Over the past eight years, the process has been used at least 750 times on students. Some are as young as 5 years old.

The state law that allows for these removals, known as petitions for emergency evaluation, is meant to be limited to people with severe mental illness, who are endangering their own lives or safety or someone else’s. It’s the first step toward getting someone involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital.

But advocates say schools across the country are sending children to the emergency room for psychiatric evaluations in response to behaviors prompted by bullying or frustration over assignments. The ER trips, they say, often follow months, and sometimes years, of their needs not being met.

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    6 months ago

    I do security as a volunteer for a children’s organization on the weekends. There absolutely are kids that need to be taken away from their parents and evaluated by a medical professional. Currently we have a kid that is 4 years old that is worse than any adult I have ever encountered. Violent, abusive, foul mouthed, and just disgusting. I have met both parents and all of his siblings and I never would have guessed that this kid would be the outcome of that family. It’s hard to know what goes on behind closed doors but sometimes intervention is needed even if it is at an ER. Without a doubt, their entire family would benefit from this kids removal from that family.