Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was an African-American social reformer, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing. He stood as a living counter-example to slaveholders’ arguments that slaves did not have the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. After the Civil War, Douglass remained active in the United States’ struggle to reach its potential as a “land of the free.”

“Are You Alone Now?” After Raid, Immigrant Families Are Separated in the American Heartland
In the past few months, ICE has carried out the three biggest workplace immigration raids of the past decade, including one on June 5 at a nursery in rural Ohio, where 114 gardeners, florists, and other workers were detained and put into court proceedings for deportation. Many of them had lived for several years in a Norwalk trailer park of 74 homes known as Little Mexico, where now aid workers estimate that more than 90 children are missing one parent and at least 20 are left with no parent at all.

Fearing Deportation, Immigrant Parents Are Opting Out Of Health Benefits For Kids
The fear of family separation is nothing new for many immigrants already living in the U.S. In fact, that fear, heightened in recent weeks, has been forcing a tough decision for a while. Advocates say a growing number of American children are dropping out of Medicaid and other government programs because their parents are not citizens.

White Extinction Anxiety
Interesting and timely opinion piece by Charles Blow in the New York Times last week. “Strip all the other rationales away from this draconian immigration policy. This is at the core: White extinction anxiety, white displacement anxiety, white minority anxiety. This is the fear and anxiety Trump is playing to. Politico Magazine dubbed Trump “Pat Buchanan With Better Timing.”

Separated Immigrant Children Are All over the U.S. Now, Far from Parents Who Don’t Know Where They Are
Their mothers are missing, their fathers far away. They get pizza, maybe cold cuts. They are exhausted; they cannot sleep. There are other children around, but they had never seen those kids before, and those kids are crying or screaming or rocking or spreading the feeling that everything is not okay.

We Can’t Keep Up With All The Damage Being Done By Trump
The reality of the Donald Trump presidency is that policymakers, the press, and the public spend all their time and energy understandably fixated on the most egregious actions and rhetoric from the administration. What’s alarming, though, is that as we expend all of our oxygen pushing back against the jailing of children, the shameless corruption or the daily assaults on the First Amendment, the administration is taking enormously disruptive actions that go virtually unseen or unnoticed.

Save the Dates!
Save the dates for the 31st Annual Research & Policy Conference on Child, Adolescent, and Young Adult Behavioral Health: March 3 – 6, 2019 in Tampa, FL! Oh man, it’s gonna be a good one.

Outstanding Training Opportunity Advancing School Mental Health
Register today for the 23rd annual school mental health conference, October 11-13, 2018, at the Red Rock Casino Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada sponsored by the Center for School Mental Health University of Maryland School of Medicine. This year’s conference theme is School Mental Health – A Sure Bet for Student Success!  Visit schoolmentalhealth.org to register or contact Sylvia McCree-Huntley, 410-706-0981; shuntley@som.umaryland.edu.

The Child Health and Development Institute (CHDI) Seeking Talented and Experienced Director of Implementation
The Child Health and Development Institute (CHDI) is seeking a talented and experienced Director of Implementation to lead and expand statewide initiatives to implement evidence-based practices (EBPs) for children with behavioral health concerns. The Director of Implementation will provide substantive leadership for CHDI’s EBP and other program implementation initiatives, including serving as Project Director for one or more initiatives. The individual selected for this position will provide project oversight, including project/contract management, hiring/staffing, budgeting, and reporting. CHDI is an amazing organization to work for. Check it out!

How Does a Four-Day School Week Affect Students’ Education, Health, and Well-Being?
Roughly 550 school districts across the nation use a four-day school week, but there is little evidence around how these policies influence student outcomes. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is funding research to build evidence about the pros and cons of four-day school week policies in rural communities, as well as their potential impacts on their families and broader communities.

As A Mental Health Crisis Sweeps Across Colleges, Students Step Up To Fix It
As peer-run organizations continue to drive demand for mental health care access, they are now preparing for their next challenge: overwhelmed counseling centers and long wait times to see on-campus therapists.

This Autistic Boy’s Classmates Had Never Heard Him Speak. At Graduation, He Took the Mic.
People who know Sef Scott know he doesn’t normally speak. The 17-year-old from Plano, Tex., has autism, and other than quoting lines from favorite movies, he is mostly nonverbal. So the members of the Plano Senior High School Class of 2018 — along with Sef’s relatives and even his father — were stunned June 9 when he took the mic and addressed his fellow graduates.