Engaging Journalists?

Dart Center

I was scrolling through the Education Writers Association agenda from their national meeting for a different project when I stumbled upon Student Mental Health: Beyond Crisis and Trauma. The session looking at the role schools play in responding to mental health needs of students was moderated by Nirvi Shah, Politico with panelists Bill Bond, National Association for Secondary School Principals; Olga Price, George Washington University; Bruce Shapiro, The Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma; and Laura Tillman, freelance journalist.

It got me to thinking – have we done all we can to ensure that journalists know about the issues facing our most vulnerable young people and what it takes to help them Connect by 25? Certainly the New York Times has covered the youth unemployment crisis but has your local paper or news? With the new narrative being developed around young men of color, should we all be sitting down with editorial boards to make sure that they know that it is time to cease and desist from stereotyping young men of color as a problem? Do journalists understand that a major policy shift is happening across our country as we now expect schools to re-enroll teens even if they disengage from school for awhile and that most districts have done little more than create capacity to serve no more than 20% of the demand?

Most importantly, we need to shout out our wins. We have been successfully beating back the punitive responses that developed in the 1980’s in juvenile justice and schools. We have been successfully re-aligning policies that recognize what research tells us – that making mistakes and misjudgements is part of adolescence. We have been lifting up the ages that youth can continue to be served recognizing that the journey to adulthood doesn’t end at 18. The firmer we can get these ideas entrenched in the minds of the American public, the more likely these policies will be sustained for the long haul.