I believe college campuses can be violent places for young adults. I think that our nation has a poor mental health system to help young adults transition from childhood to adulthood. I would not want to be 20 years old again.
I read news articles that student loans have sky-rocketed by a factor of 10 over the last decade. Moreover, about 30 percent of young people are unemployed. It is like the Great Depression is real for people in their 20s. A young person has student loans, no job and has to deal with violence among their peers.
I think arming campus police is a way to stop violence, but I think that young adults need mental health care, too. If it wasn’t for my parents, I would have been homeless as a person in my 20s over a decade ago (I am now 36). I dealt with violence, had student loans and at times had no work when I was in my 20s. I learned to seek mental health treatment to cope with it all. Now I am financially secure and look back with pity at those young adults who face such difficult realities. I believe they need mental health care.
Jonathan A. Melle
Amherst
Feb. 11
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