustrated, and "losing faith not just in [San Francisco Unified School District] SFUSD but in the world."
The lawsuit highlighted that 114 of San Francisco's private, parochial, and charter schools have reopened to 15,831 students and about 2,400 staff. Those schools have had fewer than five cases of suspected in-person transmission, according to the lawsuit.
"Distance learning is a form of instruction; it is not school," the lawsuit says. The suit argues that children need the emotional, social, and developmental skills that can only be learned in-person. The lawsuit says that denying students to go to school "constitutes a substantial violation of their constitutional rights."
"SFUSD and teachers' union leadership need to step up. Get your act together, [district] leadership has earned an F," Herrera said. "It's unfortunate we have to take them to court to get it sorted out, but enough is enough."
Public health officials gave the green light for schools to reopen in September, but the district and teachers unions have not been able to reach an agreement to reopen classrooms. The San Francisco Unified School District's Board of Education did have time to bar a gay parent from being appointed to the Parent Advisory Council because he was white. School officials also found time to begin a campaign to rename several San Francisco schools that are deemed "inappropriate," including Presidents George Washington or Abraham Lincoln.
"We wholeheartedly agree that students are better served with in-person learning," the school district's spokeswoman, Laura Dudnick, said on Thursday. "Bringing students back to school in a large public school district is very complex and requires partnership."
"We are eager for the city to make vaccines available to our staff," Dudnick said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines on how schools should reopen, and the health agency declared that school reopenings should not be conditional on having teachers and faculty vaccinated.
In July, Dr. Robert Redfield, the now-former director of the CDC, warned about the psychological damage that lockdowns and remote schooling could inflict on children.
"But there has been another cost that we've seen, particularly in high schools," he said. "We're seeing, sadly, far greater suicides now than we are deaths from COVID. We're seeing far greater deaths from drug overdose that are above excess that we had as background than we are seeing the deaths from COVID."
The former CDC director also said in July that he would "100%" have his grandchildren go back to school.
Last month, the nation's fifth-largest school district declared that it wants to reopen as "quickly as possible" following a rash of student suicides. Clark County School District in Nevada saw double the amount of student suicides in nine months this year compared to all of last year.
Record-high number of suicidal children forces San Francisco to sue its own school district to...
Posted from theblaze.com
Suicide
Schools
Children
Quarantine
San Francisco
Edited 4 y ago
Posted 4 y ago
Responses: 7
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Keep reading about the growing number of pre-suicidal kids. Have read that many doctors are requesting schools be re-opened. Yet, too many states, notably California and New York, are resisting the move to re-open. This must end!
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Thank you for the news share ma'am, some children now a days can't handle not being able to socialize, they wouldn't make it in the military as far as I can see Lt Col Charlie Brown JMHO.
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SPC Linda Chandler
I work in a Army ER and you are all right there is a higher number of teens and children from 7 and up being seen in the ER because their coping skills are lacking. Yes they do need to get back into in classroom but it’s not the school that helps them relate to others (ok don’t kill the Messenger) a lot of this falls on the patents l. They are more busy them even our parents were so the relied on the computers and games and other technology to keep the children busy instead of being more busy in the children’s lives. Their coping skills are honey go play a game, honey go do your homework, honey go in your room I’ve set it up for you so you have your own place. Not enough parents are involved in their kids daily activity because the parents relied on the computers and the games and technology to keep the children busy so they could handle their busy life as well. Yes children need to be back in school but not at the risk of their lives, we are seeing the Covid virus more in children than we ever did before even in the beginning when Covid virus first came out. Parents need to get more involved in their online activity instead of sending their children into be online so they don’t have to worry about where their children are.
Just the way at I see it. I don’t let my son stay on the computer for hours a day, I went into his room while he was doing what ever in the computer so I knew what’s going on with them. Also to be sure that the predators we’re not targeting my son. It came close one time when he was seven and he wasn’t allowed on the computer by himself so I saw what was going on while he was playing his game if somebody tried to message him. Stop that right away.
Now that he’s in college I still check to make sure that the only people who message him are his friends that he has met on campus and in person.
We need to teach our children who it is safe to give their information to their online name so their email addresses are the websites that they go to. It does not stop when they turn 18 they are still vulnerable and they still need us to have their back’s, I have his sex all the time
Just the way at I see it. I don’t let my son stay on the computer for hours a day, I went into his room while he was doing what ever in the computer so I knew what’s going on with them. Also to be sure that the predators we’re not targeting my son. It came close one time when he was seven and he wasn’t allowed on the computer by himself so I saw what was going on while he was playing his game if somebody tried to message him. Stop that right away.
Now that he’s in college I still check to make sure that the only people who message him are his friends that he has met on campus and in person.
We need to teach our children who it is safe to give their information to their online name so their email addresses are the websites that they go to. It does not stop when they turn 18 they are still vulnerable and they still need us to have their back’s, I have his sex all the time
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SPC Linda Chandler
And that’s very sad lieutenant colonel that we have children that cannot defend not only themselves but our country who is responsible for that? We can’t say the schools I don’t know about parents but I see men and women that are in that should’ve never even reach their hand they come in to the emergency room and they can’t handle not only military life but their own and they were like this before they came in so how did they get in?
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Unintended consequences... I wonder how many of those children who committed suicide were on some type of ADHD "inhibitor" like ritalin or adderall which has side effects like depression, psychosis, anxiety, etc.
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SPC Cathy Goessman
Or on anti-psychotics and other sedatives that do not have a proven safety or efficacy record with anyone and certainly not with children.
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