Carmel Convo
It seems like every few months, we turn on the news to see another tragic school shooting. And last year’s incident at Noblesville West Middle School made many people realize that no school – no matter the location or the community’s wealth – is immune from these tragedies occurring.
The Carmel Clay School District is proposing a tax referendum for November, and voters will get to decide whether to allow the school to collect an additional 5 cents for every $100 of assessed property value over an eight-year period. The money will go toward increasing mental health services and hiring around 11 to 13 new school resource officers, which are police officers with special training. Currently, there are no full-time SROs in any Carmel elementary schools, and the SROs assigned to each middle school will float from elementary to elementary.
I recently sat down with Carmel Clay Schools Superintendent Michael Beresford on his day off from work and discussed the issue of school safety for more than an hour.
Beresford said it’s important to have a dedicated source of money when it comes to hiring new officers. One-time government grants can’t be counted on year-by-year, so a referendum really is the best option and it gives voters a chance to express their opinion.
I asked Beresford a lot of tough questions, and personally, I plan to vote yes on the referendum. While I do believe in low taxes, there are a few reasons why I think this is a wise use of money.
It’s not a lot of money
For a home valued at $250,000, the estimated annual cost for the homeowner because of this referendum would be no more than $65.13. For a home valued at $500,000, we’re talking about $146.38.
While I understand that every penny counts when you have children in college or other expenses, I think we could all cut back on one or two Starbucks frappucinos a month in order to make sure children are safe in schools. Considering the huge impact this money would make, I believe it’s a small amount to pay.
Safety goes beyond school shootings
Obviously having an SRO onsite would help in an active shooter situation, but their value goes far beyond that. These officers can break up fights among kids, help direct traffic so children can cross safely, help reduce vaping in our schools, help identify at-risk students and be a mentor to the youth.
Safety doesn’t just mean a school shooting. It can mean an attempted teen suicide or a natural disaster such as tornado. It could mean a car accident in the student parking lot or a hateful slur scrawled on a locker. The explosion at Carmel High School in December shows that school safety can take many forms. This referendum money will help address all of those ongoing possibilities.
Mental health needs to be addressed
If passed, the referendum will also help increase pay for CCS social workers in order to retain them and add additional social workers. There will also be a program that allows mental health counselors – trained outside professionals that would be on a contract – to come into the schools to offer counseling sessions. Much of the cost would be covered by family’s private insurance, but CCS would cover some overhead cost with the referendum money. CCS could also help cover counseling costs for those with financial need.
The benefit here is that students could receive mental health counseling they need without having to leave the school. Parents wouldn’t have to take off work and fewer appointments could be missed. Not only could appropriate care help prevent a violent tragedy, but mental health counseling goes far beyond that. It could help increase students’ grades and give them tools to be happy, healthy and successful in life. For too long, we’ve stigmatized talking about our mental health concerns and even those who admit they need help aren’t always able to receive it due to time or money. This could go a long way in addressing those needs.
There are a lot of “what-ifs” and “devil’s advocate arguments” that I proposed to Dr. Beresford during our talk and he had well-thought-out answers for them all. While I don’t have time to get into every detail in this column, I encourage you to email carmelsosref@gmail.com with your questions.
In summary, I support the proposed referendum not only because it could help decrease the chances of a school shooting, but it will make the schools safer in general and the students will be happier and healthier. To me, that’s worth $5 or $10 a month out of my money.
Adam Aasen is a co-owner of Donatello’s Italian Restaurant and a former journalist who lives in Carmel. His column “Carmel Convo” will appear periodically in The Reporter.