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Weeks after Republican members of the Hamilton County Board of Education senselessly voted to end supplementary mental health services for students — a contractual arrangement that came at no cost to the school system — the issue came up again at Thursday’s school board meeting. This time, Democratic school board member Ben Connor, in an attempt to assuage the concerns of his right-wing colleagues, offered a compromise.
Connor’s proposed revision to the contract with Centerstone Community Mental Health Centers — which had been renewed annually since 2013, serving more than 2,600 students across 32 schools this past year — would have continued the partnership with them, effective immediately, until an open-bid process found a new vendor. In addition, all Centerstone employees would have gone through a background check through Hamilton County Schools.
For the Republican school board members, however, this was not enough. After protests and over an hour of public comment on the issue, every Republican on the board voted to table the motion, cutting off all discussion.
Pushing back, Republicans on the board have pointed to the $21 million in the budget for student support coaches, social workers and counselors. But this is hardly a defense. Why cut off supplemental services that come at no cost to the school system? The answer is rather simple and tired: homophobia and transphobia.