NYC advocates, parents push for alternatives to police, ambulances for kids in mental health crisis

Key Facts

• Queens mom LaTasha Wilson was used to getting calls from her daughter’s elementary school alerting her to behavior concerns — but she wasn’t prepared for the one that came on Feb. 15.
• Wilson’s six-year-old daughter, Violet, who has autism and ADHD, was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital after the school called 911 on the first-grader during a mental health crisis, Wilson recalled a staffer from Public School 186 telling her.
• No one at the school called her during the 45 minutes when her daughter reportedly cried inconsolably and threatened to harm herself, Wilson claims.
• They only alerted her once her daughter was already in the ambulance, Wilson said.

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