NJ senators push bills to address bullying and a crisis of teen depression

Youth mental health and bullying are once again the focus for New Jersey lawmakers, following the suicide this month of 14-year-old high schooler Adriana Kuch after she was physically attacked in a hallway by fellow students and the video of the incident was posted online.

Finding ways to address the mental health crisis among school aged youth — including measures to address bullying — would be a priority for the remainder of the year, Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth), chair of the state Senate Education Committee, said during a meeting Thursday.

A law proposed by Gopal and discussed Thursday could require students to be removed from school if they present an "immediate physical danger" to themselves or others. To be used in emergencies, students removed in this way could only return if they get clearance from a medical professional.

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Two other laws could require school districts to give students five excused absences for mental health needs, and would allow schools to expand excused absences to include mental health needs.

Advocates, stakeholders and two high school students talked about their concerns for and against the laws, which are still being drafted and are not yet formally presented for a vote by committee members.

Three separate laws, also addressing the same issues, got votes of approval from the senate committee.

Crisis of teen depression

Experts including the federal Centers for Disease Control and the nation’s surgeon general have called attention to an ongoing crisis of depression among teenage youth as they emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

High schooler Natalie Veale from Hopewell Valley Central High School was passionate about adding five mental health days to the six excused days off in the K-12 calendar already authorized by the state. That's a change proposed in bill S2151, sponsored by Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex).

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Veale said she was diagnosed with OCD and depression and that staying in school while dealing with it was hard. “I actually missed about a month of school in eighth grade after being hospitalized with anorexia,” Veale said. “Although we work hard to not let these illnesses affect our high school careers,” social pressures to constantly succeed and never take time off from school is difficult, she told the senators.

The bill says students could be referred to an appropriate school official after their second day off, but some in the public meeting opposed this provision.

“You may not need to differentiate between mental health days and physical health days. Health is health,” said Susan Tellone from the NJ Youth Suicide Prevention Advisory Council. Requiring students to inform schools that they are taking time off for mental health could present an additional burden to youth, likely because of the associated stigma, she cautioned.

Supporting mental health is critical, but policies that excuse students for mental health needs should stay on the local level, because state law does not support it, said Melanie Schultz of the New Jersey School Administrators Association, which opposed the bill.

Present, absent or excused

Students currently are marked present, absent or excused for a total of six state-excused absences, Schultz said. S2151 with its five mental health days could create inequity because any health related absence — even for physical illness — is not considered automatically excused by state law. So giving mental health a special status is unfair, she noted.

Many schools in New Jersey already unofficially allow students to take days off for personal wellness but this is not universal, said the Garden State Coalition for Schools, noting that Connecticut permits 2 non-consecutive days off.

Suicide prevention instruction

The New Jersey Youth Suicide Prevention Advisory Council will submit an annual report to the state to inform the governor and lawmakers on the effectiveness of suicide prevention instruction in schools, under a bill that was approved by the Senate education committee and sponsored by Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex).

The committee also approved S3330, which could require schools to provide instruction in coping with loss and grief after a loved one’s death.  S3543, also sponsored by Gopal, would require the Department of Education, in partnership with the Department of Human Services and the Department of Children and Families, to develop and distribute guidelines to school districts for providing mental health services to students to better help students needing them.

The bill won approval by the education committee. Gopal, introducing two draft laws discussed Thursday, has publicly shared his experience struggling with depression as a teenager and appears to have made youth mental wellness a personal priority as senate education chair.

But his bill that could require students to be removed from school if they present an "immediate physical danger" to themselves or others raised questions from many speakers Thursday. Advocates and groups asked for specifics and presented robust concerns about the bill.

Schultz, of the school administrators association, wanted to know how this bill was aligned with a recent law passed after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that requires schools to form threat assessment teams.

And the bill should be flexible and permit physicians — not only mental health clinicians — to provide clearance to students to return to school, said the New Jersey School Boards Association.

School principals are usually  left to make that determination, Highland Park High School principal Michael Lassiter told the senators. The draft law needed to be changed to address liabilities that could arise from written clearances handed down my doctors or even made by school leaders, he said.

“The clearance you are putting into this bill is incredibly difficult to get,” he said.

Children have a constitutional right to be in school and removing them each time they show “maladaptive behavior” is not a good idea, especially with the long waits for behavioral health care, said Nicole Tierney, a licensed clinician who works with Performcare, a group that provides counseling for families in crisis through the statewide New Jersey Children's System of Care.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: After Central Regional bullying, NJ pushes mental health bills