Number of kids 'Baker Acted' keeps rising; is there any solution? | Gil Smart

In April the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office found itself under fire for a video of a school resource officer slamming an 11-year-old student to the ground at Lincoln Park Academy.

Sheriff Ken Mascara subsequently explained that the boy was being "Baker Acted," detained for a mental health evaluation: the student had a history of violence, caused multiple disturbances that day and was physically aggressive to staff and other students.

The video omitted that context, said Mascara, so the takedown may have seemed extraordinary.

But in another respect, the incident was utterly ordinary.

A kid being Baker Acted on a school campus? That's becoming more common all the time.

More: Florida kids are getting sent to psychiatric units under the Baker Act in record numbers

More: Are school cops coming down too hard on kids? | Gil Smart

The Florida Mental Health Act of 1971, commonly referred to as the "Baker Act" per its original sponsor, permits people with mental illness to be held, voluntarily or involuntarily, in a mental health facility for up to 72 hours if he or she is deemed to be a threat to themselves or others.

In recent years, the number of people being Baker Acted statewide has soared. Across Florida and on the Treasure Coast, kids — children under age 18 — make up a huge part of that increase.

A decade ago in Martin County, fewer than 1 in 10 persons Baker Acted were under age 18. Now it's 1 in 5.

In St. Lucie County during the 2008-2009 fiscal year, 282 kids under 18 were Baker Acted, according to figures from the Baker Act Reporting Center at the University of South Florida. By 2017-2018, that figure had soared to 731.

Indian River County also saw an increase, though it was far more modest — from 177 kids in 2008-2009 to 239 in 2017-2018.

Not all of these cases unfold in schools, but many do. Some suggest that's because we now have deputies — "school resource officers," or SROs — in every public school.

"Law enforcement officers, who have limited training in mental health issues, are usually the ones deciding whether a child should be sent to a psychiatric facility for an evaluation," reported Frank Gluck of the Fort Myers News-Press in August. "This is especially true in the schools, which may or may not have an on-site psychologist."

Local law enforcement chiefs acknowledge that post-Parkland, they must err on the side of caution. But they deny local SROs are too quick on the trigger.

All receive "critical incident' training, and all are better-versed now in dealing with and defusing mental health issues than cops or deputies ever were in the past.

The rise in Baker Act numbers "is indicative of more mental health issues in our community," said St. Lucie Sheriff Mascara, who also pointed to the lack of mental health care funding from the state — Florida ranks 49th in the country in terms of mental health spending per capita.

"In my early days of law enforcement, if you even heard a Baker Act call it was strange; you'd go weeks without hearing one," said Martin County Sheriff William Snyder, once a Miami-Dade Police Officer.

"Now, the amount of people that are so mentally ill they appear to be a threat to themselves and others seems to have dramatically increased."

Bottom line, more people with mental health issues has led to greater awareness of those issues. But it hasn't led to sufficient additional funding.

Did we think this wouldn't lead to more Baker Acting?

Ironically, both Snyder and Mascara think having SROs in school will ultimately lead to fewer incidents. As deputies get to know the kids, they might realize that some "threats"  are simply the product of youthful angst, requiring a call to mom and dad but not necessarily a 72-hour evaluation period.

Some recent statistics back this up. In the St. Lucie County School District, there were 185 Baker Acts last year, including 100 during the first semester, said district spokeswoman Lydia Martin. Halfway through the first semester this year, she said, there have been just 25.

Still, state Sen. Gayle Harrell, a Republican representing St. Lucie County and most of Martin County, thinks the state needs to take action.

She plans on co-sponsoring a major bill this session that would require all school resource officers to have critical incident training, and stipulate that before Baker Acting a child, SROs or the school itself must get a mental health professional on the scene — or at least on the phone.

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The idea, Harrell said, is to "de-escalate these situations, and avoid as many Baker Acts as possible."

A worthy goal; but as some the mental health field will tell you, unless we start allocating as much money for counselors as we do cops, we're not going to make much headway.

"We as a society have increased the value of mental health, but we haven't increased funding," said Jeff Shearer, CEO of Tykes & Teens in Palm City, which has a 90-person waitlist of people who need counseling or mental health services.

"Just look at our priorities — the Martin County School District had to hire 20 new school resource officers, but added only six mental health people," he said.

"The reality is, if a shooter comes in he's going to start shooting before the SRO gets there," said Shearer.

"With more mental health counselors, we might prevent the shooting in the first place."

Gil Smart is a TCPalm columnist and a member of the Editorial Board. His columns reflect his opinion. Readers may reach him at gil.smart@tcpalm.com, by phone at 772-223-4741 or via Twitter at @TCPalmGilSmart.