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Parents don't think about whether their child will be diagnosed and treated for a psychiatric condition during any given school day.
But they should.
UNC Health has launched in-school psychiatric “virtual care centers” within schools to treat children in rural North Carolina. According to a press release [ [link removed] ], UNC psychiatrists would be available to children without parent input to "bypass barriers."
Wesley Burks, CEO of UNC Health, said about the program:
"This innovative project increases access to high-quality care and promotes more significant health equity – two primary goals of UNC Health."
UNC Health announced [ [link removed] ]a pilot program in Bladen County schools last August. Funding was to come from Duke Endowment.
The plan [ [link removed] ] was to put in-person therapists throughout the district. Students diagnosed with psychiatric disorders could be seen, presumably for prescriptions, by psychiatrists through virtual care centers. North Carolina law [ [link removed] ] allows psychiatrists and therapists to treat children of any age without parental consent.
District Superintendent Jason Atkinson approved UNC’s pilot, saying in-school psychiatrists would decrease absenteeism and improve performance.”
But Atkinson apparently forgot that the Superintendent works for the school board, not vice versa.
When UNC Health doctors sought final approval from the Bladen County school board, conservative members rejected the program.
During the meeting in March, members queried one of UNC Health’s shrinks about the appropriateness of teaching children about trans and homosexuality. The doctor expressed support for school-based programs. 
For years, UNC Pediatrics has quietly advertised its transgender services for children as young as three. Once the existence of its transgender pediatric clinic became well-known, UNC Health removed [ [link removed] ]the program’s website. The Pediatric Department has also advocated for “transgenderism” among children on its website [ [link removed] ].
Potentially providing medical support for transgender treatments isn’t the only glaring problem.
Board member Steve Kwiatkowski raised the issue of schools focusing on psychiatric care rather than on its core mission to educate students. In an oped [ [link removed] ] explaining his vote, he wrote:
“Bladen County has a health department offering mental health treatment. No one is stopping parents from taking their children there on their own. They don’t need the school system's or board's approval. If cost is an issue, why can’t parents go to Social Services and apply for Medicaid or CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program)?”
Offering telehealth psychiatric services in schools poses several dangers:
1. Lack of Parental Involvement: Parents lack access to critical mental health conversations, undermining their guidance and support for their children.
2. Ethical Concerns: Parents, not government officials, decide whether psychiatric care is warranted. Leaving them out can lead to unwanted or inappropriate interventions.
3. Potential for Abuse: Without parental oversight, there is a risk of misdiagnosis, mistreatment, or abuse. Child psychiatry, like any profession, has bad actors. Recently, a Charlotte child psychiatrist was sentenced [ [link removed] ] to 40 years in prison for using artificial intelligence to make child pornography.
Last year, the General Assembly passed the Parrents’ Bill of Rights [ [link removed] ] to protect children from predatory practices in schools. Under state superintendent Catherine Truitt, schools have been given extra time [ [link removed] ] to implement the law. Most schools have yet to enact the bill's tenets.

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