COLORADO SCHOOLS REACT TO TEXAS SHOOTING; MENTAL HEALTH SCHOOL TOOLKIT LAUNCHED

May 18, 2018

By: Joe St. George

DENVER — It seems so common – another school shooting – this time in Santa Fe, Texas.

Like previous shootings, Colorado schools have been forced to react.

The Cherry Creek School District sent a letter to parents saying principals will be meeting with their school safety teams before Monday — paying close attention to upcoming events like graduation.

Denver Public Schools earlier Friday requested extra patrols – a standard protocol following mass shootings fearing a possible copy cat scenario.

This latest tragedy coming the same week Mental Health Colorado launched its School Mental Health Toolkit, a guide to helping parents, teachers, and school administrators improve the culture surrounding mental health on their campus. The tool kit is not only a guide to help stop shootings, it’s meant to help stop suicides, drop outs, and other consequences of mental illness.

“Kids aren’t getting what they need, it needs to go to school boards who are making a lot of decisions about funding,” Dr. Sarah Davidon with Mental Health Colorado, said.

Davidon worked closely on the project which aims to create mental wellness teams in schools, end the stigma surrounding mental illness, and teach parents and teachers training and funding tactics.

“We need to be able to talk about mental health and mental wellness and mental illness,” Davidon said.

“If we take good care of our children in our schools, we have a much higher potential of preventing tragedy later on,” Davidon added.

The toolkit can be downloaded here.

Originally appeared on Fox 31.