The first piece of legislation in the Arizona House of Representatives for the upcoming 57th Regular Session was introduced by a soon-to-be second-term Republican lawmaker.
Last week, state Representative Matthew Gress announced that he had introduced his chamber’s first bill, stating that “this constituent-inspired legislation will help address the regulatory lag that is disrupting access to mental healthcare professionals.”
Today, I introduced the first House Bill of what will be the 57th Arizona Legislature.
An Arizona resident responded to the news, saying, “I absolutely love this. I never knew what an issue mental health could be until I saw some of my friends in the Army struggling with it after encountering horrible things. We lose more vets to mental health issues than combat. Access to care is an issue that must be addressed.”
I absolutely love this. I never knew what an issue mental health could be until I saw some of my friends in the Army struggling with it after encountering horrible things. We lose more vets to mental health issues than combat. Access to care is an issue that must be addressed. https://t.co/fLgNMA2MzQ
Not everyone on the X platform was on board with the proposal, however. One account asked, “What is the problem to solve here? This bill problematically gives an out of state counselor who has committed an act that would be cause for discipline, or has had their license revoked, or is under investigation for misconduct – a free pass to work in AZ. Health professions are regulated precisely to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public – no one’s guaranteed a license unconditionally.”
Gress fired back at the detractor of his bill, saying, “Right now, if you go to school to become a social worker, counselor, marriage and family therapist, or addiction counselor, you are required to build clinical hours by having patients. In order to do this, the student must undergo a background check. Here’s the problem: Under the status quo, once someone graduates, that individual must stop working and patients are shown the door. Many patients don’t or can’t find an alternative despite developing a trusting relationship with the therapist who just graduated.”
Right now, if you go to school to become a social worker, counselor, marriage and family therapist, or addiction counselor, you are required to build clinical hours by having patients. In order to do this, the student must undergo a background check.
The Republican lawmaker added, “This is an outdated and unexplainable piece of red tape that inhibits people who’ve gotten their degrees and their experience to start working sooner. HB 2001 is a simple reform. If you’ve completed the hours and work, they count. We need good people and more people going into this field, especially with rising suicide rates and the worst mental health crisis we’ve ever seen.”
Legislators will be officially back in action in just over a month as Arizona returns to its status of a divided government for at least another two years.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Peoria Unified School District (PUSD) provides just one more example of the radical transformation in school counselors. Once known as the go-to for college and career decisions, the woke movement has leveraged the influence and presence of counselors as tools of indoctrination. I’m sure that sounds harsh and judgmental. And I wish it weren’t true, but it is. Many school counselors include in their approach the sexualization of kids, effectively driving a wedge in families between parent and child by introducing alternative values and morality.
In PUSD, let’s look at Ironwood High School counselors. Ironwoodcounselors is an account on Instagram. These are counselors talking to PUSD kids who attend Ironwood High School. The pictures and related posts are included here, too, unless they get taken down after this is published. If those who impose this stuff on your kids don’t want you to know about it, that is a tell.
Counselors, along with teachers and other school officials, have a decisive influence on students. Parents generally encourage their kids to trust them. Kids typically believe that these people have important things to teach them. This is a blatant abuse of influence and power in the lives of other people’s children.
Take note of the American School Counselor Association logo in the graphic above. Yep. This is not just happening in a few one-off schools. It is a national agenda.
One of these counselors at Ironwood is Paige Carpenter-Swaim. The image below is a screenshot from Instagram; though I cannot find this account now, it is a real picture of a reel.
On February 13, 2024, Ms. Heien, a high school library paraprofessional, emailed Ms. Carpenter-Swaim asking about the Rainbow Library and whether it has been approved for counselors or can be added to the “actual library.” She was told she could apply.
Paige received the email below while procuring the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) Rainbow Library. GLSEN has an agenda to get these books in the hands – and hearts – of your kids in public school.
In another email, we find not only another school counselor expressing an interest in getting the GLSEN books, but also an English Literature and Language Arts Teacher from Peoria High school.
So, what is in this Rainbow Library created by GLSEN? Their stated mission is to “ensure that LGBTQ students are able to learn and grow in a school environment free from bullying and harassment.” Doesn’t that language seem inflammatory and defensive? I think so.
Over 6,700 schools in 33 states participate in GLSEN’s Rainbow Library, reaching over 5 million students. Deep in the GLSEN site, you can find the Rainbow Library “bookstore,” including “The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School”, which is described here:
Sixteen-year-old Yamilet Flores prefers to be known for her killer eyeliner, not for being one of the only Mexican kids at her new, mostly white, very rich Catholic school. But at least here no one knows she’s gay, and Yami intends to keep it that way.
After being outed by her crush and ex-best friend before transferring to Slayton Catholic, Yami has new priorities: keep her brother out of trouble, make her mom proud, and, most importantly, don’t fall in love. Granted, she’s never been great at any of those things, but that’s a problem for Future Yami.
The thing is, it’s hard to fake being straight when Bo, the only openly queer girl at school, is so annoyingly perfect. And smart. And talented. And cute. So cute. Either way, Yami isn’t going to make the same mistake again. If word got back to her mom, she could face a lot worse than rejection. So, she’ll have to start asking, WWSGD: What would a straight girl do?
Told in a captivating voice that is by turns hilarious, vulnerable, and searingly honest, The “Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School” explores the joys and heartaches of living your full truth out loud.
And then there is “Beyond the Gender Binary”.
In “Beyond the Gender Binary,” poet, artist, and LGBTQIA+ rights advocate Alok Vaid-Menon deconstructs, demystifies, and reimagines the gender binary. Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today’s leading activists and artists. In this installment, “Beyond the Gender Binary,” Alok Vaid-Menon challenges the world to see gender not in black and white but in full color. Taking from their own experiences as a gender-nonconforming artist, they show us that gender is a malleable and creative form of expression. The only limit is your imagination.
These are merely a few examples among hundreds of books.
So, what is the impact of the GLSEN Pride Library in Arizona schools? Just last year, Fox News reported that its “Rainbow Library program has encouraged kids to ‘come out’ to teachers: ‘They trust’ them.” That is spin, plain and simple. Consider the dynamics here. Trusted adults are encouraging kids – directly or indirectly – by providing the Rainbow Library. Kids are naturally curious, and the books look enticing, so why not read them, correct? Presto. Kids are trying out the things in the books with the same sex, etc. Any run-of-the-mill psychologist can explain these grooming dynamics. Then, when a student tells their teacher about their “newfound gender” identity, and that teacher affirms them, they are potentially afraid to say to their parents, yeah “they trust” their complicit teachers.
This suggestive agenda to introduce impressionable minds to sexualized information that can lead them down a path that is not in line with their family’s values is unacceptable. Taxpayers pay for public education.
To my point, the Fox News report states that the Rainbow Library program intro on YouTube asserts that they “have the guidance from the safe space kit on what to do when a student comes out to you. We hear time and time again, especially in places where there really are not that many LGBTQ+ supports for youth already, including more rural locations and more conservative areas that, when a teacher or a librarian rolls out the rainbow library in their location, students start coming out to them because they see that adult as someone that they can trust,” Michael Rady, a GLSEN member and educator, said in the video.
Public education aims for kids to become proficient in core academics, not to be indoctrinated in woke cultural ideologies. These books do not belong in schools, and these discussions do not belong in front of the proverbial chalkboard but rather around the family dinner table.
Correction: A previous version of this op-ed stated that another school counselor got the GLSEN books, but this school counselor simply expressed an interest in getting the books. The article has been updated.
Tamra Farah has twenty years of experience in public policy and politics, focusing on protecting individual liberty and promoting limited government. She has worked at the senior director and advisor level for Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks, Moms for America, and pregnancy centers. Tamra currently directs the SMART Families Network at Arizona Women of Action.
House Democrats want taxpayers to fund the tuition of future K-12 school psychologists, social workers, and counselors.
State Rep. Judy Schwiebert proposed the arrangement in a bill establishing a K-12 mental health professionals academy in each of the state’s universities, HB2160. These universities would provide annual scholarships up to the actual cost of tuition and fees for up to three academic years or six semesters, as well as covering all costs of obtaining a school psychology, social work, or counseling certificate.
Even if these scholarships don’t cover all of the tuition and fee costs, the university would not be allowed to charge the student the remaining difference.
SHOUT OUT TO @JudyForAZ for filing a bill that would create a school mental health professionals academy that would provide university scholarships to ensure we have a ready supply of school counselors, psychologists, and social workers. 🙌#SchoolCounselorspic.twitter.com/uMZUGvkiwF
Funds to supply these scholarships would come from an “Arizona School Mental Health Professionals Academy Fund” established by the legislature. This fund would be continuously appropriated and exempt from lapsing. In addition to scholarships, this fund would pay for marketing and promotion plans in a yearly amount up to three percent of the fund, as well as unspecified “academy costs.”
Students in these proposed academies must work as a school psychologist, social worker, or counselor for one full year in an Arizona public school.
These academies would offer accelerated models for “critical need areas”: low-income public schools, Indian reservation public schools, rural public schools, and disability-oriented public schools.
The Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) would be tasked with developing the academy, including marketing and promotion plans, data collection and tracking, overseeing post-graduation service requirements, and funds distribution. Every year before Sept. 1, ABOR would have to issue a report to the governor, state senate president, and state house speaker on academy data.
Schwiebert garnered 23 cosponsors for her bill.
Expanding the state’s reserves of K-12 mental health professionals was a priority for former Superintendent Kathy Hoffman. Hoffman reduced the disparity between students and counselors by nearly 300, from over 1,200 at the start of her administration to over 1,500 by the end — an increase of about 20 percent. In 2021, Hoffman allocated $21.3 million in federal and state funds to hire more K-12 mental health professionals.
During her campaign for re-election, Hoffman pledged to further balance the state’s student-to-counselor ratio.
The fixation on student mental health became more pronounced following the forced shutdowns of schools and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned in a December 2021 report that youth mental health declined greatly and rapidly over the course of the pandemic.
Since then, the Biden administration has spent hundreds of millions to address the issue. Most recently, they allocated $245.7 million last week: $73.6 million for school-based mental health programs and services; $57.7 million to train school personnel, emergency first responders, law enforcement, and others to recognize mental health issues for early intervention; $14.9 million for K-12 “trauma-informed” and “culturally relevant” support services and mental health care; $19.5 million for treatment of children, adolescents, and families that have experienced trauma; $20 million for the promotion of resilience and equity, as well as violence prevention in communities plagued with civil unrest, violence, and trauma; and $60 million for primary care clinician mental health training geared toward children and adolescents.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
