What do Oklahoma schools superintendent candidates have to say about student mental health?

After two years of pandemic disruptions for Oklahoma students, all candidates for state schools superintendent say mental health services should remain a priority in public schools, but some question certain counseling initiatives.

For the past eight years of Superintendent Joy Hofmeister’s tenure, the Oklahoma State Department of Education boosted the number of counselors in schools, hosted yearly summits on student trauma and organized a statewide counseling team to deploy to schools in crisis.

The four Republicans and lone Democrat in the race to succeed Hofmeister, who is term-limited, say the agency should continue to focus on programs supporting mental health. The candidates differ on how schools should deliver those services.

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Tuesday's primary election will decide which of the four Republicans will appear on the Nov. 8 general election ballot. If none gains more than 50% of the primary vote, the top two vote earners will continue to an Aug. 23 runoff.

Two GOP candidates, John Cox and Ryan Walters, say counselors should focus on individual sessions with students but should avoid giving lessons in the classroom.

Some school counselors visit classes to teach lessons on emotional self-regulation and academic success.

Cox, 59, said he instructed the counselor in his school district, Peggs Public Schools, to focus on one-on-one sessions with students because he disagrees with the notion that “every child has a problem.”

Cox has been superintendent of Peggs, a district of 200 students in eastern Oklahoma, for 28 years. He ran as a Democrat in the 2014 and 2018 superintendent elections.

“I just want to make sure we don’t have an agenda to push social programs and social issues into our schools,” Cox said. “I don’t like to go and have a group of students that you’re doing counseling with and exposing them all to a certain theory and concept.”

Walters, 37, agreed classroom lessons could produce negative rhetoric.

The governor’s education secretary equated social-emotional learning, which is the practice of teaching emotional regulation and interpersonal skills, to critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion.

“What we’re now calling social-emotional learning is this far-left belief that every child comes with a victim status or the status of an oppressed people group,” Walters said. “That’s inappropriate. Those are not the type of conversations we should have with kids.”

Middle school English teacher and Democratic candidate Jena Nelson, 44, said counselors develop stronger relationships when they meet with large groups of students. She said these connections improve a school’s culture and break down the stigma associated with seeking mental health support.

“By building that positive culture with that counselor, then that stigma goes away,” Nelson said.

Counselors cover skills that could help students become more employable in the future, said April Grace, a Republican candidate and superintendent of Shawnee Public Schools.

“I think what employers want are for us to focus on what we sometimes refer to as soft skills,” Grace said. “The ability to make decisions, to have interpersonal communication, to resolve conflict, to collaborate, to work in teams.”

June polling by Oklahoma City firm Amber Integrated indicate Cox, Walters and Grace have relatively even levels of support in the Republican primary while a fourth challenger, William Crozier, trails. More than half of surveyed GOP voters said they were undecided, according to the poll.

Weeks after a deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Crozier said a mental-health focus could address other possible shooters.

“We have to look at what the problems are,” Crozier said. “We have to look at the lone wolves who shoot up the schools.”

When running for state superintendent in 2006, Crozier, 75, suggested students use textbooks to shield from bullets in a school shooting. This week, he said World War II atomic bomb testing in neighboring New Mexico might cause mental illness in some Oklahomans and “could have affected their DNA.”

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The state Education Department offered $35 million in grants last year to bring 200 more counselors into Oklahoma schools. The agency used federal coronavirus relief funds to finance the program, called the Oklahoma School Counselor Corps.

Walters has been critical of the program, contending schools and the state will be left on the hook when federal stimulus dollars run out in 2024. He also is wary of federal influence in Oklahoma schools through grants.

“My concerns are the federal government are pushing programs that are grossly inappropriate under the guise of mental health programs,” he said. “The government should absolutely not be in the position of trying to become a parent to our kids. It should be about supporting parents, involving parents, engaging parents and being transparent with parents.”

Cox and Grace said their school districts hired more full-time counselors with the grants. They, Crozier and Nelson said they’re not opposed to accepting federal funds to boost mental health services in schools.

Grace, 56, said three years leaves enough time for districts to determine how to afford the added counselors, if they wish to keep them.

“That’s what superintendents do on a daily basis,” she said. “That’s the work I'm used to doing, finding solutions, being creative about finding those solutions.”

Oklahoma ranked No. 1 in the nation in 2017 for prevalence of childhood traumas, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health.

Trauma, abuse and neglect impede learning and must be addressed to improve academic outcomes, said Hofmeister, a Democratic candidate for governor.

Despite Walters’ complaints, she said the Counselor Corps program has been well received by school districts and students.

“Our focus is on children, not campaign rhetoric, and the needs of children outweigh soundbites for his election,” Hofmeister said of Walters’ comments. “What we are looking at is real, life-changing resources that the legislature fully is behind.”

Reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel. Support Nuria’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: State superintendent candidates talk mental health in Oklahoma schools