CHARLOTTE — Vice President Kamala Harris announced an additional $285 million in funding to increase mental health professionals in schools across the United States at a Jan. 11 event in the Queen City.
The funding, a result of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, aims to hire and train over 14,000 school mental health professionals, including 300 in North Carolina.
The goal is to address the trauma experienced by students and enhance mental health services in schools to counter the impact of gun violence. Harris emphasizes the urgent need for reasonable gun safety laws and the administration’s commitment to mental health support for students.
“In the United States of America today, the number one killer of our children is gun violence…and when we take the time to consider what this means, let us understand how many people in our country, including our children, are experiencing profound trauma that manifests itself in so many ways,” Harris said in a press release.
The initiative is part of Harris’s leadership on gun violence prevention. The funding will support the hiring and training of counselors, psychologists, social workers, and other mental health professionals.
The announcement also includes $6 million for community violence intervention through the Department of Education. Funding will be distributed to seven school districts as part of the Project Prevent grant program.
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona was also in attendance at the roundtable discussion held at a middle school in Charlotte.
Harris has been involved in gun violence prevention, overseeing the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention and advocating for additional measures such as renewing the assault weapons ban, passing red flag legislation, and implementing background checks for all gun sales.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) has seen at least 30 guns found on its campuses in the past few years per reporting by WBT Radio host Brett Jensen.
In a Jan. 13, 2023, report, Jensen noted the impact of CMS implementing body scanners and the vast reduction in guns on school grounds with 2 guns found during the school year so far, down from 23 during the same period in the previous year.
Officials Jensen spoke to attributed the drop in number of guns found in schools to weapons deterrent systems as having had the biggest impact and not mental health resources.
