How much will more legislation help?

In an article written in the Grits for Breakfast blog, the author of Mental health resources, not new laws, best way to respond to bullying deaths claims that more legislation will not help reduce the number of bullying deaths but rather more access to counseling and mental health education would be more affective. The author of this post believes that bullying has gone too political and way too far in "criminalizing juvenile misbehavior." As of now, Texas law mandates that schools prohibit bullying and and harassment and allows victims of bullying to transfer to different schools. Several Democrats believe that proposed legislation to expand training and incident reporting when it comes to bullying would reduce the amount of bullying happening in Texas schools. 


The author argues that the criminal justice system can only go so far when dealing with issues that arise in the schoolyard. As a result the issue of school bullying has gone political, as evidence the blog points to fellow blogger Murray Newman who flip-flopped on the issue of how effective prosecutors can be with school bullying after a Houston area bullying allegedly contributed to a teen suicide. The Grits for Breakfast author then points out that bullying isn't necessarily the issue, but most likely teen suicide. As the author stated "it's not nearly as politically popular to advocate for more mental health services compared to going after killers."The author believes that the taboo issue of mental health issues are most likely the cause of teen suicide but is often over looked. The blog concludes with the idea that beefing up counseling and mental health service could help matters with bullying deaths, but because of the state budget shortfall next year the solutions will most likely be put on the back burner. 


I believe that the author is spot on in the solution of how to help with teen suicide. Counseling and mental health education would greatly put teens at an advantage of how to deal with certain issues, most importantly bullying. Some one who contemplates suicide because of bullying most likely has underlying issues that could be helped with counseling. But I don't agree with the author that more legislation is not a good idea. While the legislation that has been purposed may be unnecessary, if educators had more training on how to deal with bullying and mental health issues they may be able to spot when a teen is showing symptoms and may be able to help that individual. 


As the author points out in his conclusion, unfortunately this growing problem will most likely not be looked at in the upcoming year as Texas is facing a $21 billion budget shortfall.