Host Amna Nawaz introduced Monday evening’s PBS News Hour segment: “Teenage girls in the U.S. are experienced record high levels of violence and sadness. That is according to a recent CDC report,” leading into Stephanie Sy’s interview with Sharon Hoover of the National Center for School Mental Health.
But while Sy noted that the worrying trends rose during the pandemic, there was no investigation into the health effects of teachers unions and Blue State bureaucrats keeping schools shuttered depriving kids of school, socializing, and school activities and milestones during the pandemic. There was just a little note on "how boys and girls and different folks have experienced the pandemic differently," including the belief that girls dove deeper into social media during lockdowns.
This discussion on tax-funded public broadcasting really went off the rails at the end when Sy and Hoover managed to link “gender identity curriculum” in schools to suicidal thoughts by “LGBTQ-plus” students.
Stephanie Sy: Finally, Sharon, this CDC report enforces previous research that has shown how lesbian, gay, and questioning youth are reporting substantially worse well-being, including also being more likely to experience violence. Given how there are school boards that are literally fighting over gender identity curriculum, are they even less likely to get their mental health needs met today?
Hoover eagerly went along with the emotional blackmail: Question gender ideology in schools, and you risk having teen suicides on your hands.
Hoover: It’s one of our greatest worries, that some of the controversy right now and some of the legislation and just discussion even at the school board level about making our environment and our schools less inclusive for LGBTQ-plus youth could really negatively impact this group of students who are already vulnerable.
We know that LGBTQ youth are much more at risk of suicidality, of depression and anxiety, and we also know that there are solutions that can be put in place to help them with not only getting into health supports, but also at a more public health level, to make schools a more inclusive, accepting place where they can feel that they belong. And we’re very concerned about some of the legislation that we’re seeing, some of the actions by school boards to make their schools less inclusive, which we feel, and the data would support, puts them at greater risk of mental health concerns.
The PBS anchor just left the discussion there.
Would such “solutions” to foster inclusivity (and presumably help girls, the ostensible subject of the segment) involve ridiculous ideas like banning urinals in boys bathrooms, as was attempted in New Hampshire? Or dangerous ones, like allowing biological boys free reign in girls’ restrooms in Virginia?
PBS NewsHour is brought to you in part by Raymond James.
