INDIVIDUAL SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENT LETTER
IN OPPOSITION TO THE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION PROPOSED MODEL LICENSURE ACT (MLA) (contributed by A. Pantaleno)
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to you as a (insert grade level) grade student at the (insert school name) School. I am writing to oppose the removal of School Psychologists with Masters degrees from our schools.
It is hard growing up in these times. Children and teenagers are faced with personal and emotional struggles which can sometimes be overwhelming. We deal with problems in our families; unemployment, mental illness, divorce, single-parent homes, alcoholism, and substance abuse – just to name a few. We live in a time where our parents are so busy earning a living, with sometimes two or three jobs, that they hardly have the time to give us the emotional support we need as kids. They seem so overly stressed with their own lives.
We live every day with the problems of our friends who are depressed and sometimes suicidal --making threats disclosed to us on the school bus or in between classes. We deal with friends mixed up with drugs and gangs. We deal with the bullies who have tormented us for so many days of our lives. We deal with friends who are failing so many classes that they are on the verge of dropping out of school. So many of us turn to a digital universe after school just to find some comfort, but our IPods, our cell phones, and our abusive diet of chatting online and texting is creating a generation of kids who cannot even carry on a face-to-face conversation. We need adults to guide us, to mentor us, to show us the way to a better world, --a world which sometimes seems so full of war, hatred, greed, racism, and poverty.
We deal with the most basic problem of learning to accept ourselves. We think we are not good enough to make it out there – or smart enough, or confident enough, or skinny enough, or pretty enough. We have the nagging doubt that if anyone really knew us, they would never accept us for who we are.
My School Psychologist has been a good mentor to me and too many of my friends. I don’treally understand why you want to take so many School Psychologists away from us and from our parents. We need every one of them now more than ever. How would you feel if your child was the one who did not get the help he or she needed and did the unthinkable by taking his/her life?
Get real APA. The world needs more healing and not less. Let’s support our School Psychologists and thank them for all that they do to help kids.
Sincerely,
Full Name of Student
I approve of my child writing the above letter.
Full Name and Address of Parent/Guardian