VP Kamala Harris announces $285M for mental health in schools. Here’s how much NC gets

Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday in Charlotte announced $285 million in federal funding for mental health services in schools, with North Carolina expected to get $12 million of the money.

Harris made the announcement at Eastway Middle School, where she met privately with students affected by gun violence before a panel on violence prevention and mental health. She was joined by Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, among others.

The new funding, which comes from the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, will go towards hiring and training school-based mental health counselors, Harris said. She estimated the money will help bring on 332 new counselors in North Carolina and more than 14,000 nationally.

“Let’s pay attention to this issue because we can actually do something about it,” she said of the connection between mental health and violence. “And we have the opportunity then to address what we know will otherwise be generational and intergenerational trauma.”

Harris’s visit comes less than two weeks after a New Year’s Eve shooting in uptown raised questions and concerns about safety in the city’s central business district. Since the shooting, local and state leaders have called for a renewed push to address public safety in Charlotte.

Lyles said Charlotte stands ready to put however much of the new funding the city gets “to good use.”

“It’s going to take all of us,” she said. “Every level of government is going to be needed to address this pandemic that we have right now of gun violence.”

Gun violence trauma

Harris said it’s important to understand the impact violence has on young peoples’ mental health, physical health and ability to learn.

She called the students she met Thursday wise beyond their years, and noted it’s important to pay attention to their “thoughts and ideas and perspective about their rights and our responsibilities as the adults in their lives.”

Eastway Middle School social worker Corteasia Riddick said the issue “is near and dear to her heart” because she’s had loved ones impacted by gun violence.

“We are witnessing an alarming rate of students presenting with various mental health issues, including high rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation,” she said, adding that her department is “understaffed.”

Riddick said schools need “more mental health professionals to provide safe and healthy outlets for students to discuss their thoughts, feelings and emotions.”

“This will give our youth an opportunity to acquire conflict resolution and coping skills, which are severely lacking with many of our children and teens,” she said. “Many of our youth do not seem to connect death by gun violence and permanency. They are not processing the long-term implications of taking someone else’s life.”

Multiple school safety experts, educators, parents and students previously told the Charlotte Observer Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools should direct more attention to the causes of guns and violence in schools, including mental health issues and a need for more mental health support.

Malachi Thompson, a West Charlotte High School student who’s spoken publicly about gun violence, said the mental health impacts are top-of-mind for him after his cousin was shot and killed in December.

“Today, I take charge to make sure that not only am I being a support to my fellow young people out there, but I’m being a support to families and friends who have to bury their loved one, bury a child ... I had to do that Monday, but I’m here today as a survivor to encourage a lot of our elected officials that we need your help,” he said.