(WIB) – Research shows that suicide rates among Black youth have climbed by nearly 37% over the past five years, with Black teens now reporting higher attempt rates than their white and Hispanic peers. At the same time, Black and Native American students are 1.3 times more likely than white students to attend schools with a police officer — but no school mental health counselor.

So educators, families, and education advocates were alarmed when, earlier this month, the Trump administration slashed $1 billion in federal funding for school-based mental health programs.

The funds, created under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, were intended to help schools address the growing youth mental health crisis. Now with these supports cut, Black students, especially, may face the steepest of co

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