It is with an unbearably heavy heart that I write the following words:  On Sept. 4, our nation experienced the 45th school shooting this year, with four dead and nine hospitalized.  So far in 2024, a total of 50 of our finest educators, students, children have been killed. And like many of these incidents before, a young person — a teenager of 14 years — is responsible for this violence.

To the families and friends of the fallen, I am one of the many Rhode Islanders whose hearts are broken by this senseless tragedy.  I am so very sorry for your loss.  Beyond being sorry, I commit myself to taking the actions needed to prevent this from happening again, over and over.  And I call on my colleagues and peers in this state, families with children, as well as all of our neighbors across the country to join me in action — to go beyond “thoughts and prayers.”

The first step is sensible gun control — keeping assault rifles out of the hands of our kids.  But this is not the only step.  We need to get serious and make real changes and investments in children’s mental health – which is at emergent levels now and has been for some time.  During the decade before 2020, our youth faced persistent sadness, hopelessness, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors at staggering rates.  And COVID’s academic disruption and social isolation further exacerbated those conditions.  Study after study has shown that our kids’ levels of anxiety and depression continue to skyrocket.  We need to change the status quo radically, or these tragedies will continue.

Here’s what I suggest: 1) Require that every child and teen get a mental health check, just like an annual physical, each year and those identified as needing support be immediately linked with their family, to behavioral health services in their community. 2) Increase in-school mental health supports for kids.  Teachers are not trained to address the types and levels of concerns that kids are bringing with them to the classroom every day; get more child and family behavioral health professionals into the schools to help our struggling kids. 3) Treat the mental health crisis among kids as seriously as we would for adults — meaning we need to invest, significantly, in the programs and the people to address this crisis. Waiting lists are unacceptable! Our kids need help and they need it now.

With this said, I have asked my colleagues at Family Service of Rhode Island to be on standby.  If your kid needs help, right now, call us at 401-519-2280.  Our children’s mobile crisis team can respond to your home or community and help you and your kid get the support you need and hopefully prevent the need for psychiatric hospitalization or harm to themselves or others.  And finally, 4) Invest in programs like FSRI’s nationally recognized Go Team police partnership model, where social workers go out on patrol with police officers to prevent violence and when bad things happen they support the victims to reduce the impact of trauma, especially on children, so that one traumatic event does not perpetuate into a cycle of violence that is passed down across generations.

I urge you, reading these words right now, to pick up your pen or open your email and let me know if you agree with Family Service of Rhode Island that beyond expressing some sad rhetoric, our kids deserve real change.  Join us!  We need partners, investment and action, NOW. Contact me at info@familyserviceri.org or at Margaret Holland McDuff, CEO, Family Service of RI, PO BOX 6688, Providence RI 02940 and let me know how you want to get involved.  Our kids deserve better.  And together, we can make that happen for them.

About FSRI: Family Service of Rhode Island (FSRI) submitted this statement from CEO Margaret Holland McDuff. Founded in 1892, our long history of nonprofit service has always been tailored to meet the unique and ever-changing needs of the diverse Rhode Island community in which we serve. We have three offices located in Providence, but our employees provide impactful services state-wide. We are engaged, committed, and passionate about our work helping others, and care deeply about our mission to advance equity, opportunity, and hope in our communities.