Tag: public schools

Schools Are Pushing Mental Health Screening. Research Shows It Does More Harm Than Good

An increasing number of children are likely to face mental health screening when they return to school this fall. But experts warned those screenings pose more risk than benefit — and urged parents to opt out their child.

“While early identification sounds responsible, in practice it risks doing more harm than good,” Gretchen Watson, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and researcher, told The Defender.

School-based routine or universal mental health screening “often functions as an entry point into a therapeutic culture that pathologizes normal childhood distress, erodes resilience and funnels children toward psychiatric labels, therapy, and medication,” Watson said.

Nearly one-third of U.S. schools now conduct some form of mental health screening — and that number is likely to increase, as more states work to pass mental health screening mandates.

Last year, Illinois became the first state to require students in grades three through 12 to undergo a mental health screening each year.

In January, lawmakers in South Carolina proposed a bill that would create a statewide mental health screening program for students in grades six through 12. The bill is in committee.

It’s a trend that has experts like Watson worried.

Watson is one of the foremost authorities in the U.S. on the overmedicalization of children with psychiatric drugs. She is also the author of the forthcoming book, “The Prescription Affliction: Why We Overmedicate Young Minds with Psychiatric Drugs ― and How to Stop It.”

Mental health screening tools flag many false positives, Watson said. For example, a child grieving the loss of a grandparent, or who is simply more intense or imaginative than the average student, can easily be flagged as needing further evaluation.

“That evaluation can start a cascade: a label, a treatment plan and, in many cases, medication,” she said.

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Waste of the Day: Education Fraud Sweeps Nation

At Broward County Public Schools in Florida, information officer Anthony Hunter allegedly used district funds to buy $17 million worth of school supplies from a friend’s business, ignoring the competitive bidding process. In return, the friend hired Hunter and his son to work a security job and sold Hunter a house for $150,000 below market value, state prosecutors claim

Chicago Public Schools received $1 million of federal grants meant for Native American students, using an application that included more than 1,000 students of South Asian descent. The district was unable to verify how many students were actually in the program, and agreed to repay the money.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com.

Fraud arguably hits small school districts the hardest because they have fewer budgetary resources to begin with. When Janis Bucknor, former head of Community Preparatory Academy in California, admitted to stealing $3 million from the school over five years, it amounted to one-third of all the school’s state and federal funding.

Bucknor spent $220,600 of the money on Disney vacations and also funded her internet shopping and private school tuition for her kids. She was sentenced to three years of home detention and ordered to repay the money.

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Outrageous: George Washington University Summer Program Primes Middle School Students For Leftist Activism

In what appears to be another case of left-wing indoctrination at a young age, Campus Reform is reporting, “George Washington University is offering a free summer program that grooms local middle school students for progressive activism…”

“The Civic Changemakers program, operated by the university’s Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service, pairs middle school children with adult college students, includes field trips and workshops, and culminates in an activism project.”

It’s bad enough that college students are being indoctrinated in Woke ideology across the country, but this reveals the left is targeting students as young as middle school for leftist brainwashing.

Rather than teaching basic academics, this program focuses on left-wing activism and controversial issues.

This is hardly the first time this has been tried either.

“A 2020 university report described students participating in lessons centered on the Black Lives Matter movement and helping “children learn social justice.”

This is precisely what students don’t need: BLM indoctrination, more math, less BLM.

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Taxpayer-funded trans dolls with removable genitalia to hit classrooms this fall for kids as young as 4 to ‘learn about different options’

They’re dolling up the trans agenda — and taxpayers are footing the bill.

“First-of-their-kind” transgender dolls — complete with removable genitalia — will debut in some Minnesota classrooms this fall to kids as young as 4 years old.

The paper dolls, with gender-neutral names like “Sam,” “Rory,” “Avery” and “Parker,” have removable internal and external genitals, along with more than 100 interchangeable pieces of clothing, accessories and hairstyles — like a trans Mr./Mrs. Potato Head.

The goal is for kids to “learn about the different options that exist for who they can be,” according to a therapist at the University of Minnesota Medical School, which spent over half a decade developing the controversial project funded by lefty Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz

The Medical School’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Health research over those six years included paying $20 to $60 for “trans and gender diverse” children and their parents to play with the dolls and “talk about gender and bodies” in groups.

Prototypes of the dolls were shown in a 2024 conference where one named “Sam” can be seen in what appears to be some phase of a gender transition, with a detachable penis off to the side, and a dress and girls’ underwear within reach.

The trans dolls — which promise to “make gender fun” — will be made available to teachers, school counselors, pediatricians and mental health providers, according to a website of the “MyGender Dolls” company. It features an image of a boy doll wearing a dress and others in various states of sexual identity confusion.

It’s not known whether parents — or children themselves — will be able to order a doll, or if they will only be marketed to professionals and schools. It is not known if parents will be able to opt out of such “therapeutic play” for their kids.

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Sen. Mike Lee Files Bill to Defund Schools that Ban Religious Vaccine Exemptions: ‘We Don’t Worship Fauci’

A bill that would block federal tax dollars from schools that refuse to allow religious exemptions for vaccinations has been introduced by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who argued that educational institutions “need to learn we don’t all worship Fauci.”

The proposed legislation, dubbed the Guaranteeing Religious Accommodation in Childhood Education (GRACE) Act, is cosponsored by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and was introduced in the House by Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL). It is endorsed by over fifty organizations, including Children’s Health Defense, Moms for Liberty, and the Autism Action Network. 

Not only would the bill defund schools that do not allow religious vaccine exemptions, but it would also prevent institutions from requiring documentation from students or parents in order to justify receiving such an exemption. 

The Democrat-led states of California and New York both removed their religious freedom exemptions in recent years, impacting thousands of families who are now blocked from attending the schools their tax dollars pay for. 

“Schools are discriminating against religious kids and targeting their families over vaccine exemptions,” Lee said in a statement to Breitbart News. “Keeping a kindergartner out of class over a vaccine is cruel – and it’s unconstitutional when the reason is their family’s religion.”

“The GRACE Act will keep federal tax dollars out of schools that refuse religious exemptions for vaccines, and will outlaw targeting families to prove their beliefs,” the senator added. “These schools need to learn we don’t all worship Fauci.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the controversial former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director, infamously argued that the government must “use lockdowns to get people vaccinated.”

Tuberville told Breitbart News in a statement, “This is a free country and parents have every right to make personal decisions about what vaccines they choose to give their children.”

“Last time I checked, parents are in charge of a child’s healthcare decisions, not the federal government,” the lawmaker continued. “Taxpayer funded K-12 schools have no right to turn students away at the door because of their vaccination status — especially if they have a religious exemption. The GRACE Act is an incredibly important bill that protects religious liberty and puts parents back in charge.”

Steube concurred, and added that “Freedom of speech and religion is the most sacred right guaranteed under our Constitution.”

Lee has shown his support for medical freedom on multiple previous occasions, including when he fought against the Biden administration’s COVID mandates, and more recently cosponsoring the End the Vaccine Carveout Act with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) to remove special liability protections that shield Big Pharma from civil claims when customers are harmed by their products. 

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This Sex Robot Is Going To ‘Teach’ Your Kids IN SCHOOLS

A rural New York school district on the Seneca Nation reservation is set to become one of the first in the United States to place a lifelike humanoid robot in front of high school students.

Starting this fall, Salamanca High School will introduce “Sally,” an M-Series robot built by Realbotix, to assist in coding, robotics, and AI classes for 11th and 12th graders.

Sally comes with brown hair, silicone skin, a Western New York accent, upper-body movement, and facial expressions. She remains seated and cannot walk the room. Students will log in with unique identification codes so the machine can recognize them and pick up previous interactions.

The full package—robot plus the accompanying Optio AI tutor platform—cost the district $57,590, a discounted figure below the average New York teacher salary and well under the company’s listed starting price near $95,000.

“The Realbotix educational robot will never replace teachers, staff members, or meaningful human interaction,” the Salamanca City Central School District stated. Instead, they describe it as an instructional tool loaded only with district-approved curriculum, historical information about Salamanca, and content designed to encourage critical thinking rather than simply spit out answers.

The system reportedly operates offline with no internet connection, collects no personally identifiable information, records neither video nor audio, and transmits nothing back to the company. If asked something outside its knowledge base, it is programmed to reply “I don’t know.”

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Anti-ICE walkout exposes how school district ‘failed’ parents, risked student safety: ‘Broken my trust’

Internal emails, messages and memos from Arizona’s Flagstaff Unified School District (FUSD) reveal that staff allegedly breached security protocol and violated several school policies by facilitating a student walkout to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this year, according to America First Legal.

Hundreds of Flagstaff high school and middle school students walked out of class to protest ICE on Jan. 28. The protest came amid national controversy over the deaths of anti-ICE activists Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota. Immediately after the walkout, many parents, citing safety concerns, expressed outrage that they were not notified that their children had been allowed to leave school premises without their consent. One parent who said they had children under the age of 12 said the “district failed us as parents.”

Documents obtained by America First Legal, a conservative watchdog group, reveal that FUSD officials knew about the walkout days in advance and also coordinated with students. The documents, which were reviewed by Fox News Digital, were obtained by America First Legal through a lawsuit forcing FUSD to comply with its public records request for records related to the walkout.

Screenshots from a district staff text group show faculty coordinating during the walkout. One staff member texted, “We have 75 plus students staged outside of fhs [Flagstaff High School] getting ready to walk.” In the same message, the staff member wrote, “Looks like we have some members of the public joining.”

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REPORT: 3 California School Districts Suspected of Shielding Teachers From Sexual Abuse Allegations as Feds Launch Nationwide Probe

Two California school districts, suspected of protecting sexual predators and allowing them to teach, received letters from the Trump Department of Education on Friday in a national crackdown on schools sweeping sexual abuse allegations under the rug. 

The letters were sent to the Tulare City Unified School District and Wilsona School District.

The New York Post reports that Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent letters to school districts across the country, reminding them that federal law requires them to investigate allegations and prevent teachers accused of abuse from quietly moving to another school.

The Los Angeles Unified School District was already under scrutiny for reassigning teachers to different schools under an agreement with the teachers’ union.

This comes as the Education Department plans to launch a new initiative with 20 civil rights investigations into school districts that failed in their duty to address sexual misconduct by school employees, according to the Post.

California is believed to be one of the biggest offenders, with at least three school districts at risk of losing $50 million in federal funding.

Per the New York Post:

Tulare City Unified School District and Wilsona School District, located in Palmdale, were two of the districts warned under federal law to promptly investigate allegations of sexual abuse and harassment and block suspected predators from quietly moving to other schools — a practice known as “passing the trash.”

“Our schools must protect America’s children. Parents should never have to wonder whether their kids’ school employs and protects sexual predators,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said.

“Schools that receive federal funding have a duty to protect students, report sexual misconduct honestly, and follow the law.”

Los Angeles Unified School District has already been investigated over rules that allegedly shielded predatory teachers. An agreement between the school district and the teachers’ union guaranteed teachers accused of certain serious misconduct are reassigned — rather than immediately terminated or removed from student-facing positions — while investigations are pending.

Investigations are also targeting three school districts in Georgia and three in Michigan, as well as districts across 12 other states.

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SoCal Education Leaders Stole Nearly $20M From Schools; Report

A new report has revealed that a pair of Southern California school leaders separately stole nearly $20 million from their schools in order to fund lavish personal lifestyles.

According to The New York Post, the report was co-authored by the State Financial Officers Foundation, a watchdog made up of state treasurers and auditors, and OpenTheBooks, a nonprofit focused on transparency in government spending.

The cases of the two Southern California educators were among the most expensive examples of K-12 education fraud documented nationwide.

Jorge Armando Contreras, the former fiscal services director for the Magnolia Elementary School District in Orange County, was charged with altering school checks over several years to funnel $16.7 million into his personal accounts.

Contreras was spending the money on everything from a luxury home and a BMW to designer clothes and pricey tequila and federal investigators found stacks of cash stuffed into a mini-fridge and luxury designer bags at his home.

He was sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison in 2024 and order to pay $16.7 million in restitution to the Magnolia School District in Orange County.

Another case highlighted in the report revealed that Janis Bucknor, the head of the Community Preparatory Academy charter school in Los Angeles, stole more than $3 million in taxpayer funds to cover travel, restaurants, shopping and private school tuition for her children.

Bucknor also pleaded guilty to spending more than $220,600 on Disney cruise line vacations, theme park admissions, and other Disney-related expenses.

According to prosecutors, Bucknor admitted in 2020 to stealing the funds, and was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, State Financial Officers Foundation CEO OJ Oleka said:

All fraud is harmful, but defrauding education dollars meant to help kids learn and succeed is especially hideous. The findings in this report should alarm every family, teacher, and civic leader.

The California cases were part of nearly 90 cases identified by a coalition of auditors over the past six years involving embezzlement, phony invoices, inflated enrollment, bid-rigging and kickbacks, among other crimes.

The report follows the Trump administration’s promise to crack down on government waste, with Vice President JD Vance leading a nationwide “War on Fraud” that has raised new questions about oversight of federal education spending.

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Woke activists push for ‘Black English’ to be taught in Democrat state’s preschools to combat ‘harmful language hierarchies’

California activists are calling for the state’s preschools to legitimize the use of Black English in the classroom.

Supporters say teaching the dialect, also known as African American English (AAE) or African American Vernacular English (AAVE), will help ‘combat harmful language hierarchies.’

The Black Californians United for Early Care & Education group is part of a movement advocating for Black English to be recognized as a legitimate, rule-based language in preschool classrooms on par with other languages.

Co-founder Dr Ashley Williams told PBS the movement is personal because she grew up being told by her family that the way she spoke at home wasn’t acceptable at school.

Williams says she felt ashamed and embarrassed by this and is spearheading the movement because she doesn’t want her two-year-old son to grow up with the same experience. 

‘I don’t want my son to walk into any room and feel like his voice is not valued or his perspective can’t be heard because he’s not saying it in one way or the other,’ she told the outlet. 

The advocacy group – known as BlackECE – has trained educators to support Black English speakers in the same way they support dual language learners. 

The group uses resources like the Black English Knowledge Brief and webinar series, which helps educators, caregivers, and school leaders better understand Black English, its roots.

It also offers ways to create classrooms that affirm children’s language and identity.  

It comes after the Golden State introduced a plan in 2020 to expand early dual-language learning and support bilingual children.

BlackECE argues that Black English should also be included as part of the scheme.

‘We talk about multilinguals, but we don’t include Black children who may be African-American English speakers,’ Xigrid Soto-Boykin, director of the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University, said.

‘We completely miss this subgroup of children that could also benefit from their language backgrounds to be sustained, but also to be leveraged for their own learning.’

According to 2020 research published by the National Library of Medicine, about 20 percent of US children and 44 percent of California children ages five to 17 are bilingual. 

As of 2023, 96 percent of Black Americans speak English fluently.

Around 88 percent speak only English, with the remaining respondents using another language at home and speaking English very well, according to Pew Research.

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