How the safety of our children is a weapon in politics
Children in United States politics are a main driver on the passing of bills and the gathering of support, yet they are ultimately underserved in the policies passed, as seen in gun regulation and mental health assistance.
Children’s safety does not seem to be the priority of the Republican Party, despite them saying it is, and Democrats struggle to hit home runs in passed bills. Mental health and shootings are the main causes of death in children according to numerous CDC reports and when those promises of safety and reform come to pass, it may get better. Until then, however, our children will live in fear, not saved by policy or politics.
The 4th leading reason of death among children is suicide. According to the CDC,“The 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) found that approximately one third (30.0%) of female high school students and 14.3% of male high school students had seriously considered attempting suicide during the 12 months before the survey.” To add, this survey only records what teenagers willingly say, there could be many more at-risk children who do not choose to report it. According to the same study, 45% of LGBTQI+ identifying teens have seriously considered suicide in the last year. These should be the children we should be helping, assisting in making sure they are safe and not belittled or hurt. Democrats are providing some means of solution saying, “Democrats will build on this progress to expand mental health and suicide prevention services for LGBTQI+ people (Democratic Party Platform).” In contrast,the Republican Party refuses to take action to fund mental health or benefit LGBTQI+ swearing in their party platform in an effort to “Rein in Wasteful Federal Spending” (Republican Party Platform). When cuts come, it will be towards help made for the mentally ill and LGBTQ+ citizens of our country.
America’s children are the future of our country, any country in the world, and with declining birth rates in developed countries, the safety of children should be a priority of lawmakers in America. For U.S lawmakers to tackle such an issue, we have to know what is hurting and especially killing our children. In a study done by John Hopkins University on gun violence, it was found that “Guns were the leading cause of death among children and teens accounting for more deaths than car crashes, overdoses, or cancers.” Yet Republican lawmakers, who on their platform yearly cite the safety of children, do not wish to stop the main vehicle of child death in America. They often make the argument that it is the fault of the people holding the guns, not the guns themselves. Again, Republicans neglect to support children by not supporting mental health in America. Rather, republicans, in their national platform, seek to maintain the ease of access to a firearm in America.
When asked about how safe she felt in a public school, student at Danbury High School and fellow Hatters’ Herald journalist Shea Moore responded “no,” citing the opinion that “politicians have failed to do their jobs in protecting education and educators.” Yet year after year these child-first policies put no emphasis on childrens’ real killers. Moore cited how shootings that took place around the time of her education made COVID distance learning, “The safest I’ve ever felt learning.” When global pandemics are when you feel the safest, there are clearly integral problems in the system.
The Republican Party, through antagonistic words towards the mental health problem in this country, pushed us in the wrong direction. They push for the defunding of systems that try their hardest to prevent these detrimental problems to childrens’ health and life. Modern Republican identity is very much built off of 40th U.S. President Ronald Reagan who served from 1981-1989; specifically, the economic policy of the modern republican party aligned with his doctrine of “trickle down economics.” Another holdover from the Reagan administration was the prevention of funding towards mental health institutions that help the mentally ill. Reagan was a main contributor to the destruction of American psychiatric hospitals with no replacement. I, as a journalist, am endorsing the acknowledgment of the rampant abuse that was prevalent in American psychiatric hospitals of the 20th century, but the lack of a replacement has left millions out to dry in a country where social services are first on the chopping block. Politicians and government officials do not work to benefit those men and women who are suffering and, to get back to the point of this article, children who are suffering: children who are not given proper mental health help and no place to go to if their homes are unstable. We, as a country, should work to better our children through their mental health, and a country that has left millions of adults out to dry since the 1980s doesn’t make me hopeful. Hearing a political party parade the protection of children while leaving anyone they deem a fiscal burden out to dry worries me.
Mentally ill children take their own lives, and mentally ill children and adults murder children at a disturbing regularity in this country. When our political parties don’t unite to fix an issue like this and split ways to fix it across party lines, both their promises become lies and our children, America’s children, suffer.
Villarreal, S., Kim, R., Wagner, E., Somayaji, N., Davis, A., & Crifasi, C. K. (2024). Gun Violence in the United States 2022: Examining the Burden Among Children and Teens. Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/2024-republican-party-platform
https://democrats.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2024_Democratic_Party_Platform_8a2cf8.pdf
