Though Alabama has passed laws banning DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) from the classroom, Moms for Liberty's Emily Jones said the harmful ideologies are still being taught in every school across the state under a different name.
Jones, who chairs the Madison County chapter of Moms for Liberty, explained on last week's episode of "1819 News: The Podcast" how the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) is forcing DEI on students under the guise of mental health.
Though state law prohibits schools from talking to students about their mental health unless parents opt in, Jones said her 10-year-old son was being required to participate in group sessions.
"It really stemmed from this one little class that my son went to last year," Jones said. "And I question like, well, who's teaching this? What is the content? And through that discovered this ASCA organization that is far worse than we ever imagined the NEA (National Education Association) or the AEA (Alabama Education Association) ever being. And it's at every school in our state."
The ASCA is a national organization that trains and supports school counselors. Though some schools claim to have disassociated from the ASCA, the state affiliate, Alabama School Counselor Association, claims on its website that its mission "mirrors" that of the ASCA, which includes developing "knowledge and understanding of historic and systemic oppression, social justice and cultural models (e.g., multicultural counseling, anti-racism, culturally sustaining practices) to further develop skills for systemic change and equitable outcomes for all students."
"The policies of the national organization define the policies of the state, define the policies of the district, define the policies at each individual school. So where the NEA is bad may or may not be directly impacting your kids' school. The ASCA is," Jones said.
She explained how schools forcing children to hyper-fixate on their emotional state has led to harmful and aberrant outcomes.
"When you're forcing kids to constantly think, how do I feel? How do I feel? How do I feel? And if the answer is not always happy, they start internalizing that. Well, why am I not happy? What's wrong? Did so and so hurt my feelings? Am I not good at this? And they just start beating themselves up. And then they just get to a point of, well, I'm completely unhappy. I'm miserable. Life's not worth living. And then you go down this road of anxiety, depression, suicidal tendencies because we're constantly making kids focus on how they feel," she added. "It's sick."
Jones praised the state legislature for passing an anti-DEI bill but said more must be done to stop similar indoctrination from infecting Alabama schools.
"We passed the DEI bill this past year. Great. Wonderful. What are we doing about it? We've still got institutions that are pushing everything that we just prohibited in our state. And again, no one knows," she said. "...[W]e shouldn't have to have the legislator do it. We have an Alabama Board of Education that we elect every, what, four years on a rotation. Why the crap are they not fixing it? This policy that requires this in our schools, signed in 2003. Twenty years ago, we're still following it. We can't figure out how to update a policy to remove the ASCA. We don't have to have legislative actions. We will because no one's going to fix it, but we shouldn't have to go that route."
To connect with the story's author or comment, email daniel.taylor@1819news.com or find him on X and Facebook.
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