Parents at Norton Middle School in Ohio expressed outrage and serious concerns after learning that their children were exposed to a highly controversial “suicide education” program blasted as “indoctrination.” Students were also forced to answer sensitive questionnaires about their mental health, compounding the parental fury.
The program, known as “Signs of Suicide” (SOS), is being used in government schools across America. Supposedly aimed at preventing suicide and helping children access “mental health” services, critics have warned that it is dubious indoctrination, at best. In some cases, critics have warned that such programs can normalize suicide or even push children over the edge.
Perhaps even more troubling is that this “suicide” program was foisted on students without even securing explicit parental consent. Instead, school officials allowed parents to sign a form to opt out if “you wish your child to not participate in the curriculum.” But according to parents, the school even told children they did not need to take home the note.
Parents also told The Newman Report that the only reason the school even allowed opt outs this time was due to the massive opposition expressed last year. And the students who did opt out were segregated from everyone and made to feel guilty for allegedly not being “sufficiently concerned” about preventing suicide.
In an e-mailed notice sent by the school district that literally misspelled the name of the district, calling it a “Distict,” officials told parents that they were implementing the “Signs of Suicide” curriculum for middle-school and high-school students. But there was very little detail on the nature of the program, much less the data gathered on the children.
After the program was over, sources told The Newman Report that several children were called into the office to discuss the results of their mental-health “evaluation.” Practically everybody in school knew why the students were being summoned — it was because their evaluation reports caused concerns. Parents called that highly inappropriate.
Some of the literature used in the program also sparked suspicions. For instance, students were told that everything from expressing serious emotional pain and talking about feeling hopeless to giving away possessions or becoming calm after being depressed could be a warning sign that should be “responded to immediately.”
To determine whether children were struggling with depression, the literature mentioned a number of possible signs, including feeling sad more often than not, sleeping or eating more or less than usual, withdrawing from others, being reckless, performing poorly at school, and other “symptoms” that critics said are mostly just a normal part of growing up.
Robert Carnahan, whose 12-year-old child was subjected to the scheme, told The Newman Report that the lessons conflict with his personal beliefs. “I’m not Catholic but, I have always taught my children that suicide is a mortal sin, period,” he said, calling it “the worst thing one could do to their friends and family.”
“After reading their material, I do not think this is appropriate for children based on their suggested methodology, ‘moral guidance,’ or any government-related input,” he continued. “In the future, I feel this is not the public school system’s place. Awareness is one thing. Their program feels more like an indoctrination.”
Carnahan suggested that the program may have been introduced in the school to help support the “Nationwide Children’s Hospital” and its massive new “mental health” building opening next year. Known as the “Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion,” it will be America’s largest “behavioral-health” center for children. The hospital was involved in the program, literature revealed.
In the book Crimes of the Educators, this writer and Dr. Samuel Blumenfeld highlighted the fact that there is often a spike in child suicides after the children were exposed to “death education” or “suicide” programs at school. In schools across America, students have been forced to write their own obituaries, visit cemeteries, contemplate death, and more.
But the problem goes even deeper. Before government schools began bombarding their victims with anti-God propaganda, suicide among children was practically unheard of in the United States. Today, it is the second leading cause of death among those aged 10 to 19, as hopeless children indoctrinated to believe that life is meaningless decide to take their own lives.
Dr. Blumenfeld, a passionate educator who dedicated six decades of his life to rescuing children from evils wrought by the education establishment, blasted the invasion of death-focused propaganda into government schools. But he noted that parents spent decades trying to eliminate sex-ed from schools — and failed. The same will be true of death education and the associated data gathering.
But parents do have a choice. “They still have the power to remove their children from death-oriented public schools and put them in life-oriented private schools or educate them with love and care at home,” wrote Dr. Blumenfeld. Amen!
