Tennessee’s Two Largest Public School Districts Received CDC Grants For Gay-Straight Alliance Clubs
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The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
Public records show that Metro Nashville And Shelby County Public Schools accepted federal grants from the CDC to start and/or support Gay-Straight Alliances Clubs in public schools.
To access the CDC funding, a school must first apply for the federal grant. Once a school is deemed eligible, the school can be awarded anywhere from $12,000 to $350,000 for the program.
For schools to be eligible for the grant, they must fulfill all of the required activities listed in the program guidance document and cannot opt-out of those requirements.
One of the requirements is that schools cannot opt out of the implementation of student-led clubs supporting LGBTQ+ youth, usually known as Gay-Straight Alliances.
CDC records show that both Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools and the Shelby County Board of Education applied for and received the grants from the CDC.
The CDC calls the grant opportunity “Promoting Adolescent Health through School-Based HIV Prevention” but the catch is in the requirements for grant eligibility.
Metro Nashville Public Schools, which the CDC states reaches approximately 13,000 middle and high school students, in addition to the overall grant guidance, are required to specifically do the following to be in compliance with grant acceptance criteria.
• Identify and approve a list of instructional competencies for those teaching health and sexual health education.
• Assess capacity to implement activities for increasing students’ access to sexual health services through the use of high school and college-age “secret shoppers” who will determine the community’s capacity and ability to access youth-friendly providers.
• Establish and enhance student-led clubs including Gay-Straight Alliances or Genders and Sexualities Alliances (GSAs) that support LGBTQ students.
• CDC has provided additional funding and resources to local education agencies (LEAs) to reduce the impact of COVID-19. LEAs are expected to strengthen staff capacity, increase student and family access to mental health programs and services, and enhance safe, supportive school environments by expanding social-emotional learning for students.
Megan Cusson-Lark is listed as the Principal Investigator and Catherine Bowers Sakarapanee is listed as the Project Coordinator.
Cusson-Lark is a PhD. at MNPS who serves as the Executive Director of School Counseling. Sakarapanee is a Health Teacher at MNPS West End Middle School and is a member of Alignment Nashville’s Youth Equality and Sexuality Alignment Team.
Alignment Nashville notes that Gay-Straight Alliances will be expanding to all 5 through 12 schools in the district by the end of the project period in 2023.
Shelby County Schools, which the CDC states reaches approximately 12,000 middle and high school students, in addition to the overall grant guidance, are required to specifically do the following to be in compliance with grant acceptance criteria.
• Collaborate with the district’s curriculum and instruction team to address teacher content knowledge, comfort, and instructional competences of health education teachers.
• Collaborate with the Shelby County Health Department to host periodic HIV and STI testing events and linking students who test positive to treatment and follow-up services.
• Leverage partnerships with Out Memphis, a community-based LGBT organization and the district’s Office of Student Equity Enrollment and Discipline (S.E.E.D), to raise awareness of policies that support safe and supportive environments for all students. The project team is also working with school health councils to develop Genders and Sexualities Alliances (GSAs) in schools across the district.
• CDC has provided additional funding and resources to local education agencies (LEAs) to reduce the impact of COVID-19. LEAs are expected to strengthen staff capacity, increase student and family access to mental health programs and services, and enhance safe, supportive school environments by expanding social-emotional learning for students.
Patricia Bafford is listed as the Principal Investigator and Carla Shirley is listed as the Program Manager.
Bafford is the Senior Manager of Health Services at Shelby County Schools. Shirley is a Research Advisor for the District.
It is currently unknown how much money the Tennessee school districts received from the CDC for these programs, but public records show that the CDD has been allocated $85 Million to plant the seeds for such programs across the states.
The CDC defines a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) group as a student-led club, typically run in a middle or high school, which “creates a safe space for students to socialize, support each other, discuss issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity and expression, and work to end homophobia and transphobia in their school and/or broader community.”
The CDC lists the organization known as GLSEN as a potential resource to help with this activity, which encourages the use of gender neutral language.
GLSEN states, “When addressing a group of people, make sure to use gender-neutral language. For example, instead of saying ‘Welcome, ladies and gentlemen,’ say ‘Welcome, everyone.’ You should also use gender-neutral pronouns when referring to a group or when addressing someone whose pronouns you do not know.”
A second activity required of schools is that schools educate all their staff on how to support LGBTQ+ students.
“Professional development (PD) delivered to teachers and school staff annually should address fundamental knowledge about: the concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity, including appropriate language, health risks faced by LGBT youth, effects of the school environment on the health of LGBT youth, supportive school policies and practices (e.g., GSAs, safe spaces, inclusive curricula), the unique needs of transgender and gender diverse students,” the CDC said.
The CDC also says that schools must oppose beliefs that are against the LGBTQIA+ ideology.
“PD should thus involve critical reflection that helps school staff recognize and challenge both individually held and broader normative beliefs about sexuality and gender identity that can contribute to a negative school environment for LGBT youth,” the CDC said.
Currently this grant is being offered to 28 school districts across the country, spanning across eleven blue states and six red states.
It is estimated that the program reaches over a million students nationwide.
About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career. Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History. Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com
You have got to be kidding me. Where is our leadership in this? Stop the insanity.
The CDC needs to concentrate on it’s own problems. It’s plain that the Center itself is fatally diseased.
These So-called schools and the CDC need to be DE-FUNDED from any and all Tax money. If they want to teach trash and the So-called parents don’t care either do it without our Tax money!!!!
THE CDC has no right to use tax money this way, we need to find out who in the CDC thinks this should is a good idea.
You know, I can respect if an individual questions their feelings in these areas and come to their own conclusions. Whatever it is, we all have choices and make up our own minds on the paths that we want to follow. It is your life and that is between you and God. But for the CDC to want to plants seeds and offer all this money to me is pure evil. Whether you want to believe it or not, we are in a spiritual battle. Why plant seeds? There is an agenda here. I look at what we have allowed to decay our God Given Foundation. I pray God has mercy on us and forgives us for what we allowed, and kept silent like good little sheep. We trusted and voted in those in government that do not have our best interest but just line their pockets.
AMEN!!!!👏👏👏👏👏👏 Why are our federal tax dollars going to fund this agenda? Is it so that our children will comply with the depopulation demands of the WEF? This is morally wrong to subjugate children to this abnormal and amoral behavior. I get talking to the older teenagers, but this talk should be done at home by the parents first, then at school. This just allows the schools to teach hedonism and nihilism in a “school club”. The LGBTQ+ is a very dark and uninformed view of the world that promotes selfish behaviors that lead to hating one self.
Metro Nashville and Shelby County, it’s clear you sold your children and your souls for a few pieces of gold.