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4A EDITORIAL AND OPINION/tTge Charlotte $o«t Thursday, June 1,2006 Cljarlotte The Voice of the Black Community 153} Camden Road Charlotte, N.C. 28203 Gerald O. Johnson ceo/publisher Robert L Johnson co-publisher/general manager Herbert L White editor in chief OPINION Nuisesare essential 10 students’ health More - not fewer - professionals should be in public schools By Kathy Smith SPECIAL TO THE POST When you think about pressing issues that face our mmmnni- ty; m bet school nurses is not the first topic that pops into your mind. What coxfid be urgent — or even controversial — about nurses in our public schools? Here’s what: Our school system is seriously lacking in nurses to care for om' childi'en and teens. The federal Centers for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics both recommend one school nurse for every 750 students. In Charlotte-Mecklenbuig, we have cxne nurse for every l,740students. Each nurse works at two or three schools, which means many schools have no nurse present much of the time If you think that’s no big deal, ask the child who is having an asthma attack on the day no nurse is there. The diabetic pre- teen who goes into shock. The high school student being treated for cancer who reacts to a medication. The child of any age who is anxious or depressed. Some folks argue that we don’t need more school nttrses because parents should be providing healthcare for their chil dren. It’s true that parents are ultimately responsible for their children’s health and weU-bemg. But think about how many hours a child spends in school, away fi-om parents. A qualified medical professional needs to be where the children spend much of their time. Nurses are trained to provide specialized, confi dential help to students facing a medical or emotional crisis. Many studies have documented - and common sense tells us - that healthier students do better in school. They are able to pay more attention in class.They earn better grades and score bigh- er on achievement tests. Kids who stru^e most in school often have asthma, diabetes, depression and other conditions, some times undiagnosed. A school muse can change a studmt’s life. The nurse can help a student’s family find low-cost healthcare and affordable health insurance. The nurse can help organize the care for a student when the parents, for whatever reason, are unable to do so. This issue is important for all children and teens, not just those who are poor or at-iisk. Even middle-class and wealthy children can get sick at school or require medical expertise. I may not need to work hard to convince you, if your views are like diose of Charlotteans who came together for a huge town meeting called the United Agenda for Children. During that gathering of more than 1,000 people in December 2004, participants identified more school nurses as one of their top priorities. The Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, responding to citizens’ requests, added 11 new school nurses last year. We need to keep the momentum going. The county commission is debating its 2006-07 budget now. United Agenda for Children, today a coalition of agencies and others interested in children’s welfare, is calling for 26more school nurses added each year for the next five years. By the end of the five years, we’ll be at the student/nurse ratio the CDC recommends. Currently the county spends about $4.4 nullion annually on 73 school nurses, including salary and ben efits. Our proposal would cost an additional $1.6 million per year. That fimding would bring Charlotte-Mecklenburg up to the national average for school nurses. The comty commission recognized Ihe importance of this issue last year and we’re opti mistic theyTl continue to make improvements. Currently, the county’s proposed budget includes funds for 20 new school nurse positions.That fimding would give our com munity one nurse for every 1,380 students.It’s a great first step. Funds for 26 new nurses would be even better. The county com mission is scheduled to vote on the proposed budget on Thesday Jime 6. Call or drop an emad to your commissioner before then.Ijet your commissioner know you want more money for school nurses, because our children need them. • KATHY SMITH is executive director of United Agendafor Children. Her e-mail address is Kalhy.Smith®umiedagendaorg. The birthplace of black aviation TUSKEGEE, jUa. - Until 1940, Afiican-Americans were barred finm flyir^ for the United States military The rationale was the same one Chauncey Spencer had heard fi'om the airport operator in his hometown of Lynchburg, Va.: “They didn’t teach colored to fly because they didn’t have the intelligence.” That exchange is recounted in an account of the Tbskegee Airmen by Bennie J. McRae Jr. titled, ‘Xest We Forget.” The article traces the early days of black aviation, the formation of the famed Tuskegee Airmen and the shattering of the myth that Blacks could not fly airpdanes or distinguish themsd.ves in combat. I was invited to give the keynote address at the “Chief’ C. Alfied Anderson Banquet here as part of the Negro Airmen International, Inc. Memorial Day Fly-in. Many of the Tuskegee Airmen are dead; those stiU hving are in their 80s. And anyone spending time with them will see that not only are they intelligent, they were pioneers that forced the country to respect their intel ligence and their valor. But it didn’t start out that way The Negro Airmen Association was incorporated on August 16, 1939 in Chicago to open the doors of aviation and aeronautics to Blacks. Many of the founders - including Chaimcey Spencer - had traveled to Chicago to attend the Coffey School of Aviation, one of the few flight-training programs open to Afiican-Americans at that time. Black pilots also fought on another finnt. “A few months prior to the incorporation, the oi^aniza- tion had imdertaken a most profound and optimistic mis sion,” McRae writes. “With borrowed funds and dona tions, two members were cho sen to take a goodwill tour to stimulate interest in the ‘first national Negro airshow to be held in Chicago,’ and stop in Washington to communicate with lawmakers regarding inclxision of Afiican- Americans in the govern ment sponsored flight train ing and other aviation related programs. Enoch P. Waters Jr., a member of the oigani- zation and city editor of the Chicago Defender, also sug gested that the tour indude a stop in Washington, D.C. to urge Congressional represen tatives to push for indusion of the Negro in the Army Air Corps.” In an “Akeelah and the Bee”-lLke gesture, Ed and George Jones, brothers who controlled the numbers rack et in Chicago, donated $1,000 to help rent a Lincoln-Paige bi-plane. The Civilian Pilot Ttainir^ Act was passed on June 27, 1939. Eventually three his torically black colleges were selected to train black phots: North Carolina A&T, West \Trginia State College md Tbskegee Institute. Though its program was the last of the three to become opera tional, Tbskegee became the most famous training giormd. “March 25, 1940 should be rememberod and embedded in the minds of everyone,” Benjamin J. McRae Jr.,' the Tbskegee Airmen historian wrote. “On that date George A. WTggs arrived in Tbskegee to administer the standard written examination required of aU Civilian Pilot Training students. After administering and grading the exams, he revealed that the Tbskegee students had passed every subject. They had become the only south ern school with a 100 pereent pass rate, and had done so by a wide margin in comparison to Georgia Tbch, Aubmn and North Carolina. Prior to that time in the seven southern states, no college had a record of 100*^ passing on the first examination. “The avo'age score was 88. percent. One third of the stu dents scored above 90 per cent. The lowest score was 78 percent and the highest scores were recorded by Charles R. Foxx, who aver aged 97 percent, Alexander S. Anderson with 96 percent, and Elvatus C. Morris with 95 percent.” On March 7, 1942, the first class of 12 Afiican-American aviation cadets and one stu dent ofi&cer, Capt. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., graduated finm the Tbskegee Army Air Field program. “Overcoming enormous social pressures and vast obstacles, these Afiican- Americans became the nation’s first black military pilots,” states hterature dis tributed by' the • Tbskegee Airmen National Historical Site, operated by the National Park Service. “The successful training of these pilots at Tbskegee coupled with the United States’ entry into World War 11, led the military to expand its Afiican-American aviation program.” During war, the Tbskegee Airmen became legendary In 1943, the squadron saw combat duty in North Afiica and Italy Flying more than 200 missions, the 99th Fighter Squadron became the only squadron during World War II to never lose one of its bombers to enemy fire. No one could credibly ques tion their intelligence. ‘Many who had formerly opposed the group now acknowledged their ability to fly in combat, and included them in more vital missions,” a National Park Service leaflet notes. ‘More impor tantly the Tbskegee Airmen earned the respect of several bomber crews, who began to depend on their sMUful air coverage.” Against all odds, the Tbskegee Airmen symbolized the height of excellence. GEORGE E. CURRY'is editor- in-chief of the NNPA News Service andBlackPressUSA.com. To con tact Curry or to book him for a speaking engagement, go to his Web site, www.georgecurryrom. Unhealthy mental state for children S Marian Edelman “In coimtries where there truly is no backup, you just have to hang in there and wait for the next flood to pass, wait for the next drought to pass. But what is dis turbing here is that we are in a coimtry with major backup...It takes [just] 30 days to mobilize for war, so when you’ve got a war within your own country it is amaz ing that we were so dumb founded, like deer in the headlights ” This is what actress CCH Pounds said after a May 8 meeting with parents and children who survived Hurricane Katrina. She was in New Orleans as part of a delegation of prominent Hollywood and Washington, D.C. women, including Reese Wtherspoon, Jennifer Gamer, and Cicely Tyson, who were there on a Children’s Defense Fund- sponsored Katrina Child Watch™ visit to shine a l^t on the acute mental health, health, and education crises of children traumatized by the storm nine months ^o. We invited a group of parents to tdl us about what life has been like for their families in the weeks and months after the hurricane, and the stories they shared broke our hearts. We saw that the slow mobi- hzation and response after the storm had devastating consequences for these fami lies, and nine months later, many are stfil struggling without adequate backup and help. One problem that kept com ing up was the difficulty they have had getting the health and mental health care their children need. One mother told us that it took her family five months to receive the nebuMzer machine her dau^ter needed to take her asthma medication. A father described the stomach prob lems his youi^ son began suf fering because of stress, and how he had to fight to get his son referred for immediate care. A mother cradled her disabled son in her lap as she explained how difficult it was getting the right therapies for him after they evacuated, because that usually required referrals fix)m a primary care physician, and their own doc tor had also fled tiie storm She was having a hard time finding new caregivers and gettipg them up to speed on her son’s special needs, includir^ managing seizures. A mother who is a pediatri cian herself shared how rdieved she was when she was finally able to come home to New Orleans to try to reopen her old office, but, as she tearfully explained, she still doesn’t know where many of her patients are now. Meanwhile, when her own' yoxmg son began showing signs of trauma just aftei' the hunicane, his new school had no counselors available—and instead simply handed par ents • a list of psychologists’ names, leaving them on their own to try to find a good one who was taking new patients and migh-t accept their insur ance. This pediatrician knew that if she had trouble finding doctors and doing simple things Kke filling her chil dren’s asthma medication prescriptions after the storm, other parents with far fewer resources and connections must really be stru^ling. It’s unconscionable that these families and thousands like them who have already gone throu^ so much trau ma are havir^ such a hard time simply getting the health and mental health care they desperately need. That’s why the Children’s Defense Fund is calling for immediate national leader ship to get introduced in Congress and to enact Disaster Relief Medicaid for 24 months to cut through the complex 50 state bureaucra cies and different eUgibiUty requirements not only for Katrina survivors still scat tered across the country but to prevent similar suffering in future disasters that could strike anyone at any time. Many of the parents we met told us how firightened their children stiU get whenever it rains or they hear news sto ries about the continued dan ger to the levees and the dty, and how much they dreaded the beginning of the new hur ricane season on Jxme 1. They have suffered enough and need health and mental health care now. Pounder also said, “I have a feehng that [someday] you’re going to thank Katrina. You’re going to thank that wind and that water, because she’s revealed something that has nothing to do with nature . .. The system that’s in place is the real story, not the weather system.” Bennettsvilie, S.C., native MARIAN WRIGHT EDEL MAN is president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund and its Action Council.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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June 1, 2006, edition 1
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