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Illinois Mandates ‘Mental Health’ Testing of ALL Children
Children’s minds are now officially in the crosshairs of one of the most out-of-control state governments in America. Under a controversial new measure just signed into law by far-left Governor J.B. Pritzker, government schools in Illinois will begin mandatory “mental health” testing of all students each year, starting in 3rd grade.
Critics are sounding the alarm. Among other concerns, they are warning that Big Brother cannot be trusted to pry into the minds of children. From education leaders and privacy advocates to psychiatrists and medical professionals, opponents of the plan say it will intrude into the most sensitive areas of a child’s life.
“(Screenings) provide early identification and intervention, so that those who are struggling get the help that they need as soon as possible,” Gov. Pritzker, a leading proponent of transgenderism, said at the signing ceremony. “They improve academic and social outcomes. They help us break down the stigma that, too often, is a barrier to seeking help.”
One major goal is to “normalize” so-called “mental health care” for children and adolescents, explained Democrat State Senator Laura Fine, the chief sponsor of the bill. “The screenings will be designed to catch the early signs of anxiety, depression or trauma before it becomes a crisis or, in some cases, sometimes too late,” she said.
West Virginia Attorney General Wants Vaccine Lawsuits Consolidated in Raleigh County
West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey has asked that two lawsuits filed in separate county circuit courts over Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s executive order and the state’s compulsory immunization law be consolidated and considered together in Raleigh County Circuit Court.
McCuskey on Wednesday filed emergency motions to transfer and consolidate the two cases: Joshua Hess and Marisa Jackson vs. the state Department of Health and Miranda Guzman vs. the state and the Raleigh County Board of Education. Hess and Jackson, two parents of immunocompromised students, are suing in Kanawha County Circuit Court over the health department’s issuance of religious exemptions to the state’s vaccination law.
They’re represented by the ACLU of West Virginia and Mountain State Justice. The organizations refiled the complaint Friday after Circuit Judge Kenneth Ballard dismissed the first complaint in July for procedural reasons.
Guzman and two other families of students issued a religious exemption to the state’s vaccination law are suing the boards of education for defying Morrisey’s executive order. The state board has said it would continue to instruct county boards to accept only medical exemptions to the state vaccination law. In the motion, filed Tuesday, McCuskey writes that the two cases are “at a crossroads between state mandated public health measures and individual religious liberty.”
Exclusive: Americans Who Endured Biden’s Vax Discrimination Finally Getting Justice, Trump Official Says
The Biden Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, sat on its hands as it was flooded with thousands of discrimination charges related to COVID-19 vaccine mandates, acting Chair Andrea Lucas said in an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Major new settlements and lawsuits over the mandates, which Lucas called one of the “greatest civil rights violations” of the past few decades, signal a substantial shift in priorities since President Donald Trump selected her to lead the agency in January.
“During fiscal year 2022 alone, we got almost 13,000 religious accommodation requests,” she told the DCNF, noting the requests made up 20% of the agency’s discrimination charges.
Even this number is “only a fraction” of the thousands of other people pushed out of jobs or refused accommodations during the mandates, Lucas said, yet Biden-appointees chose not to “spotlight” concerns. “The agency was doing some work, but it was always doing it quietly,” Lucas said. “It was shoving it under the rug … It didn’t want to push it because it wasn’t the right narrative, apparently, for the Biden administration.”
One health care system with clinics in Illinois and Wisconsin, Mercyhealth, agreed to a $1 million settlement on Wednesday, which will provide financial compensation to employees wrongfully terminated for refusing to comply with its vaccine mandate for religious reasons. The settlement includes an offer to reinstate fired employees.
Religious Exemptions for School Vaccinations Have Been Growing Since COVID
“No Shots. No School. No Exceptions.” That’s what’s parents are greeted with on the Prince George’s County Public Schools webpage on required vaccinations for the upcoming school year. But that’s not entirely true. In Maryland, there are exceptions — specifically, families can easily get religious exemptions to opt their kindergartners out of vaccine requirements in any school year.
And more Maryland families have been choosing that route for the last four school years, according to Maryland Department of Health data released this week.
About 1.7% of the state’s 63,000 kindergartners, or approximately 1,075 kids, cited religious reasons to be exempted from required vaccinations during the 2024-2025 school year.
It’s the highest percentage of religious exemptions since the 2019-2020 school year, when the start of the COVID-19 pandemic not only ushered in a new wave of vaccine hesitancy but also disrupted typical school procedures for many families. Since the 2021-2022 school year, at least 1% of kindergartners in Maryland have had a religious exemption — a couple hundred a year — and it’s been rising since.
