VITAL POLICY – Jefferson County Republican Party Calls for the Removal of Allied Behavioral Health Solutions and LGBTQ+ Ideology from Jefferson County Schools
A formal resolution has been made by the Jefferson County Republican Party Executive Committee asking the Jefferson County School District to end its business relationship with Allied Behavioral Health Solutions (ABHS) and to remove all their personnel from all schools in the district. The resolution, made on March 24, 2023, also urges the school system to be more careful in the future by excluding third-party vendors that “exhibit signs of political ideology, exercise sexualization of students, present age-inappropriate subject matter, and materials and those that exhibit any signs of transgender and/or LGBTQ+ affirming ideology.”
At least 12 Allied clinicians serving 500+ students in Jefferson County schools are provided office space within Jefferson County Schools free of charge. Their services with Jefferson County Schools were initiated in 2019 and they are paid in part with local public funding, state grant funding under the Resilient School Communities Grant, and private insurance.
Allied has displayed multiple images over the past three years related to LGBTQ+ and transgender ideology on its social media pages and website, which has raised red flags with citizens’ groups, and now the Jefferson County GOP leadership. One such image is The Gender Unicorn, whose caption references LGBTQ+ ideology and is described by Allied as a “resource for helping children talk about gender.” Nearly half of the students treated by Allied in the Jefferson County School System are in grades Pre-K to grade 5 (ages 4-10). Other Allied posts feature quotes made by Dr. Rachel Levine, the transgender undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services who refused to condemn the practice of transgender surgical procedures and puberty blocking drug therapy for children during her senate confirmation hearing, video linked here. Rand Paul questions Rachel Levine on gender-affirming care for minors – YouTube Dr. Levine was quoted by ABHS as they celebrated Transgender Day of Visibility, observed each year on March 31st. Another Allied social media post pictured three of their clinicians and administrative staff as they presented information at a professional conference on “building LGBTQ+ affirming practices.” A post made by Allied on October 11, 2020 celebrated National Coming out Day, a day set aside for people to announce their LGBTQ+ status and to promote awareness of the “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community”.
Images featured and described in this article, and many other LGBTQ+ images, were removed from the ABHS website and social media pages after a citizen’s group called attention to the LGBTQ+ images that ABHS had posted over the past 3 years. Those images were captured before they were erased and presented to the Jefferson County School Board by Empowered Jefferson, a public interest watchdog organization based in Jefferson County.
With the extensive number of visual images and references to LGBTQ+ ideology that have been posted by Allied, the logical concern is that such ideology could be part of counseling sessions that occur in confidential sessions with child clients. The image on the left is a screenshot of the Allied home page taken on January 3, 2023, which clearly shows “Affirming therapy for all LGBTQ+ clients”, one of many images that Allied recently purged of LGBTQ+ verbiage.
The Jefferson County School Board has placed consideration of Allied Behavioral Health Solutions’ contract renewal on their April 4, 2023, business meeting agenda.
A copy of the Jefferson County Republican Party Resolution is pictured below.
David Seal is a retired Jefferson County educator, recognized artist, local businessman, 917 Society Volunteer, and current Chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party. He has also served Jefferson County as a County Commissioner and is a lobbyist for the people on issues such as eminent domain, property rights, education, and broadband accessibility on the state level.
