Today the CDC came out with a report that said teenage girls in the U.S. are in "crisis." It blames COVID and the lockdowns for at least some of this, but this has been in the making for a very long time. Suicidal thoughts are going through the roof, but to anybody who has been following the ongoing assault on the rights of women and girls in this country, it is no wonder young girls are despairing.
Apart from the usual about the alphabet soup people and suicidal thoughts, what is truly terrifying is what is happening to young women:
- Among girls, 30 percent said they seriously considered attempting suicide, double the rate among boys and up almost 60 percent from a decade ago.
- Almost 20 percent of girls reported experiencing rape or other sexual violence in the previous year, also an increase over previous years.
I would not be surprised if the Grants Pass, Oregon, abuser, Benjamin Foster, who nearly beat his girlfriend to death in her home a few weeks ago before killing himself a week later was an extreme porn user. He had to be; nobody does what they do to women, kidnapping and nearly killing them, without some kind of outside influence.
Furthermore, young women who may think they are lesbian or bisexual are being brainwashed by the GI crowd that they aren't same-sex attracted at all but are actually the opposite sex themselves. Even though this crowd wants to pretend there is no such thing as sex, they turn right around and peddle this "sex-change" nonsense. If there is no such thing as "sex" as in male or female, then there shouldn't be anything to change "into." Consistency and logic are not the GI crowd's strong suits.
Of course, schools are under increased pressure to deal with all the mental health problems from students since lockdown ended a couple of years ago. This is why there is all the emphasis on "social/emotional learning." Now being in the schools as I have been for the better part of three decades, I am well aware of the stresses students are increasingly under. However, I have also witnessed schemes by school districts, their administrators and politicians trying to find ways to dump more responsibilities on teachers while trying to cut costs.
In the 1980s, despite the lack of evidence of its benefits, the Reagan administration and similar right-wing types tried to foist "inclusion" of special education students in the regular classes regardless of whether the placement was in the students' best interests. The reason for the push was not for the students' benefit but to save money on building costs and classroom space. They said as much back then. While many special education students are in the regular classroom much or most of the day or have teachers doing push-in, there is still no substitute for pullout programs, especially for students on the autism spectrum who cannot tolerate the distractions and noise of a regular classroom environment.
Then, two decades later, the politicians decided to come up with "Response to Intervention," which was a way to sort students into tiers, with those in "tier 3" needing special education services. The idea for this scheme, which still exists, was again not for the students' benefit but to save money on special education teachers and school psychologists, the latter needed for diagnosing students for special education programs. But did it stop the need for special education staff and even psychologists? No. There is still a huge shortage especially of special education teachers.
Now we have SEL, which no doubt is funded in many places by grants. Instead of the schools taking the money and hiring qualified counselors, they are hiring certified teachers who are NOT trained in psychology, counseling, or social work and putting them in these jobs. It doesn't just stop with the new SEL teachers, either. SEL instruction is also being required of classroom teachers, who have no qualifications to be teaching material like this and being able to handle students who have a variety of mental health problems. This is all because some bean counter in a school district administrative office, typically a superintendent, or some politician, wants to save money on qualified counselors.
As for young girls, it is going to get worse before it ever gets better, and with the insanity of the far right to restrict abortion and contraception access, they have even less reason to want to live. What is the point if they don't have the right to say no to males and live their lives the way they want?
The CDC report is here. However, I don't think sex education as is being currently taught is the answer as CDC seems to think. The queer theory nonsense of the denial of sex has no place in any school anywhere in the country. It becomes cult indoctrination. Sex education needs to be strictly about biology and not telling students what to think.
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