Place a student in front of a computer to
answer a series of 30 personal questions.
Cull through
the answers for signs of depression or a
tendency toward drug and alcohol abuse. Send
for help if the hopelessness shows signs of
becoming deadly.
This is what David Shern has
envisioned for Hillsborough and Pinellas
county students. Most suicides are
preventable, Shern says, but troubled teens
do not always cry out for help.
``The vast majority of
students who commit suicide have a
diagnosable mental illness,'' said Shern,
dean of the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental
Health Institute at the University of South
Florida.
School leaders agree, and
some parents like the idea. But many are
wary of Shern's tools.
Are the questions too
intrusive? How will students respond to the
news they may hear? Who will provide the
help they need?
Hillsborough County school
administrators say they are unsatisfied with
the answers to those questions and have
rejected Shern's push to adopt TeenScreen,
the program developed by New York's Columbia
University that tests young people and, if
appropriate, refers them for treatment.
The Pinellas County School
Board today will talk about changing its
policy, which prohibits administering a
survey such as TeenScreen. Some board
members have concerns about doing that and
are uneasy about screening students for
emotional problems.
The Pinellas board has
received more than 700 e-mail messages, most
of them from members of the Church of
Scientology, expressing bitter opposition to
TeenScreen. Church members loathe psychiatry
and psychology and maintain that all parents
should worry about exposing students to such
testing.
Critics are confused about
the program, Shern said. The test requires
parental and student consent. Columbia
University pays for the pilot program, and
local health centers would treat the
uninsured.
That, however, may not be
enough, he said. Schools must overcome the
stigma of talking about suicide.
``If we were screening for
diabetes, I don't think there would be this
level of resistance,'' he said.
Shern approached local
school leaders about a year ago to propose
pilot TeenScreen programs in one Tampa high
school and one St. Petersburg high school.
Although the program
assesses a teen's general mental health,
Shern underscored the risk of suicide, the
third leading cause of death among 15- to
19-year-olds in Hillsborough in 2002, and
the second leading cause of death among
Pinellas teens.
Shern met with Hillsborough
school administrators for months, touting
the program.
The pilot program, created
by one of the nation's elite universities
and used in 41 states, would cost the
district nothing. It carries the endorsement
of President Bush's New Freedom Commission
on Mental Health and Gov. Jeb Bush's Suicide
Prevention Initiative. Tampa's Northside
Mental Health Center agreed to help the
young people found to be most at risk, even
the uninsured.
No deal.
District leaders like the
program but question how it would work, said
Gwen Luney, assistant superintendent of
student services and federal programs.
They wanted to know how long
Northside would treat uninsured students.
Students feel up one day, down the next.
Would they falsely be labeled suicidal?
Pinellas Schools
Superintendent Clayton Wilcox said he will
not seek answers to such questions until his
board decides whether to alter its policy
prohibiting surveys that identify students.
The information still would be confidential.
Board members will discuss
only the policy change today, but many have
offered their opinion of TeenScreen.
``I'm still asking questions
every time we talk about it,'' board member
Jane Gallucci said. ``But it has a lot of
positive features to it.''
Board Chairwoman Nancy
Bostock called the program ``an intrusion
for our students.'' False labels could
embarrass students and cause turmoil at
home. ``We could seriously do more harm than
good,'' she said.
Shern points to districts
that use TeenScreen and reported success in
identifying students who need help. The City
of Erie School District in Pennsylvania last
year expanded the program from one high
school to all high schools. Of 803 students
who took the test, 65 said they thought
about suicide, and nearly 30 admitted they
had tried killing themselves in the last
year, said Christine Chrostowski, an Erie
mental-health specialist.
Some parents want more information but say
the program may help teens who fail to seek
help.
``There's so many pressures out there that,
sometimes, we don't see what's right in
front of us,''
said Cheryl Good, whose daughter attends
Clearwater High School. ``This might be a
helpful tool.''
Labels, though, have jolted students in
other states. When Cheslea Rhoades took the
test at her Osceola, Ind., high school last
month, a clinician told her she demonstrated
social anxiety and obsessive- compulsive
tendencies.
She was stunned. So was her
mom.
``My daughter is an honor- roll student.
She's in five clubs. There's nothing wrong
with this kid,''
said Teresa Rhoades, Chelsea's mother.
Representatives of the
Church of Scientology met with Wilcox in
December to discuss their concerns, followed
by the e-mail barrage.
Ben Shaw, a church
spokesman, said there is no organized
campaign to dissuade school board members.
The church teaches that psychiatry and
psychology are abominations. Members accuse
TeenScreen founder David Shaffer of Columbia
University of pushing children toward the
drugs
made by companies he advises.
TeenScreen endorses no
treatment plan, Shern said. If teens show
problems, a therapist or psychologist
interviews them further. If the problem is
serious, parents are given options for help.
If students show no problems, their answers
are destroyed.
Columbia University can pay
for pilot programs through financial
donations, Shern said. No drug company pays
Columbia any money, according to
TeenScreen's Web site. The university will
not disclose donors' names.
Reporter Adam Emerson can
be reached at (727) 799-7413.
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