The Transfiguration of Schools to Psyche Wards

OAKLAND – Few would compare suburban high schools to “psychiatric institutions.” Then again, these are not normal times for public education.

“We are becoming a psychiatric institution at this point,” is how Kim Ansh, the vice president of the Ramapo Indian Hills regional board of education, put it as the board opposed spending about $440,000 this coming school year for mental health counseling and treatment. The district runs Ramapo and Indian Hills high schools.

That move in late July electrified the school community with opponents calling it “disgusting,” regressive and a “black mark” on a district serving Franklin Lakes, Oakland and Wyckoff in northern Bergen County.

A special meeting was hastily put together on Tuesday night and the action was reversed. Mental health services will continue to be part of the district when school resumes in about a month.

Most speakers at the meeting condemned the board’s earlier decision and applauded the reversal.

“You are obligated to represent and support us students,” said a high school junior-to-be.

Another woman spoke in more global terms.

“We live in New Jersey, not Florida, not Texas,” she said.

As that comment suggests, public education has become a national issue whether people admit it or not.

This has given rise to a “parents’ rights” lobby, which seems to suggest that parents must control their child’s education in all areas.

This has fueled angry meetings, harsh feelings and litigation all over New Jersey over such things as books, curriculum and the privacy of gay students.

The banning of mental health services in this district appeared well in line with that sentiment.

In fact, when Ansh spoke against the policy in July, she said it “removes parents to some degree.”

That overlooks the possibility school personnel can be the best judge if a student is in need and also the fact some parents may lack the skills and means to handle the problem.

Rui Dionisio, the superintendent, strongly endorsed mental health counseling, adding that doing away with it left him “gravely concerned.”

As Tuesday’s meeting ensued, it was quite obvious that the earlier action would be reversed, as it eventually was – overwhelmingly.

Ansh, for her part, said she did not have enough information about the service when she originally voted.

All well and good, but tension among board members and the audience was obvious.

Judith Sullivan, the board president, more than once threatened to call a recess if members of the audience kept interrupting the goings-on.

Then, there was the board itself and the realization that one board member had filed a police report after an interaction with another at a previous meeting.

Board member Doreen Mariani, who filed the report, lamented how the atmosphere of the regional board is so different from the local board in Wyckoff, where her husband once served.

She said board members in Wyckoff got along and that there was no “minority” or “majority” faction.

But Mariani said the regional board is “galaxies apart” from that, and not in a good way.

“There is harassment, there is intimidation … it is just wrong,” she said.

In today’s environment, that may be the “new normal.”

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