The American School Counselor Association recommends that every school should have a counselor who can regularly counsel and provide professional guidance to the students, she said.
Based on the recommended ratio, there should be one counselor for every 250 students, King said.
The recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the Public School System showed that 17.3 percent of the 35 percent population of high school students in the CMNI admitted to have tried to kill themselves.
On Rota, which she represents, King said they don’t have much problem with student behavior.
She said PSS can hire more counselors through funding provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
King said she will ask her colleagues on the board to push for the hiring of counselors in all schools.
“I hope we can achieve that by next year,” she added. “There should always be a person in school with whom the children can freely talk.”
