On the May 9 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, Neal Boortz said schools should never provide psychological counseling for students, even after a traumatic incident such as the 1999 Columbine High School shootings in Colorado, because providing counseling “is all part of an effort to ... engrain in the American people this idea that the government is responsible for everything.” When asked by producer Belinda Skelton if counseling should have been provided after the Columbine shootings, Boortz replied: “No, I don't think they should've brought in counselors. ... [I]t's not hard to understand. Somebody came in with a gun, shot some people, and they died.” Boortz added that government-sponsored counseling is “merely another aspect of the government reaching out with these gnarly tentacles and gathering us all in to make us wards of the state instead of free, individual human beings.”

From the May 9 edition of The Neal Boortz Show:

BOORTZ: Some kid gets in a car accident, and then counselors will be available at the school. Don't you understand that that is just all part of an effort to make -- to engrain in the American people this idea that the government is responsible for everything, even making you feel better after a friend gets killed in an automobile accident?

SKELTON: I mean, what do you think therapy is? All they do is let the kids talk about their feelings

BOORTZ: Let them talk in class. They don't need a counselor there. It's make-work stuff.

SKELTON: No, teachers aren't trained to handle this type of thing.

BOORTZ: The kids are trained to talk. If it's all about letting the kid talk, let them talk. I don't know how, you know -- when I was going through school, I had friends that were killed in automobile accidents.

SKELTON: So did I.

BOORTZ: I had a friend that died of leukemia. Never once, never once did they run a bunch of damn counselors into the school the next day to assist me in getting my feelings out about this issue.

SKELTON: OK, I'm going to ask you a question, just a simple yes or no.

BOORTZ: Yeah.

SKELTON: Do you think several years ago in Columbine that they should have brought in counselors?

BOORTZ: No!

SKELTON: Oh, good God!

[...]

BOORTZ: No, I don't think they should've brought in counselors.

SKELTON: You don't think --

BOORTZ: No!

SKELTON: Two students who were ...

BOORTZ: Belinda, it's not hard to understand. Somebody came in with a gun, shot some people, and they died.

[...]

BOORTZ: Where would we be today if all adults in this country had grown up with this assumption that was created during their school years, that every time something happened in their life that caused the least bit of unease, unrest, anxiety, or tension, or stress, that the government was going to be there with them, or for them with a counselor?

[...]

BOORTZ: You don't have the government providing psychological counseling to our children in government-operated schools. You don't do it. If the parents determine that their kid needs psychological counseling -- and it's a damn pity my parents didn't recognize the need. If the parents determine their kid needs psychological counseling, then it's up to the parent to do it, not the government. It is merely -- Belinda, it is merely another aspect of the government reaching out with these gnarly tentacles and gathering us all in to make us wards of the state instead of free, individual human beings. You're upset? You're stressed? Something happened bad in your life? Well, your government is here with a counselor for you.