Drop the Stigma

The alarm that sounded in Littleton should wake up all Americans to the special needs of our children. This nightmare is ours because of this hard truth: the toxic culture of guns and screen violence that kids have to navigate has been created by adults who are supposed to offer protection and guidance.

We must ask ourselves, What are we, as the adult community, going to do? Yes, the entertainment industry needs to stop selling mayhem to children. Yes, the gun industry needs to stop fighting to put a gun within everyone's reach. Yes, politicians need to look at these issues in a sincere and bipartisan effort and not just as divisive tools in campaigns. And yes, the media need to do more than use tragedies for headlines. But what responsibility are we as individuals going to accept?

Just days after the Columbine shootings, I visited a high school and listened to teenagers discuss their fears and reactions. All of them said they knew kids who were troubled. Most knew kids who were depressed or had attempted suicide. Some knew kids who were openly discussing violence--to the point that the speakers were frightened of them. One student told me, "My friends know they need help, and we know they need help, but they are ashamed to come forward because they fear being labeled."

If we are serious about stopping the violence and helping our children, we as adults need to erase the stigma that prevents our kids from getting the help they need for their mental health. If we knew a child had a broken arm, we would take that child to an emergency room. And if we know a child is depressed or alienated, we need to take emergency action and stay involved with the problem. One of the young killers in Colorado is reported to have once been prescribed an antidepressant, but we don't know if he had stopped taking it or what other kind of treatment he might have been receiving.

Our children also need us to help them develop good judgment in picking their way through the minefields in today's society. We need to stop treating them as miniature adults. It is better to give children a rule to break than to give them no rules at all. But parents need the support of the entire community. They need leaders and business owners to help them enforce the protections already in place, from theaters turning away kids from adult-rated movies to networks promoting the V chip. Parents need the community to come up with new protections, especially on the Internet.

Last Sunday, as my husband and I grieved with the people of Littleton, a parent of one of the victims said to him, "You have got to tell me that these children did not die in vain. We've got to make changes. Promise me that you will." Our country needs to make this promise in every house, on every street, in every community. And then we need to keep it.

The Vice President's wife is a longtime advocate of mental-health reform