Fiorina talks mental health at Waverly forum

WAVERLY - Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina took four questions from the public after a forum focused on education, and three-quarters of them were how the nation handles mental health.

It's an issue that Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, knows all about first-hand. As she explained to the crowd of about 50 people at Wartburg College's student center on Tuesday morning, Fiorina lost a daughter to addiction.

But despite her personal experience, Shell Rock's Philip Trimble felt she gave a 'political response” to his question about where his 12-year-old son, and the 100 others like him, could get educated if he loses services next year from Bremwood special education school in Waverly.

'This is why, the story you just told, is why we have to push money out of Washington, because your school is being closed down because my guess is the states and the communities don't have enough money to keep it open. Meanwhile, Washington D.C., is awash in money,” Fiorina said.

She continued, 'There are all kinds of really fine programs, your son's school included, all they need is resources, funding, but they don't have it because the federal government is taking more and more and more. That's a fact. And communities are left with less and less.”

Trimble said, however, the fact that three of four questions Fiorina faced dealt with mental health is evidence of the fact that it's an issue that is not getting a proper discussion.

'That's 75 percent, but yet, no political candidate, including the answer I got from Ms. Fiorina, wanted to touch it, and it's a catastrophe,” Trimble said after the hourlong event. 'This has to be something that the federal government has to take charge of and has to mandate … but nobody wants to talk about the mental health kids, because they're seen as monsters, like my son.”

He said thanks to the special attention his son has received at Bremwood, the bipolar boy has been able to channel his energy into efforts like building a computer out of parts.

'He's brilliant, just like every other one of these kids he goes to school with, but if we can't educate them, then where are they going to go? They turn into a statistic,” Trimble said. 'We want to talk about how education is so important, and yet we're undercutting (it).”

An official at Bremwood denied the school is closing its doors; Waverly-Shell Rock school officials said the school will become part of their district next year.

Fiorina repeated the concern that money isn't being channeled into programs that work but rather being hoarded in Washington, D.C., when asked the other two questions on mental illness and educating people with learning disabilities.

She turned to one of her six-point blueprint plans if elected, which has to do with starting each department every year at zero dollars and making its heads justify each dollar spent to be funded for the year.

She did expand more on her plans for a federal role in mental health when Wartburg College sophomore Taylor Vos asked about the closure of two state mental health institutes and how to prevent people with mental illnesses from ending up in prison. Vos also noted that 'no candidate is openly talking about” the mental health epidemic.

Fiorina said she supports passing criminal justice reform, in part to treat people with mental health issues and addictions rather than sending them to prison.

'We have to undertake criminal justice reform. This is something that only the federal government can do, and I am committed to do. Why criminal justice reform? Because to your point we have the highest incarceration rates in the world in this country,” Fiorina said, adding that almost two-thirds of them have a mental illness or addiction. 'We need to put money and resources where it can do the most good and that is not in Washington D.C.”