Across the country, parents are beginning to step-up and demand answers about what is going on in their public schools. Concerned parents and taxpayers in rural Lebanon, Oregon have recently been forced into the fray by a progressive school superintendent Bo Yates, attempting an end-run around parents, taxpayers and the school board to install a school-based health clinic (SBHC) in Lebanon’s high school under the direction of Principal Craig Swanson. According to Lindsey Perhson, a nurse and local parent activated by school concerns,

“No one will argue that healthcare for our children is incredibly important, that’s not the issue. The good news is, every child in Lebanon already has a fully-funded means to acquire health care and also has access to medical care. In Lebanon, a free clinic, birth control clinic, mental health clinic, two urgent care centers, the hospital campus and provider clinics are just blocks from the high school—easy walking distance. There is no need to duplicate these services in the high-school”.

Many Lebanon parents and taxpayers are wondering, “What is this really all about?”

SBHCs are not just about “free” medical care, strep throat and sprained ankles. They also have an ominous side, especially with the legal synchrony provided by Oregon’s minor consent laws, the most liberal in the nation. These laws actually transfer the God-given parent-child primacy right to the state. Oregon’s minor consent laws can drive a wedge between parent and child just when they need each other most.

In Oregon, a child any age can access birth control services, testing, invasive examinations, hormone treatments and abortion referral without parental notification or consent (ORS 109.610, ORS 109.640).

A child 14 or older may access mental health, chemical or alcohol treatment without parental consent (ORS 109.675). Children 15 or older can consent to any medical, surgical, dental, or other procedure they wish without consent. Remember, these are sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth grade children. They cannot get a driver’s license, purchase a car, give informed consent, work a full-time job or be held accountable for many criminal offenses because, well, they’re children after all.

According to science, the brain and emotional state are not developed sufficiently to make such complex decisions. According to Oregon law they can decide to begin transitioning to the opposite sex, be provided psychotropic medications, terminate a pregnancy, have a surgical procedure and still catch the bus home without their parent’s knowledge or consent. Let’s be clear, there is still an adult involved—it may be the state sponsored adult; just not you, the parent.

To ensure the parental shut-out is complete, Oregon law shields SBHC clinics and providers from civil liability for treatment or procedures provided at SBHCs. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects privacy of educational and school nurse information but must be provided to parents upon written request. Conversely, SBHC medical services fall under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and will not be disclosed to the parent. That is, unless the child provides the parent with a written permission slip. This is not a joke.

An angry parent’s call to the SBHC to find out why their daughter has shut herself into her bedroom crying for the last two days could easily get a response like this, “We’re sure sorry, but under state law we can neither confirm nor deny your daughter was even seen or referred by the clinic”. The school administration, in turn, will tell you the SBHC is run by a private medical agency that they have no control over. Do you see how this system can be used to undermine parental authority and a critical need to know? If parents have private health insurance, that will be billed—they just won’t know about it unless their child thinks they should know. Taxpayers fund the rest through Medicaid, reproductive health access funds and other tax funded billing mechanisms—the same billing process used in all Lebanon’s community clinics—it is not unique to SBHCs. Providers and administrators are highly paid and every visit gets billed. Taxpayers are on the hook for everything else.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Additionally, according to the SBHC Status Report 2021, three out of 10 SBHC visits are not children. SBHC’s often open the clinic to homeless, drug addicts, indigent persons and illegal immigrants all on school grounds during school hours—what could go wrong?

Since the dawn of humanity, many young adults go through phases where they “hate” their parents, some may go so far as to say this out loud in an SBHC councilors office. This could easily earn the parents a visit from a sheriff or social worker, asking nosy questions, removing guns and creating government chaos for a situation that typically blows over in days. As you can imagine, SBHCs provide endless possibilities for government intervention and control over family life using children as the lever. After all, that may well be the point. Missie Carra a nurse from Ft Worth, Texas did her own investigative work into SBHC development and political underpinnings and outlined her findings in an eye-opening lecture given at the NW Safe Schools Summit called “The Playbook”.

Meanwhile, back in Lebanon, data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that Lebanon High School ranks 229th out of 266 high schools in Oregon, 77% of 11th graders are well below grade level in math and science and the drop-out rate is approaching 30%. That’s not a medical issue. That’s an academic failure of leadership. Many parents want their school to focus on reading, writing, mathematics, civics, history, science and mostly critical thinking. If the school does its job, then Lebanon’s children will have the necessary skill to walk the 500 yards from the high school to the medical clinic. Better yet, maybe their parents will go with them.


--Clarke Vesper

Post Date: 2022-02-10 00:45:55

Last Update: 2022-02-10 10:05:00