Other Deep Blue States Follow?
When the Supreme Court decision Mahmoud v. Taylor came out over a month ago, many parental rights advocates thought that the long fight for parental rights over government control would end with a victory for the rights of parents.
They were wrong.
They were wrong because those who want to destroy families doubled down. The states they chose to double down in are the usual suspects, California and Illinois. California Democrats are promoting two laws for passage in their legislature; Illinois has already passed one that was signed into law by leftist Governor J.B. Pritzker.
The Illinois law is one that mandates that ALL students in grades 3 through 12 in the state undergo a mental health screening each year. Proponents claim that this will stop the “mental health” crisis occurring among young people in our country. From the Governor’s Press Release: The State of Illinois Newsroom
As part of this legislation, the State will partner with psychiatric hospitals and schools to raise awareness about BEACON, which provides Illinois families with information about available behavioral health services for children and adolescents, centralizing resources from the following agencies:
- Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS)
- Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS)
- Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE)
- Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH)
- Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS)
- Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (IDJJ)
“Through the Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative, we are taking steps to break silos between state agencies that serve youth and truly transforming the way behavioral health services are provided to Illinois kids and families,” said State Senator Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago). “The next phase, moving toward universal mental health access, begins with identifying where the greatest needs lie and ensuring families and providers can swiftly access comprehensive programs and supports.”
As you read the press release, you’ll see there is one thing missing, any details about how parents can opt their children out of these screenings.
Moms say Illinois mental health screening law leaves questions unanswered | Fox News
In her article, K-12 Mental Health; A Serpent Swallowing It’s Own Tail, Katy McPherson states:
It turns out, mental health education and practice in schools actually makes kids sick. Children and teens are naturally suggestible and self-absorbed. It doesn’t take much prompting for them to obsess over novel “disorders” and rush down the destructive rabbit holes of online research and self-diagnosis.
The irresistible obsessing induced by school programming magnifies “symptoms.” As a result, more kids genuinely believe they have psychological problems and come to school reporting more distress. In response, schools hire more counselors and inject more social emotional learning/mental health awareness into the school day. This, in turn, causes more kids reporting more problems…. and around and around it goes.
The article goes on to describe research regarding “Prevalence Inflation Hypothesis” and how it shows that the constant messaging to adolescents that they might need mental health is creating mental health problems among adolescents.
It seems that the mental health crisis, like most supported by the left, is a crisis they created.
Author Abigail Shrier, also wrote about the many problems with this law:
Stop Asking Kids if They’re Depressed – by Abigail Shrier
Shrier also addressed the problems with practices like the Illinois law in her 2024 book, BAD THERAPY.
All the arguments fall on deaf ears. Pritzker is positioning himself as a possible 2028 Democrat Presidential candidate and is taking this action to counter an action by the Trump administration to cut federal funding for mental health programs in public schools.
One state Representative, Mary Miller, is proposing a bill to help combat this mental health mandate:
Her bill would require that parents opt their children IN to the mental health screenings. It is a step in the right direction, but it still will not solve the problem of a blanket mental health screening mandate that will create more mental health problems than solve them.
Meanwhile, in California, the two laws proposed, SB 495 and AB 727 are as damaging, if not more, than Illinois’ rush to convince kids they need mental health care while cutting parents out of the important decisions in their children’s lives.
SB 495, a bill that is currently in the “suspended” action pile in the California legislature because there are so many concerns about it, will allow non-parents to fill out a parental authorization for a child to receive school related medical care, general medical care, or to be enrolled or de-enrolled in a school. The state wants to designate “non-relative extended family members” to make decisions for students. This will be without due process nor verification. Parents may not even know it is happening!
California claims this to help children whose parents may be experiencing “immigration status issues” but the bill itself does not mention anything about immigration.
The California Family Council, in an August 4th article, explained more about the hazards of this bill:
From the article:
Attorney Nicole Pearson, founder of Facts Law Truth Justice, testified before the State Senate:
“California wants to let someone that is not related to your child remove her from school, enroll her in any other school in the state, authorize any medical treatment of her, including mental health services and drugs, without the parents’ notice and knowledge or consent. This is not fear-mongering. I’m not being hyperbolic,” she said. “These unintended consequences are terrifying, and they are unavoidable.”
In a 2025 letter, the Alliance Defending Freedom wrote to the California Senate Appropriations Committee detailing that the bill is also likely unconstitutional:
California pastor urges families to flee state if AB 495 caregiver bill passes | Fox News
Thankfully, the bill is still on “hold.” For how long? Who knows.
The other California bill that is frightening is AB 727. This bill requires that contact info for the TREVOR PROJECT suicide hotline be placed on all public-school children’s I.D.’s grades 7-12 in the state. If you have not heard of the TREVOR PROJECT, it gives students access to a site called “Trevor’s Space” where minors can be in contact with unvetted adults. Here is a link to another article from the California Family Council:
From this article:
Brenda Lebsack, a retired teacher, former state delegate for the California Teachers Association, Founder of the Interfaith Statewide Coalition, and a member of the Santa Ana Unified School Board, warned that TrevorSpace, an online chat network affiliated with The Trevor Project, “places all students, especially those who identify as LGBTQ, at a higher risk of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.” Lebsack described posing as a 13-year-old on the Trevor hotline. Once the counselor confirmed she wasn’t suicidal, they encouraged her to join TrevorSpace. What she found alarmed her.
“I had immediate access to chat rooms like ‘Guilt and Secrets,’ ‘Furries,’ ‘Witchcraft,’ and a ‘Gay Men’s Club’ with the tagline *‘Let’s talk about boys!’” Lebsack testified. “One chat said, ‘I’m lonely and need a friend,’ with responses like, ‘I’ll be your friend.’ ”
Kevin Brown, a 30-year law enforcement veteran and founder of Lives Worth Saving, backed her warnings. Brown, who has spent over a decade rescuing sex trafficking victims, including minors groomed online, called TrevorSpace “dangerous.”
As a trained SWAT officer and anti-trafficking expert, Brown created a fake TrevorSpace account posing as a 14-year-old boy. “I quickly accessed unmonitored chat rooms… [and] observed conversations moving to platforms like Discord, a communication platform I have personally used in the past when dealing with persons who sell and distribute child sexual abuse materials,” Brown testified. “Based on my experience of debriefing over 100 sexual abuse survivors, I know how sexual predators use such spaces to groom vulnerable youth.”
Brown explained that TrevorSpace, despite being linked to a suicide prevention hotline, explicitly states it is not for crisis support, is not age-verified, and provides a place for traffickers to use “patience” and “manipulation” to “build trust with victims.” California public school IDs already have the 988 suicide hotline. “That is enough,” he said. “We should not be sending children to platforms that increase their risk of exploitation.”
And yet, California legislators press on cloaking their efforts in their fraudulent claim that “It’s all about the safety of our children” claim. From the California Governor’s Office:
However, the Trevor Project has been shown to be about everything BUT the safety of children:
Mom discovers depravity in Trevor Project’s trans chat room
Parents might feel like the kind of reckless legislation passed in Illinois and on the agenda in California could never be passed in their state. They are kidding themselves. Progressives will wrap mental health mandates in all kinds of causes and initiatives, immigration, social-emotional learning, resiliency, whole child approach, restorative justice, student safety, self-esteem, data collection, gender ideology etc.
Many parents won’t even know it’s happening. In order to opt their child OUT of these programs, they have to know about them, and many don’t. Parents are so busy living their lives with jobs and running their children back and forth to activities and sports they don’t know what is going on in their child’s schools.
The message here is PAY ATTENTION. Even better, as the school year begins, find opt out forms on your district’s website or find generic forms available on the internet. Be sure to carefully vet ANY forms that you find. These sites offer opt out forms: (The Easton Gazette does NOT guarantee the validity or legal effectiveness of any of the forms posted. They are here for informational purposes. Do your own research!)
Opting Out – Defending Education
Public School Opt-Out Forms – Pacific Justice Institute
Forms – PARENTS’ RIGHTS IN EDUCATION
Are The Kids Crazy? – The Easton Gazette
-Jan Greenhawk
The post Legislators Voting To Destroy Parental Rights In California And Illinois appeared first on The Easton Gazette.
