Dead Children Can't Read: Classrooms of Compassion

School is a demanding and sometimes dangerous place for children and youth with emotional, behavioral, developmental, cognitive, or mental health challenges. In my work as a special educator and clinical mental health counselor, I learned the dangers of an academic system that pushes academic success without giving consideration to the individual child's mental status, development, and overall safety. I have walked into schools where children were physically harming themselves, cutting or beating their heads against the wall - clearly screaming out for emotional support - to hear administrators stress the importance of the student catching up on homework or preparing for an upcoming exam. Working as an advocate and counselor in the nonprofit realm, I was able to really see what was happening to children with myriad challenges ranging from death of a parent to Autism and learning challenges to depression. This book chronicles the tragic and disturbing situations I uncovered in my work "between" the fields of Education and Mental Health ... and how one day, after struggling so many times to help education professionals understand that a child's development status must be resolved in order to SUPPORT academic learning ... I could only respond by saying "but ... Dead Children Can't Read". Join me in exploring how child development and mental health must come FIRST ... so we avoid school shootings by children who were ignored, teased, and manipulated as they grew up in a non-responsive school system ... so we avoid children getting involved in risky behaviors like drugs, alcohol, sex, self-harming ... so we avoid children becoming suicidal and taking their own lives ... so we avoid a culture that ignores the developmental, social, emotional, and spiritual needs of children in order to produce impressive school test scores. Because, after all, a child who commits suicide or takes the life of a classmate ... well they are just not able to take standardized tests. Perhaps putting the needs of the child SHOULD come first ... so all our precious children and youth can grow up and learn together as a community.