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Harford County Public Schools delivers update on student mental health to Harford County Council

The Aegis - 5/4/2022

May 5—Harford County Public Schools representatives delivered an update on the status of students' mental health to the Harford County Council at its Tuesday meeting.

During the 2021-2022 school year, HCPS has reported 826 suicidal ideation reports, or SIRs, as of April 13, according to Student Support Services Executive Director Bernard Hennigan and HCPS mental health specialist Christina Alton.

Although the 2020-2021 school year had 307 reports and the 2019-2020 school year had 772 reports, Hennigan said this year's number was "on par with the data that we had the year prior to the pandemic."

"We have not seen a major influx post pandemic," Hennigan said.

They also clarified that the number of SIRsdoes not indicate the number of individual students involved in such reports, because some students may have multiple reports. He also noted that SIRs account for a spectrum of behaviors, from serious incidents to non-serious comments made by students.

"We often find that students make impulsive comments," Alton said, "and they don't necessarily mean what they've said."

Councilmember Curtis Beulah asked how many SIRs involved serious incidents. Hennigan said they had broken down the data but did not present the data at the meeting.

In other council news, the council did not vote on whether or not to override Harford County Executive Barry Glassman's veto of the Perryman moratorium bill — effectively allowing the veto to stand. The bill would have imposed a moratorium on building development on the Perryman Peninsula.

"The county council let the Perryman community down last night," said Perryman coalition leader Paul Fallace. "We are disappointed Councilman Beulah didn't make a statement to represent his voters in Perryman. ...We made a good faith effort to work with both the county executive and the County Council and now both have proven to be uncooperative."

The council also introduced a trio of bills relating to the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Program, and voted to approve a bill that would allow direct communication between council members and members of the county's executive branch outside of the county executive.

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