Editorial – Children Should NEVER Be Used As Pawns In Games Adults Play

It is amazing what you can learn about people and motivations during a 4 plus hour school board meeting. As many have heard, the continued contract of Allied Behavioral Health was the question of the evening at the most recent school board meeting. For weeks concerned citizens have been asking for the removal of Allied because of concern that they have an LGBTQ+ agenda. To be honest, regardless of how you may feel about LGBTQ+ (either supportive or in opposition) I read the website and it did have lots of language that would lead a person to believe that LGBTQ+ affirmation might just be their specialty. Their Director also tags her emails with “Why Pronouns Matter” link just in case anyone missed the debate at the flagship school in the State of Tennessee (UT). You know the one…the one where University of Tennessee almost lost funding from the taxpayers because the largest part of the constitutes in Tennessee were seriously upset with the mandate for acceptance for “alternate” pronouns. Well, fast forward a couple of years and that debate is edging into Jefferson County and running along side it is the issue of having an LGBTQ+ (exactly what is plus?) affirming contractor providing mental health care to the students of Jefferson County by way of the Jefferson County Department of Education. Now Allied Behavioral Health has venomously contended that affirmation (their word, their website) is not their objective and they have since removed (scrubbed) their site of that language. However, they didn’t get rid of their alternate Gender Affirming Unicorn drawing on their Instagram and they couldn’t do anything about their post on employment sites that require that applicants share their affirmation philosophy.

But, you know what? Their LGBTQ+ stance, support, affirmation, whatever you want to call it, pales in comparison to willingness to use children that are struggling with mental health issues to save their contractual butts. What kind of therapist willingly puts a child that already deals with anxiety and depression (their two largest areas of treatment) in front of a hostile room (both sides) to read a speech about how great Allied is and how caring they are? First, it is not the place of any child to defend any adult on a business matter, little alone a for profit business that is being asked serious questions about their treatment philosophies. This was and is a contractual agreement between Jefferson County Department of Education and Allied Behavioral Health. But either they, or the staff of various schools, did just that. Not only should those children never have been asked to address the Board, any therapist or educator that believes for one moment that it is appropriate to use children in this way deserves to have their contract revoked. These children walked up to the podium and, with quivering voices (and I mean actually quivering) and shaking hands delivered their speech. In some cases they struggled so much and were under such distress that their independent therapist actually went to the front to give them an awkward (and staged) hug for support. Does allowing these children that are already struggling with mental health issues seem like the actions of thoughtful, caring, professional therapists? Or does it sound like those children were used to pull at the heartstrings of a Board that has proven to react emotionally rather than a Board that can distance itself from the drama to make thoughtful decisions. And that is exactly what happened.

Now, let’s be clear. I would not have ended the contract at this late date in the school year. But after seeing the debacle of children, Allied employees and school employees that were paraded to the podium I certainly would not be signing any new or extensions of their current contract. Simply put, it is more than difficult to trust any organization that has such poor judgment. And to top it off, despite what Allied would have the school board believe, they are a for profit business that would not be anywhere near Jefferson County Schools unless they were making money and lots of it. Jefferson County students represent a large part of their client base across the state. They have four locations yet Jefferson County Department of Education is the only district that contracts with Allied. Oh yeah, they recently added Newport Grammar School. Make no mistake, they generate individual clients through our students and they collect private pay insurance and TennCare for their services. Their own website indicates that the cost to clients without insurance is in excess of $6000. Imagine what they are charging private insurance. This is big business and there is a lot of money at stake. Yet, Allied said in the school board meeting that they “barely break even”. Again, this is not a non profit. This is a for profit business and their owners (whoever they are) are certainly expecting a return on their investment. Of course, Allied has declined to provide information on who actually owns their business. Makes you wonder why, doesn’t it?

It boils down to this… Children are NEVER tools to be used to garner favor for or defend adults PARTICULARLY if those adults are in the position of authority over those children and any adult in the school system in any capacity is in the position of authority over students be they therapist or educators or staff. If a business is contracted with Jefferson County Schools to interact with students then they are being endorsed by Jefferson County School.  School Board Members and Department of Education Administrators are obligated to consider the concerns of the community, as they are ultimately paying the bill. And last but not least, why were our school board members not as appalled as I was about the flagrant use of fragile students by those that are sworn to protect them?

There are other mental health providers. All of the other surrounding counties have found appropriate care for students that are struggling. Perhaps we need to focus on why our own number of students that need mental health intervention are growing rapidly and why we are suddenly seeing an increase in arrests and situations don’t meet the criteria for arrest but do have “serious challenges”. Our student mental health profile seems to be moving in the wrong direction. We need a new mental health contractor because children are more important that colleague support or Allied’s bottom line. Our children are our number one job and we just witnessed the lengths that folks are willing to go to keep the Allied contract. Now the question is “Why?”