Tag Archives: healthy kids survey

WHAT PARENT’S RIGHTS?

Harmful Surveys and Parental Rights

Think the intrusive, loaded surveys administered to your kids through your schools are bad? Well, we agree but at least most schools will give parents an opt-out (if they keep on top of their emails – notice may be short).

Parent’s rights have been at the forefront of discussions and legal battles for years now, both in Colorado, and around the country. It seems obvious that parents should have a right to know what kind of surveys are being pushed at their kids, and a right to know with whom the information is being shared, and why.

The wisdom, and even the scientific validity, of some of these so called “health” surveys has been drawn into serious question. We have seen surveys that appear more like push polls, with stacked, loaded questions which appear designed to make harmful suggestions to kids. Unbelievably, there are surveys with questions that seem designed to actually market birth control and tobacco products by name brand.

Parents are told this is for the good of our kids, but some surveys appear to target children as a marketplace, to sell products, and to push propaganda.

Ever Think Your Own Pediatrician Would Be On Board With This?

Most parents would answer “No!” to this question. But how would you know?

Here’s an example from Greenwood Pediatrics in Metro Denver – our organization has received a copy of the “secret survey” being administered to kids, 14 years old, with no notification to, or discussion with, parents; per clinic policy.

Although “opt-out” is an available option for parents, they first have to know that the survey is going to be given to their child. Invariably, this information is kept hidden.

The “secret” survey is complete with leading questions about oral, and anal sex, and sexual orientation.

The “secret” survey also contains leading questions that suggest self-harm is somehow a natural extension of feeling sad (if you felt sad 3 times, then suicide would be your next thought, right, kids?), or that vomiting is somehow a natural extension of wanting to lose weight (need to lose a few pounds, then surely you’ve thought about laxatives and vomiting, right, kids?).

 

The explanation offered by the clinic for not advising parents of the survey was that “it’s best done [issuing survey to minors] without informing parents”, and if parents were aware of the survey they might “interfere”.

And perhaps most alarming of all, the minor child is asked for a signature to waive their right to a chaperone during any physical exam that might take place. Given recent news reports of pediatricians being charged with multiple counts of sexual assault on a child, does anyone think barring an observer is a good idea? No, that is why they ask the child and not the parent.
Many experts warn that kids should not be unattended in the doctor’s office due to the rash of serial sex assaults by pediatricians, such as the infamous, Larry Nassar case, Withham Health in Indiana, or Laurel Pediatrics, PA, to name a few.

Where Do The Survey Responses Go?

Well, that is the question, isn’t it?

One would like to think that HIPPA laws would protect this type of data. Maybe not.

What are the implications of a child, without the guidance of a parent, answering some of these questions? We have heard of surveys given by clinics that ask the child’s religion. How is this germane to medical care? Is there a “right” answer? What answer are they looking for? Who gets the answer? None of these questions are likely to be answered by your pediatrician’s office.

What you are likely to get, is defensiveness, hostility, deflection, and a refusal to give you a copy of the survey administered to your child, without your knowledge or input.

Parents Are Bad!

Most galling is the premise on which all this secrecy and deflection is based: parents are bad.

Now, pediatricians like those at Greenwood Pediatrics will deny this is the premise, but why else would they exclude the parent from this whole process?

Well, let’s face it, some parents are bad, that is the plain truth and we all know it. The book, Mommy Dearest wasn’t written to describe a happy, healthy homelife.

However, to base policy on such a view of parents is simply misguided and an insult to the 99.99% of parents that hold the health and well being of their children uppermost in their lives. It is why they get up in the morning, many working at jobs they hate. It is why they work long hours, travel frequently, lose sleep, worry, fret, go to basketball games and volleyball tournaments. They do these things because their children are the true measure of their wealth in this world.

The medical community, as guided by the increasingly radical American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), does all of these good parents a cynical and hideous disservice. The erosion of the parent – pediatrician relationship was the topic of a recent essay in Public Discourse.

Don’t Accept It!

The lack of respect for parent’s rights, in schools and health-care, needs to be stopped.

One way to confront this issue is by early intervention.

At the beginning of each school year, write to the Principal, your child’s counselor, the Dean, any and all administrators that you think have interaction with your child and provide a clear directive that no survey is to be given to your child, unless you have time to review it and opt-in.

During parent teacher conferences, repeat to each teacher, no surveys are to be given without your approval.

Avoid School Based Health Clinics, the poster child for violation of parental rights, as we have written about previously

On your child’s first visit with his/her pediatrician, take a written directive that will instruct the physician’s office that no survey is to be given to your child unless it is first discussed with you.

As responsible, caring, parents, we need to confront this issue head-on. Unlike these surveys, secretly administered to your child, our motivation is clear: development of a healthy, happy child.

Colorado’s “School Based Health Care”: Conflict of Interest?

 

The issue of youth suicide is an important topic that has been raised by lawmakers this legislative session. Colorado schools seem to do an inadequate job of addressing bullying and suicide. The bills that were introduced this session were redundant and weak, and at least one had some pretty glaring optics when it comes to financial conflicts of interest.

Of particular note, a suicide prevention bill with bipartisan support failed in the senate. HB18 -1177, proposed to lower the age of consent for mental health treatment, without parental consent, to 12 years old. It would also have funded unspecified “nonprofits” to issue suicide prevention training to community leaders, such as coaches or scout leaders.

HB18-1177 was sponsored by Don Coram and Dafna Michaelson, who sponsored a similar bill last year and presumably will bring it back again next year, perhaps under yet a different disguise.

The bill received support from families who were brave enough to share their personal stories of tragedy, but there were just too many loose ends for senate to pass it. Senators pointed out that the bill simply replicated numerous existing services such as Safe2Tell and many others.

At the hearing, Don Coram was chided by the Chairwoman for his sarcastic outburst when the bill failed, suggesting that those opposed to the bill just wanted to save education money by having children die.  His outburst was covered by Colorado Pols http://www.coloradopols.com/diary/107736/stay-classy-sen-don-coram-suicide-saves-money-edition#sthash.iiOP3tVu.dpbs

Let’s take a closer look at HB18-1177… is it really about suicide prevention or is that just the box sticker to create emotional appeal?

The language of HB18-1177 left a BIG BLACK BOX in between the identification of children requiring mental health therapy (but whose parents could not be trusted to be included in the loop), and the means by which a state designated mental health therapist would gain access to the child to deliver the counseling.

We were left wondering what something like this would look like…

A baseball coach is concerned about the mental status of a 12 year old kid on the team and decides to refer the child for counseling without informing the child’s parents.

How would this play out? Once convincing the child that they needed to see a shrink, would the coach arrange to pick them up around the corner where the parents couldn’t see? Hopefully not.

And we don’t mean to be glib about something as serious as a child needing help. But let’s be honest. This is an expansion of the burgeoning “School Based Health Care” (SBHC) industry in Coloardo. And yet nowhere in the language of HB18 – 1177 was there a single mention of SBHC. It is the only logical place that this type of service can be delivered to children, so why hide the fact?

Is there a financial conflict of interest?

Colorado’s SBHC is big business and it’s funded through grants from the CDPHE under the direction of Larry Wolk. Larry Wolk is the founder, and is on the staff at Rocky Mountain Youth Clinic – the state’s largest school based clinic. How can Larry Wolk be both the grantor and the (indirect) recipient of the grant without there being a conflict of interest?

Do parents know that school based health staff are able to enter classrooms to give instruction?

Do they know about Colorado’s LARC (Long Acting Reversible Contraception) Program, which entitles minors to obtain IUDs and other forms of birth control at school, without parental consent? Do parents know that LARC products are being promoted, by manufacturer name, through loaded “questions” in school issued “health surveys” (such as the highly controversial, Healthy Kids Survey)?

Do parents understand that HB18-1177 would have granted the power for school based health staff and their partners to issue mental health treatment to children as young as 12 years old, at school, during school hours, without parental notification…ever?

School based health care may have originated to serve community needs, but it seems to be morphing into something else. Are parents just in the way? Will they just bill Medicaid?

Do parents know that Colorado’s SBHC industry has produced documents which advise staff on pushing back against community concerns such as this one? The CASBHC is an admitted partner of our state CDPHE. Why would they need something like this?

Do parents know that school based health staff are also issuing “depression screening” to students? We have to assume the staff means well, but without any oversight what is to stop this train from casting the net ever wider, maybe 25% of kids need mental health counseling, maybe 50%, maybe 90%….

The lack of parental oversight, combined with the allure of millions of federal Medicaid dollars might just prove too irresistible to some clinics.

Parents are shut out of the loop. They have no ability to check the credentials of the therapist or evaluate the therapeutic outcome – because they don’t even know about it. And, as you might imagine, given the liability that would be integral to issuing any kind of treatment to a child without benefit of their medical records or parental input, HB18-1177 was laden with disclaimers to protect therapists and others from any malpractice or responsibility of any kind.

Concerned Citizens comments on HB18-117:

 

Does Colorado SBHC falsify documents to justify a radical agenda?

 In its Feb 2018 newsletter, the SBHC issued the following misinformation. An article titled “6 Things Parents Can Do to Create A Healthy Parent/Child Relatonship Around Gender” was falsely credited to the CDC. In fact this highly controversial document was not produced by the CDC, it was produced by the national affilitate, the School Based Health Alliance,

The article, which gives advise to parents for encouraging children to explore whether their biological gender is a good fit, can be found here   sbh4all gender fluidity doc

The CDC responded to our group with a letter confirming the document was not produced by the CDC and expressing their concern over the “unauthorized use of CDC branding”.  To be clear, the CDC has never published this kind of advice for parents. Encouraging children to question their biological gender is radical advice put out by the Gender Spectrum organization and School Based Health organizations. For more information regarding the growing controversy over the institutionalized push to confuse children about gender, check out 4th Wave Now  https://4thwavenow.com/ and Transgender Trend https://www.transgendertrend.com/ .

The so called “gender spectrum” theory is a dangerous pop culture myth targeting children for medical experimentation with pharmaceutical and surgical interference with normal biological development of the child. It is truly outrageous that Colorado’s SBHC industry should issue radical information under the misrepresentation that such material is endorsed by the CDC, thus eliminating and basically censoring any discussion or dissenting opinion, of which there is plenty.

Here is an excerpt of the response from the CDC in which it is clear that they did not issue the above document and have contacted school based health officials to reign them in.

In light of the recent bill, HB18-1177, which is sorely lacking in transparency when it comes to delivery of school based mental health care, there are some very serious questions to be asked about the direction of SBHC in Coloardo.

What are their goals?

And why in the world would Colorado SBHC feel the need to falsify documents in an apparent attempt to leverage increased credibility? And how does this lack of transparency feed into its plans for expansion?

If they have misled the public about their connection to the CDC, what else are they misleading the public about?

Bottom line: Youth suicide is a terrible concern for Colorado and it should not be exploited for profit or special interest.

 

Look No Further Than Your Schools to Find Pennywise the Clown

Last month, in the days approaching Thanksgiving, the parents of Ashawnty Davis had little to be thankful for. Instead, an absolute tragedy engulfed their lives and their family would never be the same; not ever again.

Ashawnty, 10 years old,  TEN YEARS OLD, killed herself; committed suicide; ended her life.

I look at the pictures of this beautiful little girl and her joyous smile and it breaks my heart. It should break the heart of any parent.

How did this happen?

The suicide rate among school children has sky rocketed in Colorado and we have to ask ourselves why, before we can ever hope to implement any effective policy.

In medicine, all physicians are taught, “First, do no harm”. This concept needs to be embraced by our schools and by education companies selling new products and gimmicks into our schools, with little regard for the effect it might have on students.

Our schools are bloated with every form of Health and Wellness programming  being given to our kids; the so-called Signs of Suicide training for children (SOS); Depression screens and surveys; access to the odious Trevor Project, with it’s enticements into private chat rooms and suicide discussions; schools that provide access to the revolting book 13 Reasons Why. This book, with it discussions of why suicide might be an option and why, through suicide, a child’s status might even be elevated in the community, should never be on a school library bookshelf.

This cheer squad for suicide is listed as being in the library catalog of this little girl’s school (Sunrise Elementary School). I’m not a big fan of censorship but placing this book into an elementary school, where this child attended, might be one of the worst librarian decisions ever encountered. What is wrong with the librarian at this school? This isn’t a book for elementary school children and all of your ALA mindless drivel about the 1st Amendment and censorship doesn’t change that fact. I certainly see that where there is any criticism posted regarding  how a library is being run, it disappears after a day.  So stop being such hypocrites! You’re all for censorship, as long as you are the censors.

Librarians have been given far too much authority in the present climate. High level administrators bow down to the so called Library Leadership Teams… these are librarians… who are making dangerous decisions without any questioning or oversight.

Suicide in children was, at one time, very rare. Why would a child of 10 even think of suicide? Where did the idea come from? This is a concept that used to live almost exclusively in the tormented minds of adults. How did it ever become a consideration and an option for children?

Over the past 20 years, as our children have progressed through the Cherry Creek School District, we have seen an increasing focus (read spending), generated by school districts and education charlatans selling emotional poison, on programs to address bullying, on gauging the Health and Wellness of our children, on preventing suicide. At what point does the cure pose more risk than the disease, if ever a cure was really needed?

The school district has poured buckets of money at this problem and wasted thousands of hours of instructional time with, as is obvious, little effect on the problem. The Colorado Department of Education now proposes squandering even more taxpayer dollars on programs that are just not producing any results. If you’re not aiming at the target, you can’t hit it.  What is it Einstein is quoted as saying? “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result”.

Somebody is benefiting from all of this and it is not our children.

My guess, anecdotally, is that the rise of child and teen suicide directly tracks the increasing introduction of these topics and programs into our schools. My further guess is that as these programs reached further down, into lower-aged school children, the incidence of self-harm and suicide increased in these populations, as well.

Will anyone do a study on this? I’m thinking no; it’d be bad for business.

Parents, you can take action; it will take a thick skin and a demanding demeanor to get to it but it will be worth the effort, for the safety of your children.

  1. Health and Wellness surveys- They are full of questions on whether your child has ever been “sad”. Well, who hasn’t? But these questions are closely followed by questions on:

a) Have you been sad more than 2 times a week?

b) Have you ever harmed yourself?

c) How have you harmed yourself?

d) Have you ever engaged in cutting?

e) Have you ever played the choking game?

f) Have you ever considered suicide?

Is it just me, or do these questions look more like suggestions, balloons leading directly to Pennywise and a children’s house of horrors?

Parents- in writing, tell your school and district that these surveys are NOT to be given to your children. EVER!

2. The Trevor Project- This repugnant site is touted by many schools as a “safe” place for children, especially if they are anxious or depressed. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Here, children are enticed into private chat rooms with unqualified  “counselors”, who appear to be nothing more than other tormented souls, where these “counselors” engage your child in discussions of suicide, gender dysphoria, self harm and other issues they are not competent to discuss.

Adults are able to engage with your child, in private chat rooms, to “counsel” them. It has all the earmarks of a pedophile’s playground but, since parents cannot enter, no one knows for certain what, exactly, is occurring with the minor children that engage with the adults.

Parents- Ask your Principal if children in the school are being referred to the Trevor Project as a “resource” available to them. In writing, demand that this stop and that the Trevor Project be removed from all school and district material.

3. Signs of Suicide training- This is directed at your child, teaching them all the nuances of suicide contemplation. If your child had never contemplated having a choice in the matter before, he or she will certainly understand that choice after this training.

Importantly, this type of program is a blanket, one-size-fits-all, program, it does not focus on truly “at risk” children, it treats all children as being at risk and this is surely not the case.

Parents- In writing, tell your Principal and District that your child is not to participate in these types of programs. EVER! You are far better of engaging your own therapist for this. At least you can get references and see them for yourselves.

4. So-called Anti-bullying programs- Steer clear of these. You would be forgiven for thinking that, with the term “anti-bullying” in it, the program was focused on the bully. It is not.  Entire student bodies are made to sit through hundreds of hours of “training” and social indoctrination. It isn’t about bullying at all, and that’s why it doesn’t work. It’s about social re-engineering for the special interest groups that fund it.

As far as bullying policies, our schools are only focused on the victim, not the bully. If your child is bullied, they will be made to feel responsible for coping, and taught “strategies” for dealing with ongoing bullying. These programs more or less ignore the bully, leaving the bully to walk free. They are seldom disciplined.

Again, millions spent on the wrong target.

We fall all over ourselves crying, “don’t blame the victim”, then put our kids in a position where they feel the responsibility for ending the bullying themselves. Some schools even insist that the victims receive counseling while the bully walks free, or force the victim into “mediation” sessions with the bully, even though experts recognize such techniques as disastrous, in terms of further empowering bullies.  Victims are told not to defend themselves, told to walk away, or run away and “ask for help” – ask for help from incompetent bureaucrats that refuse to discipline bullies because it would require state and federal paperwork to be filed.

We are the adults, and we need to take the action, not the children. The school culture abandons them to the bully and hides behind all the empowering words and rhetoric, such as “bully proofing” them with platitudes. The kids, however, know that the minute they leave the counselor’s office, they are gonna get the shit kicked out of them….again.

Want to generate a a cloud of despondency over a child? Make them feel helpless, make them feel there is no end to the torment, make them feel that they have been abandoned by the very people they look to for help. This is the way to do it. Does this sound familiar? Does this sound like the burden young Ashawnty might have been laboring under?

We need to show the victims and the bullies that a properly functioning anti-bullying program, rather than empowering the bully, deals swiftly and harshly with the bully and gives the bully a quick hall-pass out the door, never to return. You really don’t need an anti-bullying program to line a salesman’s pockets, or increase corporate profits if you’ve rid yourselves of the bullies. Let their parents deal with them. We’re tired of it.

Parents- Demand that these programs stop and that your children be protected from the predators among them in the schools. Demand that the school deal with the bullies and leave the victims alone. File lawsuits if your children are harmed; against the parent’s of the bully, as well as the school district. It is time to take a stand and demand an end to this.

School anti-bullying programs don’t work because they focus on the victim. The bullies walk free. We don’t have a bullying problem – we have enforcement problem.

We know of girls in our kids classes who have been verbally abused and threatened by boys, backing them up against walls and making crude suggestions to them, all year long. We know of other kids who have been hit and had their property destroyed on a regular basis, while their complaints to the school were ignored, other than to be offered ” victim counseling”. They didn’t need counselling, the little thugs tormenting them needed to be gone!

The net result of all of this misguided, feel good, accomplish little programming is:

  1. We create kids that view the world as a place of danger; where they have been abandoned by adults and are victims to whatever evil little turd wants to molest them.
  2. We place them in programs and give them surveys with a heavy emphasis on self-harm and suicide, inoculating them with the idea that there is a way out.
  3. We then wring our hands and weep to the heavens, asking why the incidence of suicide is rocketing upward?

Oh why, we ask ?

Now, while all of the foregoing is bad, it gets worse.

Having created an atmosphere of hopelessness in our kids, a feeling that they have been abandoned by those tasked to protect them, it’s seems the damage is not enough. We have to legislate official and legal abandonment.

In the past Colorado legislative session, a number of bills (in one form or another) were introduced to separate your children from you and place them in confidential “chat rooms” with “counselors” who can, and will, discuss all sorts of topics with your child, all under the screen of confidentiality.

An attempt last session, by Democratic lawmakers, would have resulted in your child meeting with a stranger, discussing topics you might not want your child discussing with a stranger, and you would have no control over it, would not know about it, could not vet the qualifications or the ideology of the counselor; you would have absolutely no knowledge of it unless your child chose to tell you about it. And you thought Big Brother existed only only a book.

And how might these counselors be housed? Where might their offices be? Who might be providing these counselling services? Well, it might be in the conveniently located, new “School Based Health Clinics (SBHC)” springing up in our schools, owned and operated by none other than Larry Wolk, Head of the Colorado Department of Public Health. And, pray tell, what is Dr. Wolk’s position in the Colorado Dept of Health? Why he is the Director. And who will dish out the money for the funding of these School Based Clinics? Surprise, it is none other than the very same Department of Health where Larry Wolk is the Director.  Is it me? Does anyone else see a conflict of interest here?

In addition, as if this isn’t bad enough as it is, these clinics are entitled to go into classrooms and provide “depression screening” for all children who will then be sent to the school clinic for counseling, behind parents’ backs if Dem lawmakers have their way in this upcoming legislative session.

Again, I’m sure it is just me, but my guess is that 90% of all the kids will need some form of “counselling” in the helpful and convenient Larry Wolk provided clinics. If you have medical insurance, your insurance will pay for it. If not, then it will be billed, with gleeful abandon, to Medicaid.

And in case you’re not sure: the Colorado Department of Public Health links to materials from its website aimed at teaching staff how to deal with resistance from the public.  Look it up, it’s all there.

However, I would not be so completely cynical as to suggest that there is a conspiracy in all of this. That all of it, the programs, the suicide training, the anti-bullying programs, the proposed legislation, the clinics, Larry Wolk, the Department of Health….all of it… is just a  scheme for vendors and special interests to profit from the misery of our children. Pennywise, after all, is a fictional character in a movie. Right?

Tell that to the parents of Ashawnty Davis. They just thought they were sending their little girl  to school.