[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12069]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       MENTAL HEALTH SECURITY FOR AMERICA'S FAMILIES IN EDUCATION

  (Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, it has been a few short 
weeks since the tragedies of Virginia Tech, which we cannot forget. Nor 
should we forget the fact that there are three suicides each day on 
college campuses and each year hundreds of thousands of acts of 
violence, many committed by those who have serious mental illness.
  But under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, passed into 
law in 1974, school personnel, administrators, and teachers who have 
little or no training in mental health are burdened with the task of 
defining and determining if a student is at risk. These educational 
personnel are also reluctant to release information for fear of legal 
action.
  That is why I have introduced H.R. 2220, the Mental Health Security 
for America's Families in Education Act, to break down these barriers 
to allow our schools to communicate with parents after consultation 
with a licensed mental health professional.
  I ask my colleagues to join the Association of American Universities, 
the American Council on Education, and the National Association of 
State Universities and Land Grant Colleges to help support this bill.

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