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"It's more than just food and water and shelter, we now know that as a society, we now know that as a society."
That's what an Alaska school board member has to say about a bill that would require all K-12 schools in the state to teach mental and physical health to students, KTUU reports.
The bill, which passed the state Senate with 15 "yes" votes in March, would require the State Board of Education and Early Development to provide guidelines to school districts for developmentally appropriate instruction in mental health.
Sen.
Elvi Gray-Jackson, the bill's sponsor, says the bill "aims to decrease the stigma surrounding mental illnesses and increase students' knowledge of mental health, encouraging conversation around and understanding of the issue."
But critics say the bill would encourage schools to use psychiatric drugs, turn students and schools into "a pipeline for referral for diagnosis, labeling and treatment with psychiatric drugs, while making no effective dent in the mental health crisis, suicide rates, etc.," the Alaska Dispatch reports.
"We are concerned that the resulting education on mental health would simply turn the students and schools into a pipeline for referral for diagnosis, labeling and treatment with psychiatric drugs, while making no effective dent in the mental health crisis, suicide Read the Entire Article