Video length: 2:01
Transcript
[Michelle speaking]
So, I just feel like we need to, like you said, Dr Compton, blow up the system, just make it a kinder, gentler way that we deal with adolescents who really need radical compassion. We cannot keep this system in place. I listened to what the professionals told us and that is the definition of recovery is a lot bigger than just abstinence. I listened to the science. I’m a former scientist myself, so I’m like, that’s what we do, we base everything we do on scientific evidence.
And I think every school should have something that says like, hey, what if a kid is we call them heavy hitters or whatever. If they’re a kid whose dysregulated, what is our plan with them to keep them in our schools. Why can’t we find safe places in our schools or in our communities or in our libraries or in our synagogues or in our wherever, just find places where people can go and have that conversation and feel like they’re not going to get judged.
That’s what I want to do. I want people… Not necessarily… It doesn’t have to be mine, I don’t care what you use, but find places in our communities where people are ready to have those conversations and are willing to have those conversations and know how to get resource. I just feel like there’s a whole breakdown in the system because kids don’t trust us.
So, they might come and they’re like, I don’t like that nurse, that nurse got my brother suspended and I’m not going to that nurse. But that nurse is the only one that can help get that child the help. So, you need to bridge that resource and be like, I trust the nurse, come on, come with me, we’ll go together. So, I think that there’s just…
There’s a breakdown in that system of trust but there’s a way that we can build this back up, I do believe it. We can do that. One person can do that. If we have everyone in every community going, I can bring a kid to detox and make him stay there if it totally sucks. I can do that, I’ll be that nice person. It doesn’t take rocket science, it really doesn’t. I just feel like it just needs to take a different lens, that we’re just… We’re going to jump in.
So, I would really encourage people to get… Look at your policies. Look at your attendance policies, look at your discipline policies, look at what we do with kids who are inflicted with mental health disorders. Look at that and say, we’re going to do things differently. And I would challenge people right now. That’s my call to action.