 |
| Photo illustration: Peter Dazeley/Getty Images |
A trend of installing “health centers” in K-12 public schools has led to students being offered disturbing services without parental knowledge or consent, an investigation by a leading parental rights group has found.
Progressive education activists claim that so-called school-based health centers and other “wrap-around services” improve academic performance and behavior by giving students daily access to mental and health services on campus.
This sounds good in theory—especially with a proposed staff of nurses, doctors, and psychologists ready to aid students in need—a lack of guardrails and associations with politically motivated organizations severely compromise the sales pitch for school-based health centers, or SBHCs.
Parents Defending Education, the parental rights group, looked closely at these school-based health centers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and affiliated groups claim that SBHCs, often established in “low-income communities,” improve academics and behavior.
But studies done in 2020 and 2023 found that giving students an on-campus clinic and psychologist had “no statistically significant” effect on students’ academic performance. The 2023 study from Pediatric Research, the official publication of the American Pediatric Society and two related groups, found that students using SBHCs were more likely to be diagnosed with mental disorders such as gender dysphoria.
This hasn’t stopped political organizations such as Planned Parenthood, the American Federation of Teachers, Reproduction for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America), and the School-Based Health Alliance (an LGBTQ advocacy group) from pushing SBHCs as a health necessity while focusing on questionable services for minors.
The investigation by Parents Defending Education found that Illinois’ Evanston Township High School Health Center offered acupuncture, gynecologic care, “mental health services,” “reproductive services,” and testing for sexually transmitted diseases to students. --->READ MORE HERE
The Biden administration’s ramp-up of school-based health centers (SBHCs) is moving public education further toward government intrusion in the parent-child relationship.
That’s according to Michelle Cretella M.D., a general pediatrician, child advocate and spokesperson on issues of sexuality for the Catholic Medical Association.
“School-based health clinics are all about eliminating parent rights and they have been from their inception,” Cretella explained to The Lion in a telephone interview Monday.
“They have been all about birth control, abortion,” she said.
“’Hey, we’ve got a pregnant kid here, yeah, let’s refer her to Planned Parenthood – you know, the judicial bypass, etc.’,” Cretella described a typical situation whereby a school center that provides “reproductive care” might seek a judge’s order for a minor to have an abortion without parental knowledge or consent.
“And then as soon as gender ideology took hold everywhere, schools are transitioning kids socially, setting them up for medical transition, without parental knowledge,” the pediatrician continued. “That’s everywhere.”
School-based health centers were given a big boost in the Affordable Care Act – Obamacare – with the support of national teachers’ unions, which have justified the centers’ existence with claims of necessity for low-income children and suggestions of improved academic performance.
“By locating in school buildings, on campus and in other familiar locations, SBHCs improve access to necessary healthcare services, especially hard-to-reach and low-income students, who may otherwise forgo required care,” the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) writes in support of the centers. “SBHCs exist in all types of schools, with 81 percent located in traditional public schools.”
“Poor student health poses a significant barrier to learning and may contribute to lower grades, as well as higher absences and dropout rates,” the union adds.
In May, the Biden Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded nearly $25 million to expand SBHCs. The grants would serve the administration’s goal of achieving “equity” and provide a response to reports of a severe mental health crisis among American youth, especially in the wake of the teacher-union-supported government shutdowns of schools during the COVID pandemic. --->READ MORE HERE
If you like what you see, please "Like" and/or Follow us on FACEBOOK here, GETTR here, and TWITTER here.
No comments:
Post a Comment