Just Sayin': Give all students mental health support
Sometimes, it's harder to cancel a golf date than it is to get one. Credit: James Escher
Give all our students mental health support
Our communities are failing our children. Our job is to nurture them and help them develop physically, mentally and emotionally. I am a licensed mental health counselor, so it is my full-time job. Society has created an environment where children are living under a magnifying glass of judgment and criticism.
Not feeling “good enough” is the most common statement I hear. Bullying and harassment occurs 24/7 through social media. I teach children that they were and are always enough, and it’s the world that isn’t enough — it isn’t encouraging enough, supportive enough or accepting enough.
My career role is to be “reactive.” A child has to suffer to see me. I teach these children tools after the suffering. Why are we not teaching our children in a preventative way?
Teaching coping skills to maintain emotional stability is the most important lesson to ever be taught. So why is that not a priority in our school systems? Learning algebra and the different types of rocks are more important than learning how to stay alive?
Our school systems should have mandatory sessions with the school mental health provider for all students.
We need to do better.
— Raina Harris, Westbury
Trying to cancel golf date got me teed off
I recently booked a tee time at West Sayville Golf Course for four players to play four days later. I needed to cancel it online the next day but had technical issues with the Suffolk County website. I notified the county Parks and Recreation Department but was told they couldn’t cancel it because I reserved it online and could only cancel it online.
I notified them two more times that I couldn’t get it done online and went to their office to plead for common sense to prevail because they said I had to cancel it at least 24 hours before tee time or pay the $39 fee for four no-shows.
After those fees posted to my account, I mailed a certified letter of complaint to the Suffolk County parks commissioner. An email reply from a staffer stated that they still couldn’t help me.
After filing a consumer affairs complaint against the parks commissioner, I received an email from that same staffer stating the department would make an exception and waive the fees.
It was needless aggravation and a waste of time that the commissioner’s office put people through. Common sense should have prevailed when I presented the issue in person.
— Joseph A. Carrera, Holbrook
OK, I spot the missing driver, then do what?
Driving home one day, I saw one of those overhead electronic highway signs that said, “Missing Adult, Gray Honda . . . ”
Why is that notification there? Do they think the person is aimlessly driving back and forth on the Long Island Expressway looking for the exit home? And what are you supposed to do if you happen to see this car? Motion for the driver to lower the window? Then shout, “Hey, call home — your spouse is looking for you!”
— Chuck Fox, Smithtown
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