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Sandy Hook Father Discusses Work On Mental Health Reform Bill

Molly Riley
/
AP
Sandy Hook Promise founder and Managing Director Mark Barden testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington in January before the Senate Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies subcommittee hearing on gun control proposals.

Wednesday marks four years since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed 20 children and six educators. Mark Barden is the father of 6-year-old Daniel Barden, who died in the shooting. After the shooting, Mark co-founded the advocacy group Sandy Hook Promise.

WSHU’s Davis Dunavin spoke with Barden about the group’s work, including contributions to a mental health reform bill President Obama signed Tuesday. The bill includes funding for early intervention programs and school mental health programs similar to the kind Sandy Hook Promise created for students, parents and educators.

The group released a PSA earlier this month called “Evan,” which has gotten more than six million views on YouTube. Barden says it shows some warning signs that often go ignored before a student commits a school shooting. Please note that the video may be upsetting to some viewers.

Below is a transcript of Mark and Davis' conversation.

MARK: So in the video we see isolation, we see bullying, we see fascination with firearms. And so if folks around these people are aware of those signs and signals, then they can intervene and help that person and prevent an act of violence before it happened.

We know in the case of what happened to my little son, Daniel, at Sandy Hook Elementary, there were many signs that were missed. The killer had been planning this for up to and possibly more than a year. It’s one of the things that I think about, that I lay awake at night, thinking about. If somebody could have recognized those signs and then intervened, we would not be in this position we are today. You never know what you’ll be preventing by taking action, but you have to.

I’m sure it’s always difficult to talk about those what ifs. I wonder if you could tell me a little more about how that thinking let to action – I mean, how did you move personally from that place of thinking to action?

I feel like I owe it to my little Daniel, who was an extremely aware and compassionate little boy. He would rescue insects from the house to bring them outside because he thought they should be outside with their families. He would look out for the kid sitting alone in his classrooms.

His life of good work and of compassion and helping others has been taken from him, so I feel a very real responsibility and obligation to continue that, to do that work for him, to the best of my ability, to honor him.

You’ve also been very active in working with Congress on this. What’s the connection here – what are the things that are in the mental health reform package that are the same things you’re trying to address?

There’s so much work that can be done with regard to mental health care in this country. It should be a whole body experience. There should be no more stigma around going to have a mental issue addressed than having a broken bone or a physical ailment addressed.

The individual that shot and killed my son was clearly in need of services. And his mother and those around him were unable to, or did not have the resources to, or did not have access to those services.

What can we do to get these people on the same page – teachers and counselors – communicating?

Actually, some of the process leading up to getting this reform bill passed, we got together a coalition of some of the leading national mental health agencies and groups to coalesce on one solid common agenda to get this package passed. We feel like the process of getting this bill passed has engendered some of the connection through these agencies.

But in addition to that, by the nature of the way our programs work, it fosters this network of communication between students and parents and teachers. In the Say Something program, students have to identify at least one, hopefully more trusted adults, that when they see someone who’s in a possible mental health crisis or on their way to self-harm or harming someone else.

Is this something that you see that you can give the world, something that you can do to make society a better place, just by playing a role in that?

Yeah. You know, I spent my adult life as a career guitar player. And I’m not proud of the fact that I was somewhat disconnected from politics and the issues that were important. I was just kind of blissfully going on with my life and was woefully unaware that our mental health care system in this country was in crisis. I have learned an awful lot in the past four years since the murder of my little Daniel on what’s working and what’s not working and what’s needed in this country.

Getting to know Chris Murphy, Senator Murphy, over the years, and I know mental health reform is way high on his list, is a great sense of accomplishment. And yeah, I do feel like it’s a gift I’ve been able to give in honor of my little Daniel, to so many other folks who will be able to benefit from all the wonderful good that this package will offer.

And this has had bipartisan support, which is so rare today. But we also have to look at what happened with gun control reform. That hasn’t gone far.

If that’s not going to happen at the federal level yet again, I think it just puts more value on the work that I’m doing with regard to actually prevention. Getting into the stream before the firearm’s in the equation and preventing violence before it happens.

Where do you see this work continuing 10, 20 years down the road?

We are likening what we do to marriage equality, to designated driver campaigns, to recycling, all the way back to civil rights. We know if we start this conversation with what people agree on – we can agree that we want to protect our children, we can agree that we want to make our community safer. Prevent violence before it happens. I believe that we can do that. We’re only getting started, and it’s only going to grow from here.

Mark, thank you so much for speaking with us today.

Thank you, Davis. It’s been a privilege to talk to you.