Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul is a Guest on NY1 in Focus

Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul is a Guest on NY1 in Focus

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on NY1 In Focus.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Cheryl Wills, NY1: Let's begin today's conversation with Governor Kathy Hochul. Governor, it's so good to see you on In Focus.

Governor Hochul: Thank you, Cheryl. Thanks for having me back again.

Cheryl Wills, NY1: Absolutely. It's been a while, but we're glad to have you here. Now, you've been devoting a lot of time to the youth mental health crisis. And according to the CDC, nearly a third of all students nationwide experience poor mental health. Explain why this is personal for you.

Governor Hochul: Well, we're both moms. And I'm the first mom governor of New York. And so, when I can take that experience and how we're so hardwired to protect our children and translate that into policies, then I know we're looking out for the right people who are most vulnerable, and that is our children.

So, what I saw was that, after the pandemic, mental health became a real crisis for people. We decided to invest $1 billion - first time ever that scale of money - in the whole continuum of care. And I started going out and having roundtables with teenagers. And what I discovered was, because of the lack of connection with their normal support system - their teachers, their friends, their counselors - during the time that they weren't able to be in school, they really descended into a dark place.

What they connected to was not people, but to social media algorithms that were bombarding them and having relationships only online, but not in person. And it really changed them. And we may have moved on from the pandemic, but they haven't. So, I realized I need to do more as Governor.

Cheryl Wills, NY1: Yeah. And during your State of the State address, you explained how mental health funding increased 33 percent over the last two years. Give us a sense of where that money is going.

Governor Hochul: Well, I was just in Queens yesterday. I had a roundtable with providers announcing $1 million to help them - whether it's supportive housing, whether it's the in-school programs where we want to have more mental health clinics in the schools, we have 1,200.

Think about this: before children did not need these kinds of services, but if they did, their parents would have to take time off work, try to schedule the appointment, or try to pull the child out of the learning environment. You have this in a school where you have people who love them and cherish them and take care of them or are watching out for them - they can first see the signs and give them help before they spiral out of control. Because we have rates of depression and suicide and anxiety that is off the charts for our teenagers. The Surgeon General even said so himself. So, what are we going to do about this? We started looking at the social media algorithms.

Cheryl Wills, NY1: Yeah, and we're going to talk more about social media in our next segment. But you created a $1 billion plan to transform the mental health continuum of care for New York as part of that Budget. What more can you tell us about that continuum?

Governor Hochul: Every facet of our society needs some kind of help, whether it's mental health services for those who have substance abuse addictions. For example, in my family, my nephew succumbed to an overdose. That is a mental health crisis. Whether it's people that are living on the subways because they can't take care of themselves or - we see that manifest itself on our streets.

So, we took the money to continue care for people where they are. And we go to the subways, we develop relations with people, try to persuade them to go into supportive housing, and working with Mayor Adams we have over 500 people who have been long term mentally ill, living in our stations, who are now in support housing. So, we're going after the schools, the workplaces, our transportation hubs and our streets, and meeting people where they are to provide them services as well as recruiting more people to go into these professions. That's the other challenge.

Cheryl Wills, NY1: And you also want services for at risk youth for suicide. And that's a major issue. So many girls are considering taking their life. Tell us what you're doing about that.

Governor Hochul: A lot of it comes down to the bullying and the cyber bullying and the pressure of being a teenager in an environment where you're never at peace. You're constantly connected to your phone and because of that, there's a lot of negativity out there. Social media can be positive for kids, but this is a very negative force for a lot of our teenagers.

So, like I said, we're getting to the kids in schools. And I learned so much by doing roundtables with teenagers all around the State. I went to schools and sat in classrooms and libraries and listened intently to them. And there's a cry for help that cannot be ignored. One young woman said, "We cannot put our phones down. You have to save us from ourselves." Because one person cannot do it, otherwise, they're socially ostracized. They have to know when all the girls are meeting in the lavatory to pass notes or talk about what they're going to do. They have to know what someone is saying about someone's clothes. They need to know if they're being under attack. They have to defend themselves. When they describe what they have to deal with while they're supposed to be in class, learning, I said, "I cannot imagine that pressure." They don't want to be in that pressure cooker. They cannot escape without adults intervening. That's what I learned from these sessions.

Cheryl Wills, NY1: Yeah. And that leads to the hot button question, is it time to ban smartphones from schools? We'll talk about that in our next segment.

Governor Hochul: Sounds good.

Cheryl Wills, NY1: We're glad you could stay with us for the entire half hour before we head to a break. State certified peer specialist Lauren Gauthier says she knows the hardships associated with addictive behavior because she's now five years sober. And she says social media blurs the lines between reality and falsehoods. Watch.

Lauren Gauthier: When you're younger than 18 years old, I think that you're not really making decisions that you think can affect the rest of your life. So, you're posting things that you may regret later on, right? So, I think that it should be 18 and older. If you're younger, you should have a parent - parental consent because I do think that it can be damaging.

Cheryl Wills, NY1: Hey, thanks for staying with us as we continue our conversation with Governor Hochul. I want to circle back now to social media and smartphones. Is it time to ban them from public schools statewide?

Governor Hochul: Let me tell you this: I saw what was happening to our young people through countless forums and a conference I hosted. I knew something had to happen and we started with social media.

What we started with was being the first state in the nation that told social media companies that you can no longer bombard our teenagers, our young people, anyone under the age of 18, without parental permission. Young people can go to any site they want, but these unsolicited notifications and bombarding them with all kinds of information that they have made intentionally addictive.

So, we stopped that in the State of New York. I'm really proud that no other state has done that. But then, why are they bombarded throughout the day? - they're supposed to be in school - because they have their cell phone. They are attached. It is attached to their hands. And for the school districts that have said no more, they are distraction-free schools. No smartwatch, no earbuds and no smart phones. They said, "You know what you hear in the classrooms now and in hallways and in cafeterias? You hear laughter, you hear human voices, you hear people talking. Whereas before there was silence," because their whole world and their interaction was in that cell phone. And that does not create fully functioning adults, which is what we're supposed to do, not raise children, but raise adults.

And they lose the interpersonal skills that you expect someone to have when they go into the workplace. It's going to affect the next generation of workers. So, do I think it's time? I really do. I've done five roundtables around the State. I need to work with the Legislature, but I want to liberate these kids from the stress and the teachers.

75 percent of teachers are saying, "We can't even teach anywhere. We're in competition." This teacher I heard up in Watertown just a day ago, he said, "This is too hard. It affects my relationship with the young person." And he wanted to make sure that we heard from him directly, that teachers really support something happening. And I said, "I'm willing to be the heavy."

Cheryl Wills, NY1: But, you know, there's one major sticking point. What happens if children need to reach their parents during school hours in the event of an emergency?

Governor Hochul: I will say this when it comes to an emergency: my kids were in middle school when Columbine hit, so this is a parent's worst nightmare. There's a mass shooting, you want to get that message to your child and make sure they're okay. I thought the same until I listened to law enforcement who came in and started talking to some of these parents when they were contemplating removing cell phones from schools. Police officers were telling us that if there is a mass casualty event or a mass shooter or a crisis in the school, the last thing you want your child to be doing is fumbling for their phone, looking at that, and sending messages to their parents, maybe their friends, grandma and grandpa - I don't know.

They should be paying attention to the adult in the room who will lead them to safety. That was when my mind shifted, saying, "You know what? That's right. And if you forget your lunch, don't forget the next day." We didn't have a chance. We didn't have a chance. You ate your friend's sandwich. You know, you shared a sandwich.

Cheryl Wills, NY1: I want you to elaborate on the SAFE program, which is short for Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation for Kids Act. Tell us more.

Governor Hochul: Right. And this is something I worked with Attorney General, Tish James, on last year. We stood with legislators. Nily Rozic was one of our sponsors, a great legislator. And we said, "What can we do to tell social media companies to stop bombarding our kids with addictive algorithms. Stop profiting off our children." So, in order for there to be permission for these unsolicited, intentionally targeted messages to our kids, the parents have to give approval. Parents have the rights, right? They should be able to exercise the rights over what their children are dealing with during the day. And that was the first step in the nation to do that does not mean we're anti-tech. We are the tech capital. We love our tech companies here in New York. But they all have kids too, and I'd like to ask a lot of their CEOs, I mean, how often do you let your child have a cell phone, and would you want them to be bombarded when they're supposed to be sitting in algebra class?

I mean, this is what we're talking about here. So, we did that, and the other bill as well that says you can't profit off our children's mental health. Can't sell personal information about our children.

Cheryl Wills, NY1: That's the New York Child Data Protection Act.

Governor Hochul: That's exactly right. And I'm really proud that we really stimulated a national conversation around this. And just a short time ago in Washington, the Senate considered legislation and passed it that mirrors what we're doing here in New York. I want other states to do the same thing, deal with the social media companies. We're their allies a lot of the time, but I said to them, "Don't worry about suing us over this. Get out of the courtroom and get into my conference room - and let's solve this together. We can get to the right place, right?"

Cheryl Wills, NY1: Okay, well, stay with us. We're going to take another break.

Hey, thanks for staying with us as we continue our conversation with Governor Hochul. During your listening tours across the State, you've also been speaking with doctors. What did they tell you?

Governor Hochul: Oh, they're deeply concerned. They are seeing children that are so stressed out, that are so anxious about everyday life because - they can't be kids. They're not able to just learn like we were able to, and so they're very troubled by this. I've invited them to my roundtables and they tell us that the psychologists and the pediatricians are saying these children are not where they should be.

Socially, developmentally, they're retreating into a dark place many times on their own. And the average young person is on their cell phone seven hours a day. And they're up all night long, they're not getting enough rest either.

Cheryl Wills, NY1: And to the wee hours of the night.

Governor Hochul: And I said, "What are they doing in the middle of the night? Who are they talking to?" They're able to connect with people around the world in different time zones.

Cheryl Wills, NY1: They don't even know who they're talking to.

Governor Hochul: No, they don't know who they're talking to. And just about every young girl goes online, has to deal with some individual that's trying to solicit them, or try to entice them to go meet them somewhere.

They're not resilient. They can't just brush it off when someone does something to them. And so, we have to get them through these tough years.

Cheryl Wills, NY1: Yeah, and do you think public schools statewide have enough mental health services to address this crisis?

Governor Hochul: We're making sure they do. That's why I want every single school to have services available to them. Not just a guidance counselor for your career and what you're going to do next. It's also - where are you now? What are the signs we're seeing now? We want to get you the services you need in the schools, and so we're making the money available to startup costs. And I want this to be very successful because if we can identify a problem now, treat it now, you can spare that child from a lifelong of needing services. Let's help the mother young.

Cheryl Wills, NY1: And what about educators? Are educators sufficiently trained to identify when a student is really in trouble?

Governor Hochul: You know, this is the challenge for our teachers. They have to be parents, they have to be medical professionals, psychiatrists and counselors - and hand holders - and still try to teach our kids.

I cannot imagine being a teacher in this environment. They go through so much, and I just have such admiration for them. So they want help from us as well.

Cheryl Wills, NY1: I want to end on this note: parents have shared some heart wrenching messages with you. I know some stories just bring tears to the eyes, some parents have lost their children due to this crisis. How has that impacted you as a mom yourself?

Governor Hochul: It hits me right here. There's no way I can hear the story of a parent who's desperately afraid of their child being taken to such a dark place, that they'll take their own life. This happened just a couple days ago when I was in the North Country, listening to parents there.

This one mom was on the school board as well. She says her son is so harassed. He's a little behind in school and he gets mocked out. There have been horrible threats saying, "We're going to go to your house and kill your parents if you don't meet us here." And he cries about having to go to school. This is someone in high school.

And his father goes home early to watch him, keep an eye on him - because they think he's on the cusp of something desperate that'll happen to him, that he'll do to himself. It's not his fault, he didn't ask for this. If there was not that ability for young people to harass others with social media and going online and all this bullying - that child wouldn't be in a dark place the way he is right now.

So, I've heard from parents who've lost children, they've come to our rallies. They've spoken up saying, "Don't let this happen to your child." It just breaks your heart, how can it not? And that's the emotion I take to this as well. We have to be the adults; we have to save our kids. We have to tell the companies, "Get your hands off our kids." And we have to take these out of the hands of kids when they should be in school.

Cheryl Wills, NY1: Governor Hochul, we appreciate you taking time to be here today. Thank you.

Contact the Governor's Press Office