CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CN) — During a visit to the Tarheel State on Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced $285 million in new funding for mental health care in schools.
The funding — part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — will help schools throughout the country increase access to mental health resources for their students.
North Carolina's allotment of around $12 million will allow schools in the state to hire and train 332 mental health counselors, as well as provide group counseling sessions, one-on-one therapy and social and emotional lessons for students. Nationally, the funds will help to hire over 14,000 school counselors.
Speaking to community leaders in Charlotte on Thursday, Harris said the funds aim to “provide a place where those who are trained to do this work can allow the students and children to check in and heal.”
“We are putting the resources where they are needed,” she said. “More resources are needed, no doubt — but let's pay attention to these issues because we can actually do something about it.”
Harris visited Eastway Middle School to speak with educators, counselors, parents, gun safety advocates and local and state leaders about reducing gun violence. She also spoke to children who have been affected by gun violence, and about the trauma that it inflicts upon them and their families.
“Their words were the words of very wise people, who are much older than these young leaders are, who have thoughts and ideas and a perspective about their lives and our responsibilities as the adults in their lives," Harris said. "And I think about what they shared with us, the backdrop being that in the United States of America today, the number one killer of our children in America is gun violence."
"Not car accidents, not some form of cancer. Gun violence is the number one killer of the children of America,” Harris added. “Those numbers on their face are extraordinarily tragic and shocking.”
Harris' visit to Charlotte comes only 11 days after a 19-year-old shot and injured five people in the city during a New Year’s Eve celebration. City council members commented at the time that something more needed to be done.
“It’s going to take all of us," Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles said. "Every level of government is going to be needed to address the pandemic that we have right now of gun violence, and in making our community members [and] residents feel safe."
Corteasia Riddick, a social worker at Eastway Middle School, said school officials are facing an increased demand from students who have been impacted by trauma.
“We need more mental health professionals to provide safe and healthy outlets for students to discuss their thoughts, feelings and emotions," Riddick said. "This will give our youth an opportunity to acquire conflict resolution and coping skills, which are severely lacking."
Many children and teens, Riddick said, "are not processing the long-term implications of taking someone else’s life."
"Instead of solving math equations or learning about great historical figures, our students are remembering the relatives and friends they’ve lost to gun violence,” Riddick said. “They are afraid in their own neighborhoods. They are even afraid in our schools.”
Riddick said the funding will help to increase the number of school social workers, psychologists and counselors, in order to combat what she called an “alarming” rate of mental health issues among students.
“The money that you invest with us to hire trained school mental health counselors will make a genuine difference in what the future can be,” Lyles concurred.
The funding follows an announcement of $6.4 million to support local educational agencies aimed at mitigating community violence and the impact it has on student mental heath. Seven grants will help communities connect with local organizations to help students break cycles of violence and trauma.
“Students shouldn’t have to think twice about their safety in the one place they may look to as a safe haven," Riddick said.
This is Harris’ ninth trip to North Carolina since she was sworn in as vice president. Addressing community members in a roundtable discussion, she highlighted the Biden administration's commitment to preventing gun violence.
“The work that you all are doing as community leaders is so critically important and a real example of what we can do as a country when we do truly see our children and listen to them and understand their God-given potential," Harris said. Her goal, she said, was to let students know they are safe. “That they are safe to dream, that they are safe to learn, that they are safe to be.”
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