The Alabama Senate voted down a controversial bill that would have placed 149 mental health coordinators in Alabama public schools.
Senate Bill 51 (SB51) was sponsored by State Sen. Rodger Smitherman (D-Birmingham) who was shocked by the opposition, which did not speak a word against the bill on the floor of the Senate chambers.
“You threw the little children with mental health issues under the bus,” Smitherman exclaimed. “You crucified every little child with a mental health problem.”
After the session, Smitherman spoke to reporters about the defeat.
“It was a bill that I sponsored,” Smitherman said. “To provide mental health coordinators to provide mental health services to our kids in schools. The bill last year passed out of the Senate.”
On the floor, Smitherman thought the vote was a personal rebuke after he opposed Sen. Arthur Orr’s (R-Decatur) legislation taking food stamp benefits (SNAP) away from fathers who do not pay their child support obligations, and his opposition to Sen. Jim McClendon’s (R-Springville) bill setting up a three-judge panel to hear challenges to future redistricting cases.
“This was done to get my attention,” Smitherman said. “I later picked up a couple of emails that were sent by the Eagle Forum urging them to vote against the bill.
“The only purpose of the bill was to help students with mental health [problems]. I am going to keep standing up for the folks that I keep standing up for.”
1819 News asked Sen. Dan Roberts (R-Mountain Brook) why the GOP Senators opposed SB51.
“There were some concerns,” Roberts said.
1819 News mentioned to Roberts that over the weekend conservative groups like Eagle Forum and the Mountain Brook Parents group put out statements that opposed this bill.
“We all have,” Roberts answered.
The groups oppose mental health coordinators in schools because they say that it tramples on parental rights, is an unnecessary new bureaucracy, and promotes philosophies that are opposed to the traditional Judeo-Christian worldview including transgenderism, the radical LGBTQ agenda, social Marxism, etc. They argue that the schools should not be teaching social-emotional learning that teaches students how to think about controversial subjects.
This issue is not over as the Senate still must consider House Bill 123, sponsored by House Majority Leader Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville). HB123 also authorizes the state to hire 149 mental health coordinators for Alabama schools. It passed the House 102-0. Smitherman told 1819 News that the companion bill to HB123 has also been introduced in the Senate, Senate Bill 266, by Smitherman.
Mental health has been a concern of the state for years. Educators and mental health officials had hoped to move much of children’s mental health services from the Department of Mental Health and the State General Fund to the schools and the much better funded Education Trust Fund. They argue that students often come from broken homes or single-parent families, may live with grandparents or foster families and are under unprecedented social pressure to use drugs, alcohol or other self-destructive behaviors.
Ten Senators voted in favor of the bill and sixteen voted against it.
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandon.moseley@1819News.com.
