Reader takes issue with Governor’s ‘botched’ Child Wellbeing Task Force report

Published 9:24 am Wednesday, August 19, 2020

To the Editor:

If you are not aware, Socialism is alive and well in Tennessee and a huge wave of it just spewed out of our Governor’s Office, down the halls of the Department of Education and into our homes. The attempt by the Governor’s Child Wellbeing Task Force to send college aged Brown Shirts into the homes of Tennesseans was picked up immediately by outraged parents and now the Governor is in full damage control mode over the planned intrusion. In an effort to save face, Governor Lee has discontinued part of the botched operation and is vowing to “rewrite” it.

On August 11, Governor Bill Lee’s Child Wellbeing Task Force directed by Education Commissioner Dr. Penny Schwinn released a toolkit on “child well-being” checks. The guideline called “toolkit” appeared to be written by Task Force educators or others who have strong leanings towards tactics and methodology adopted by Socialist and Communist nations rather than being written by folks with the morals and values of Tennesseans. Two days later, on August 13, the Tennessee Department of Education abruptly pulled down its “toolkit” guideline which supposedly was to be used as a guide to districts in “addressing the needs of vulnerable students.”

The original “toolkit” has been removed and can no longer be viewed on the Department of Education website. If you wish to see first-hand what their original intentions were prior to its sudden removal you can do so by going to HSLDA.org and click on their “Legal Action Center” tab. Here is a summary of a few of the original “toolkit’s” stated goals and intentions from the State’s website prior to being removed.

– ALL Tennessee children will receive a well-being check.

–  Well-being checks will be conducted on all children ages birth to 12th grade. What does the government inspecting your baby have to do with the kids you have going to school?

– A “Wellbeing Liaison” is any educator, community partner, volunteer, adult over the age of 20 who has been trained in conducting wellbeing checks, has passed a background check and commits to maintaining confidentiality unless reporting a concern for the safety of a child or making a referral on behalf of a child or family upon receiving approval through signed release of information documentation.”

– When the 20-year-old with a clipboard shows up in your living room they will “determine if a child is in need of any health, wellness or wellbeing related services or resources.”

– The wellbeing checks are being touted as not mandatory or optional, however if you refuse to cooperate with the “Wellbeing Liaisons” they will “note” that you gave “no permission” for them conduct their checks.

– Contacts with the children can be done in a variety of ways but the preferred method of contact is direct in person contact with children and without parents or a caretaker being present.

This program also includes homeschool, home bound, and private school kids because it covers all children birth through 12th grade.

– If the 20-year-old Wellbeing Liaison with a clipboard and a few hours of training sees anything in your child’s environment that they deem unsafe they are required “to report it as a matter of public safety.”

The primary take-a-way from this is that Governor Lee, socialist leaning educators and 38 members of the Governor’s Child Wellbeing Task got caught red-handed with their hand in the proverbial “Socialist Wishlist” cookie jar as a result of releasing their back room plan on how to send spies into Tennesseans’ homes under the guise of “protecting children.”

Due to public outrage, the Governor and Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn have been holding press conferences and going on radio to explain away the obvious socialist power grab. Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn gave the following excuse for the socialist content saturated throughout the guideline.

“To be perfectly honest, the language was something that we all missed,” Schwinn said. “We’ve updated the language for its actual intent, but there’s no big brother. It is all good intentions around a group of children who we know need some additional resources.”

Now let’s discuss what really happened. All of our educators have graduated from the same liberal colleges and were indoctrinated by the same liberal professors as the Democrats who were sitting next to them in class. Some of these folks were able to differentiate between reality and Marxism, others drank the Kool-aid and then created programs like the “toolkit” to spy on their fellow citizens and then report their findings back to their comrades.

After the botched attempt was revealed and average citizens were able to read the same plan that at least two of our Senators read, it hit the fan and Gov. Lee went into full damage protection mode. The Governor and the Education Commissioner are running around and blanketing the Capitol in sunshine and lollypops, ridding themselves of anything that is indicative of their true quest and they are covering up all the usual things that frantic politicians cover up. Don’t waste your time to ask either one of them to see the original plan, it has been permanently removed from public viewing.

No worries though, the Governor and Dr. Schwinn are promising to rewrite the socialist plan with the same intent, but different language. It appears that once the spray paint on the pile of bovine scat dries, it will be ready for our simple minds to digest after the dust has settled and after the incident has faded from our memories. They truly do believe that we are fools.

The governor needs to give a full and transparent accounting of what just happened to the citizens who put their trust in him and elected him. Anything short of this and we have a serious problem with our Governor. Bill Lee either condones what just happened via his administration or is too ignorant to realize the danger of implementing Socialistic programs in Tennessee while Patriots across America are fighting for the soul of our Nation and trying to end programs like these, not create more of them!

Here is the bottom line. Instead of sending college aged kids into our homes to spy on us, why doesn’t the Governor just provide parents with a list of the supposed resources and services that are available to them and let the parents decide what is best for their children from resources and services on the list. It is really just that simple unless you have an ulterior motive. What is the true purpose of this Socialist program that would make Vladimir Putin green with envy? Why do they want to send college indoctrinated people into your home instead of simply giving you a list to choose from? Could it be that Governor Lee and his Task Force do not believe that you are smart enough to make decisions for yourself and for your family but a 20-year-old with a clipboard can solve all your needs?

This is not over because our Governor is far more committed to saving face rather than dumping the entire mess. We need to let him and our elected officials know how we feel about the botched Socialist power grab. Dump the entire program along with the Task Force and their hidden agenda. Governor Lee, you have lost our trust in this matter. Thank you for being patient enough to read this far.

Steve Stevenson

Hampton