First off, let me commend the Oshkosh high school students who put together the petition drive to demand additional mental health services from the School District.  You have identified what you believe is a need in your school and you are bringing it to the attention of the people you believe are the ones who should be responsible for fixing it.  Unfortunately, this is not something that the schools themselves should be “fixing”.

Let me remind you (and everyone else) that the Affordable Care Act requires all Americans to have health insurance–health insurance that covers mental health counseling and treatment and that cannot deny anyone coverage for a “pre-existing condition”.  So your parents should have health insurance to help cover the cost of mental health treatments for you and all of your classmates.  If your parents are low-income, we have a program called BadgerCare intended to cover families with children.  In addition, there are mental health services provided by dozens of private sector providers–some in health networks, some in independent practices.  Just Google it, you should be able to find plenty of options that are not funded by taxpayers.

Coincidentally, the students’ demands for more mental health services in schools came the same week that District officials went before the Oshkosh School Board to discuss adding more mental health counselors to the elementary schools.  Merrill Elementary Principal Sara Poquette used an example of the “mental health problems” that teachers face in the classroom as a child throwing a fit because he or she didn’t get the color marker they wanted.

Acting up because you got the green marker instead of the blue marker is not a mental health issue–it’s being a spoiled brat.  Poquette admitted that most of their behavioral problems in the classroom today are caused by children who expect to get their way all the time.  And who is to blame for that?  PARENTS WHO CANNOT SAY “NO” TO THEIR CHILDREN.  PARENTS WHO REFUSE TO DISCIPLINE THEIR CHILDREN WHEN THEY DISOBEY THE RULES OR ACT OUT IN AN INAPPROPRIATE WAY.

You know what this parenting approach leads to?  Kids like the “Affluenza Teen” in Texas whose drug and alcohol infused crime spree was explained away by never learning the consequences of doing something wrong–because his parents never punished him or denied him any of his wants.  And after getting a slap on the wrist with probation, the kid violates his parole and his Mother helps him escape to Mexico to avoid punishment again.

These children don’t need taxpayer-funded “mental health services”.  They need actual parenting and discipline in the home.  And to provide this “service” in the schools is just another way to allow those parents to abdicate their duties.  You ever wonder why so many kids are on behavior modification medications nowadays?  It’s so much easier to drug your child than to actually discipline them–and “modify their behavior” through punishment or simply not buying them everything they want the second they want it.

And to expect the rest of us to foot the bill for that?  It sounds like a few adults could use some “behavior modification” as well.