Thanks for sharing this is support of Montana public school children.
A Clear and Present Danger: The Link to my Missoulian Opinion Piece on School Counselors and Mental Health
Thanks for sharing this is support of Montana public school children.
John Sommers-Flanagan 
To reduce or eliminate school counselors during this time of mental health crisis and students fear for their safety is ludicrous.
Well put! Thanks for the information.
Thanks for this, John. You articulately responded to parts of this situation that are maddening to me -especially her illogical statement about not needing school counselor ratios because states with low suicide rates don’t have ratios. When I read that statement the other week, I was dumbfounded that that statement came from a public office it was so ridiculous. Well done. Thank you for putting well-thought words to my outrage and bewilderment. Hope you are well, Molly
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Thanks Molly! Her reasoning isn’t rational or logical. She and her OPI policies are mostly just cruel and incompetent. Thanks to you for doing the direct service work that actually makes a difference. You are awesome!
Hi John, I’ve shared this multiple times, but if you’ve never seen the text of this speech that Elsie Artzen gave, it’s pretty astonishing and illustrates her incomprehensible thought process. I also believe that it is supports your opinion and is confirmation that she is far too incompetent to head OPI. And again, thank you so much for sharing your opinion of her actions. Her last sentence is my favorite. This is the Montana State Superintendent of Schools speaking at a federal meeting on school safety: “It is not so much what’s inside the plan because we are very unique. But to say that the plan needs to be revitalized every year. And then, it is not housed at the state level. It is housed within them. So it is their responsibility. Again, I come back to liability, responsibility flowing together. But in Montana, it is a belief. It’s very important for teachers as well. They are in the buildings. This is their livelihood. This is something that their children, their charges, regardless of what age of student that they have within their classrooms. Professional development on mental health is extremely important. We have Montana Hope as an initiative where we are working within the capacity that we have in very rural Montana who do not have social workers, who do not have counselors, psychologists at all, trying to employ something that a classroom teacher might be able to recognize. So to recognize what is happening in schools right now is very important to allow education to flow. Hardening buildings is a topic in Montana. But making sure that we have a quality teacher there that understands the capacity that they can, wherever they are located in Montana, is extremely important. Anything that we can do to instill that that teacher holds that child at that moment of wherever that child is, whatever that child comes into that school with or into that classroom with, to recognize that I think is extremely important. That’s where education is. We’re not growing children like we used to in Montana. They’re very precious resources to us. Professional development.”
Mary
This is amazing Mary. She is truly incoherent. Thanks very much for sharing. I’d like to share it forward. Would you like me to cite you as my source/inspiration, or to remain anonymous?
Oh and please don’t mention Doug Doty’s name either. I would need to run it by him first. Thanks. And thanks again for writing your opinion piece. Mary
But you’re okay with me anonymously including the quote?? I hope so, because I just did! Let me know if I should edit!