Waterloo Youth City Council celebrates mental health bill passing state legislature

May 19—WATERLOO — Students in Waterloo are celebrating as a bill heads to Gov. Kim Reynolds' desk.

During Iowa's legislative session the House and Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill that would include suicide hotline numbers and a QR code on public school student identification cards.

Input on how the bill should look was given by the Waterloo Youth City Council, a group of students from the city's four high schools: West, East, Expo and Columbus high schools.

The organization was started in 2018 by Mayor Quentin Hart. The youth city council is one of five in the state of Iowa.

Similar to the Waterloo City Council, students elect officers to serve as councilmembers or as committee chairs. The councilmembers represent all of Waterloo's five wards and those students meet with their respective Waterloo councilmember for mentoring.

The bill, introduced to the WYCC by Rep. Timi Brown-Powers, D-Waterloo, is also known as House File 602. It reads that a public school which issues ID cards to students in grades seven through 12 should include crisis hotline telephone and text numbers as well as an internet address for Your Life Iowa — a statewide crisis line.

In the original bill, only a telephone number would've been provided, by students told Brown-Powers that "kids won't dial a number," therefore the bill was amended to add a text line and QR code.

The youth council worked with Lifetouch, which produces ID cards. The business said they would add the QR code at no extra cost. During a celebration event Wednesday night, it was stated the numbers and code will be on 477,000 student IDs.

At the end of March, WYCC members went to the State Capitol to meet with senators to push the bill forward for approval during the legislative session.

Scarlett Bertram, the incoming mayor for the 2023-24 school year, said she was emotional when she saw the bill reached the final hurdle.

"I definitely cried," Bertram said. "It will impact so many people that I don't know, and my peers who I see five days a week."

Hart was in attendance for the celebration and said the students are "never too young" to make a difference and was in awe that they got a bill passed in the Legislature. He said the students always have a home in Waterloo, even though many are graduating this year.

"I want to make sure that as a young person, that you're able to see yourselves in this community," Hart said. "Because when you go out and you leave and you make your mark, whether it's here, whether it's around the country ... that you always remember your voice and values and know that you have an incredible potential to be something."

As the youth council convenes next year, Bertram said she wants to continue pushing for mental health initiatives. She also wants to take a look at women and sexual assault issues.

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