April 13, 2023 12:28 PM UTC

My Kids, You's Kids; Red Kids, Blue Kids

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• by: Colorado Pols

Testimony will be held today in the State Senate Health and Human Services Committee regarding HB23-1003 (“School Mental Health Assessment”), which has become another flashpoint for right-wing activists forever searching for their next grievance.

This legislation, which has already passed the State House, is riling up a group of “parents’ rights” advocacy groups that tend to view children more as property than responsibility. Parents’ rights groups turned out by the dozens to a rally last week at the State Capitol in which Republican House members — including Minority Leader Mike Lynch — decried the evils of HB23-1003 as a tool for the government to make mental health decisions about children that will eventually brainwash them into taking part in drag queen reading hour, or whatever. The rally didn’t do much to blunt the advancement of HB23-1003, but it did provide for at least one unintentionally-hilarious photo:

Before we get into the larger political point of all this, we should first explain what HB23-1003 REALLY does. The bill creates a free mental health screening program in public schools for grades 6-12. Parents would be given plenty of notice of the screening in advance, but children older than the age of 12 would be allowed to take part in the screening even if parents tried to opt out on their behalf. The point of this bill, obviously, is to provide information for kids who may need help dealing with mental health issues but don’t know where to turn for assistance. If a qualified professional is concerned about anything during the screening, the legislation directs that professional to contact the child’s parents to suggest next steps or potential treatment options.

That’s it. Kids aren’t going to be hypnotized and made to urinate in a litter box. The point here is just to say, ‘Hey, this kid seems to be struggling with mental health issues and might benefit from some further assistance.’

But groups like the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network have jumped on this benign legislation and used it to prop up another silly liberal bogeyman that they can also use to raise money for the organizers cause. It’s the same old right-wing MAGA grievance with different packaging.

The modern “parents’ rights” movement is part of a broader right-wing effort to anger and turn out voters over lazily-constructed arguments against things that may or may not even exist. Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin used “Critical Race Theory” fearmongering to win his election in 2021, and other Republican candidates across the country have since tried to replicate that approach with different degrees of success. In Colorado, for example, Republican gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl veered off into “furries in schools” territory, a decision that moved her from “bad candidate” to “OMG WTF” status within a matter of weeks.

The “parents’ rights” movement may have begun with different intentions, but there’s no misunderstanding the point today. Republican politicians are using it to activate the same MAGA Republicans who helped Donald Trump sneak into the White House. Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis seems to think he can win the Presidency if he can just ban enough books before 2024. In Washington DC, House Republicans rammed through a nonsense parents’ rights bill a few weeks ago that is DOA in the Senate.

Meanwhile, HB23-1003 will almost certainly pass through the State Senate and move on to the desk of Gov. Jared Polis. Colorado children will then have a new resource to assist them in helping with mental health issues, and these “parents’ rights” groups will go in search of something else to yell about.

Colorado voters can rest easy knowing that Democrats are leading on important issues while Republicans just follow the grievance carnival.