MPSD School Board President Stacey Soeldner
The entire nation is in mourning in wake of the school shooting and tragedy in Texas.
Friday, on WOMT’s Jim and Rick Show, the discussion was about what we can do as a community to perhaps, avoid any kind of tragedy from happening again.
The President of the Manitowoc Schools Board of Education and Doctor of Psychology, Dr. Stacey Soeldner was asked what parents and community members should be looking for to possibly indicate a person intends harm to themselves or someone else.
“If you see something, say something. I know that is a canned trite phrase, but it’s true,” she said.
The odd behavior might be seen on social media, or you might even see someone writing in a notebook or drawing some things that just seem off.
Soeldner went on to say, “If you see something that looks disturbing, don’t be afraid to go to your teachers, your resource officers in the school, any trusted adult and say ‘Look, I’m not sure about this, but I want you to know.”
If help is desired or needed, Dr. Soeldner pointed to the many resources available in Manitowoc County.
“If you call the County and Human Resources Department, they are going to know of all the different areas in the County and beyond to help,” she explained. “They keep track of all the resources we have in our community and can branch those out.”
Another question asked of Dr. Soeldner was if the Manitowoc Public schools are doing anything different to protect students.
She said that they have conducted training in the schools to “make sure the kids know where to go, and the teachers know where to go and what to do, but we are going to look at it again, I’m sure, in the next few months.”
She also said, “We owe it to all of our staff, all our kids, all our parents, all our stakeholders, to make sure we have looked our policies, and are we doing the best we can for a situation like this.”
When it comes to treating mental illness, the State of Wisconsin did pass a measure that allows out-of-state psychologists to practice virtually in Wisconsin.
That measure, known as the PSYPACT Bill, was written by area legislators Senator Andre Jacque and Assemblyman Paul Tittl.
One aspect that we are still a bit behind on is the number of in-patient mental health facilities.
When asked by Seehafer News about the creation of more of them in Wisconsin, Governor Tony Evers said, “We are open to that.”
