Mental Health Bill Advances Out Of Senate, But Concerns About Privacy Follow

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By Erica Irish
TheStatehouseFile.com

 INDIANAPOLIS — A comprehensive mental health and school safety bill is off to the Indiana House for review after a 29-20 vote in the Senate Tuesday.

Senate Bill 266, authored by law enforcement veteran Sen. Michael Crider, R-Greenfield, said even though the measure underwent extensive changes and expansions that he did not want, it serves as a critical first step to averting school violence caused by students.

“I sat in my office across from parents from Noblesville. I saw the looks on their faces,” Crider said, referring to the May 25 shooting at Noblesville West Middle School in which a 13-year-old student shot his teacher and a classmate. “Someone knew that student was having issues. It’s incumbent upon us as policymakers to try and figure out ways to try and address that situation.”

But the bill survived by a close margin, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressing their concern with how certain provisions will interfere with the lives of children.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that we have an element of mental health problems in our state and in our country,” said Sen. Jim Tomes, R-Wadesville. “But sometimes I wonder if we don’t have more of an issue of a lack of moral character.”

If signed into law, SB 266 would allow the state to award secured school grants to schools seeking to partner with mental health professionals outside the school community or provide internal counseling services.

Students who would benefit from these programs would have to first receive consent from a parent or guardian, and schools that receive dollars to expand mental health services would have to disclose the available resources to parents.

Legislators like Tomes, however, say these provisions don’t do enough to protect individual privacy. Tomes pointed out a clause in the bill that outlines intervention rules at the state level. For example, the bill would require the Commission on Improving the Status of Children in Indiana to develop a behavioral health plan for individuals from birth to age 22 regarding “(1) comprehensive mental health services; (2) early intervention; and (3) treatment services.”

“These are children. They’re not specimens,” Tomes said. “Is this some major government program or experiment we’re going to conduct?”

His colleague Sen. Mike Young, R-Indianapolis, dubbed the measure “Senate Bill 1984” when voicing his opposition, referring to the classic novel by George Orwell that describes a world regulated by “thought police,” propaganda and an invasive government called “Big Brother.”

Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, also warned the parental consent requirement could spur conflict between schools and families. He said if a school identifies a child as a “dangerous person” based on their behavior and the parents refuse to consent to in-school treatment, the district might be left to a difficult choice.

“You know what the school’s going to do?” Taylor asked. “Kick them out.”

But for single parents like Sens. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette, and Mike Bohacek, R-Michiana Shores, who each spoke from personal experience as single fathers, said schools are one of the first places where mental health issues can be discovered and treated.

“When you’re a single parent and you’re working, you’re not spending the most time with your children,” Bohacek said. “The schools are.”

FOOTNOTE: Erica Irish is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

 

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