and will miss him.

End quote.

Mr.

Tom Shelton was 62 years old.

State Senator Danny Carroll is once again asking lawmakers to put up millions of dollars for a youth psychiatric hospital.

As our June Leffler reports, Carroll says the state can't afford to not find such a project or fund such a project as its juvenile justice system undergoes a federal civil rights investigation.

>> Many kids with aggression and severe mental health issues wind up in detention centers, says the state juvenile justice official.

>> And we equate this with a youth, for example, who, suffering from an appendicitis attack.

We would not just keep them in a juvenile detention center.

I think everybody would agree they need to go to a clinical medical facility for care, and youth with severe mental health needs are no different.

>> That's why Senator Carroll proposes a new 24 bed facility and Senate Bill 125.

>> Without question, there are enough kids that are assessed that would would fit this definition and would be housed in this facility.

That facility is not going to sit empty.

>> The state run psychiatric hospitals for adults, but not kids, and private treatment centers won't take everyone.

>> Hear terms like they're too acute.

There are no beds is also a very frequent response.

They're too aggressive.

We this youth has already assaulted one of our staff in the past.

So those are the responses we get from the facilities.

>> Carroll first proposed this three years ago.

The state juvenile justice system is currently under a federal civil rights investigation for alleged abuse of its child inmates.

>> And if we keep kicking the can down the road, you know, we get a consent decree, we don't have any choice, then we're going to do what they tell us to do, which could result in a much higher cost to to the taxpayers of this state.

>> Carroll pitched the idea to an oversight council of lawmakers and citizen members.

Senator Matt Nunn also presented Senate Bill 101 on student assault against teachers.

>> Since 2021, in our Commonwealth, there have been 25,000 instances of assault against a teacher.

In my opinion, it's not fair to teachers who merely want to earn a living.

You know they shouldn't be fearful at work and then ultimately be assaulted.

>> He proposes any middle or high schooler that assaults a teacher be expelled from school for 12 months, and that kids 14 and older could be tried as adults.

>> These kids that are out of school for 100 days, they don't cease to exist.

They're somewhere.

And if they're not in school, they're in the community.

They're, you know, and these are troubled kids.

Maybe they need to be in detention.

But again, that's something that should be decided through the court system, not through a school board process.

>> My my understanding, talking to superintendents and talking to staff is that school boards have the option to provide services during that time.

They have that option today and they do not lose that option through this legislation.

And so they decide if those services can be provided in a safe manner.

I think that includes counseling, alternative school settings.

There are options at their disposal that they then decide whether those options can be given safely or not.

>> This bill has a long way to go in the state House, neither Carroll or Nunn's measures have