CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- Last month, the Hamilton County School Board voted to terminate an agreement with Centerstone to provide mental health services to students.
That sparked outrage in the community, leading to a packed house for Thursday’s meeting.
It was a very emotional night inside of the Hamilton County school board room as a Memorandum of Understanding to reinstate mental health services through Centerstone was brought back up for discussion.
The Hamilton County School Board elected to table an attempt to reinstate the Memorandum of Understanding with Centerstone by a 7-4 vote.
All seven Republicans voted to table while the four Democrats voted for discussion to continue.
The decision to do so upset many in a standing room only crowd, leading to one Democratic board member, Jill Black, storming out of the meeting.
Black said, “You haven’t shown them any respect tonight! By not even listening, even debating! Vote in front of them… You have blood on your hands!”
Also members of the audience were escorted out as well for disruptions as they say this decision could endanger those with mental illness.
Democratic member Ben Connor visualized the sheer amount of emails he received on the topic as he attempted to get this service back into schools.
Connor asked, “Do you know what 20 pounds of emails looks like?” He then threw a stack of paper off of the dais into the gallery below. He went on to state, “It looks like that.”
He says he believes his Republican colleagues are being negatively influenced.
Connor said, “he board voted hastily, there was no exit strategy… They’re a fringe group. The overwhelming majority of our constituents want mental health services in the schools.”
Hamilton County Republican Chairwoman Gail Greene argued that since the county invests over $23 million dollars into over 200 support staff, the county doesn’t need outside counselors who she says are unaccountable to parents.
Greene said, “What we reject is the outsourcing of these services to counselors not accountable to taxpayers… Even more concerning, Centerstone and similar organizations promote ideological content that extends beyond basic mental health. Matters of identity, sexuality, and gender should be introduced by parents and families, not introduced in school by outside providers.”
Reed Hampton, the chair of Hamilton County High School Democrats, who confronted the School Board post meeting, says this battle is not over.
Hampton to the school board said, “I welcome every high school Democrat in this state in this room, until you stand with students!… Students over politics, now! Or this blood is on your hands!”
After the meeting, Hampton told us, “I was hurting in here for all of the students who are hurting right now… (This is) why we will make sure the school board does not put politics over students, put politics over safety, and until they do that, we’ll keep being in these meetings.”
Connor says he plans to bring this issue back up at next month’s meeting on October 9.
