Establish a new standard for mental health care in our schools.

In light of yet another tragic school event, we believe that a new standard for mental health care is necessary in our schools. Our belief is that every child deserves to be able to go to school without constant fear and readiness for immediate danger. We must hold a national dialogue and implement new practices which reach out to children far more intensively than is currently done. This requires that we develop a new national definition and standard of counseling (whether by law or culture); especially, that we counsel students who may be viewed as healthy as well as those who are not, and that each student be counseled very often in this way by a health professional. We ask simply: "How many of our children go through a day without anyone speaking with them about how they are doing?"