The City Council in Cypress, with its new meeting night, a new logo, and three new members, is indeed off to a fresh start, taking care of business but also trying to show a softer side.
At its most recent meeting on Tuesday, the Council unveiled “Mia’s Corner,” a new initiative to bring mental health resources to parents, teens, and families facing challenges who seemingly have nowhere else to turn, and the Council agreed to address child marriage.
It all started at the Council meeting on March 14 when both issues originally came up.
The mother and family of 13-year-old Mia Mejia, a 7th grader at Lexington Junior High School in Cypress, who took her own life one year ago on March 17, were on hand to thank the city for its new website feature entitled “Mia’s Corner.”
At the previous meeting, Council member Rachel Strong Carnahan had moved to have the city create space on its website for Mental Health Resources, citing Mia’s story and growing statistics that teen suicide is as prevalent in Cypress as in every other community in America.
One in five American teenagers seriously considered taking their own lives in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Four in ten had “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.”
Strong thanked Mejia’s family “for having given visibility on this issue.” “This is a time when a lot of people are struggling on a lot of levels, especially our children,” she said.
“Mia was a young girl with hopes and dreams,” said Strong, “a wonderful acrobat. She was a loving person and a spirited girl, but she felt bullied and upset and was having a lot of difficulty at school, and this pushed her to a decision that she might not have otherwise made.”
“Your grief must be insurmountable and the fact that you’re willing to come here and introduce this to us is incredibly brave,” Strong said to Mia’s mother.
As a parent, Strong said she understands young teens don’t necessarily like to talk. “They like to go in their room and be on their devices,” said Strong. So they struggle, she said, so the city can at least let citizens who may be in trouble be given access to mental health resources.
Kelly Kaye thought it was a good idea, but she wondered whether the school system might be a better fit for the resources.
“I can’t help but wonder,” she said, “is it really on the city to provide whatever resources?”
Kaye said she would “be seriously questioning” administrators where Mia went to school, because they had to have known about what was going on.
“I support them (resources) wholeheartedly,” she said, “and I really hope her family can overcome all this.”
Jennifer Dagarag, a registered nurse at St. Irenaeus Catholic Church, said schools may not be the best place for the resources.
“Sometimes kids won’t go to school for help because they’re afraid of their friends finding out,” said Dagarag. “You know, the stigma,” she said, “or they just don’t see another way out.”
“Studies have shown that more people will come to clergy or to a church to talk about mental health,” she emphasized.
“I don’t think it falls on the shoulders of the City Council in particular,” said Dagarag, “although I do think it is the responsibility of a city to know that many people are struggling,” the nurse said.
“My suggestion is that we create some robust resources about mental health on our city web page,” suggested Strong, and “we go live with it on March 17, said Strong at the March 14 meeting, which was the first anniversary of Mia’s death.
Strong’s motion passed unanimously and indeed, “Mia’s Corner” did go live on the city’s website (cypressca.org) on March 17.
Therefore, at the March 24 meeting this past week, Mia’s parents, Veronica and Gustavo Mejia, were back, this time in tears, to say thank you to the Council and everyone in the city who offered help or concern.
“It’s hard to see Mia’s name in a place I could never have imagined,” Veronica began. “I am so grateful to the City of Cypress for hearing us and allowing me to share her story,” she said.
“I want to say thank you for being willing to save lives,” she said. “Your kindness reminds me of Mia,” she said.
“Mia loved butterflies,” said Veronica. “Please, let them remind you that you have the power to bring hope to everyone and every family in Cypress and save lives,” she said.
“My family feels your respect,” said Gustavo Mejia, Mia’s dad. “We see your genuine willingness to help us heal. By providing these resources to Cypress, you will reduce the chances that another family will have to endure what my family went through.”
The Council also agreed this past week to support efforts on its website to advocate on behalf of pending legislation to outlaw child marriage, which California currently does not.
In fact, according to author Colleen Jensen, two girls aged 10 were married in California last year.
Mayor Pro-tem Dr. Kyle Chang raised the issue at the last meeting.
He asked for support of a resolution supporting the end of child marriage under the age of 18 in California and to encourage the state to adopt legislation that sets 18 as the minimum marriage age with no exceptions.
Chang, who said he began his career as a Child Protective Services investigator in Texas, gave the Council a concrete example of child marriage “because, I think, for a lot of folks, it seems very abstract to them.”
Jensen, a local writer who has focused on the subject, said in California, there is no minimum age for marriage so long as there is consent.
“I’ll be honest with you,” said Council member Bonnie Peat, “I was astonished, taken aback when I read that. I’m in full support,” she said.
Council member David Burke said he would support the measure, even though he rarely supports such resolutions. “While I generally haven’t been supportive of resolutions in the past, I feel like, because this arose organically, I’d be inclined to support it,” he said.
Strong said she was in “full support” of the Council being vocal on the issue, thanking Dr. Chang for bringing it forward. “It is very clear that women and girls get trapped in this cycle and are more likely to experience economic loss, are not able to finish school, and then get trapped in a life they cannot escape,” said Strong.
Fast forward to the Mar. 24 meeting, Strong thanked city staff for the quick turnaround on Mia’s corner but questioned why some items had been eliminated from the resolution.
“In reviewing it, the texts are not identical, it seems that the things that have been omitted are specifically references to adding resources to the city’s website, to social media and then creating a path for our residents to pursue escalating this to Sacramento,” she asked.
Interim City Manager Sean Joyce said two resolutions had been presented on child marriage for consideration and “I chose one of those two and edited one to what I believe is manageable within the resources of this small city.”
“But we’ll do whatever you would like us to do,” he said.
Mayor Leo Medrano argued for leaving the watered-down resolution in place.
“We have a process and I’m afraid that if we take the process out of the city manager’s recommendation, and out of the director’s hands, I’m very hesitant to set that precedent. I’m more likely to approve the resolution as is,” he said.
Medrano also argued that the Council has a new city manager starting soon who should have a say and he did not want the city to attempt to supersede state assembly officials on the issue, start attracting press and generally move the issue out of the council’s political “lane.”
“We are city council members. We should play in our lane,” he added.
Strong was undeterred.
“I don’t disagree with a lot of what you’re saying,” she told Medrano, but on the other hand, I have no concerns with the press or the public coming to these meetings. I think that’s fantastic,” she said.
“I don’t see this as something that would create a tremendous amount of work for our city staff. What I’m asking for here is a little more time,” said Strong. “What I’m trying to get across is the spirit of supporting this really important measure is kind of lost in the omissions we see tonight,” she said.
Part of the process of getting this into the state assembly and senate offices includes “taking some sort of stance at the granular (city) level “so it can be escalated.”
Medrano said again he was hesitant to “devote resources” to recrafting the resolution.
“This is going to take time, money, and so forth, and will potentially sidetrack us,” noting also that the next meeting of the Council is not until April 28, he said.
Chang, who originally proposed the idea, said while he understood Medrano and Burke’s concerns, he favored a resource website in addition to the language of the resolution.
“We are a city government, and our purview is at the local level, but at the same time, what separates this from the other state or federal level legislation is what we could possibly gain from having a resource website,” said Mayor Pro-tem Chang.
“I do like the idea of possibly having a resource website so citizens who come up with this issue have a place to go at the city level,” he said.
Strong made the motion to add the resources back into the resolution, Chang seconded it and it passed unanimously.