Mr. Joe Slattery:

The Senator referred to prevention and early intervention. These can happen only if a person feels safe enough to say there are problems at home and that they need help. It can happen only if the person they speak to is educated to understand trauma and poverty and that when a child flips over a table, it is just communication and does not warrant saying, “How dare you do that in my class.” The person should be able to see that there is a child in pain who is trying to say something is wrong. Prevention and early intervention are actually the task of the other person. If I have someone I can trust or who I feel understands me, loves me or wants me in their vicinity, there is a better chance I will stay safe. If I feel that I am a dirtbag, that I am regarded as a scumbag and that no one wants me and if I am told to get out the classroom, where am I going to go? I am going to go into myself and use drugs to make myself feel better. If we want prevention and early intervention, we must educate the people who are supposed to be the role models in our lives, even beyond our parents. It is a matter of the schoolteacher, community garda or whoever seeing you for what is really going on in your life as opposed to a problem that needs to be solved.