Dear Executive Councilors,
I want to bring to your attention a new fad that is taking hold in New Hampshire Schools. I am referring to Social and Emotional Learning/ SEL. Please take time to watch this video on The Occult and New Age Origins of SEL.
SEL was first brought into New Hampshire Schools through the SAMHSA grant program. (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration). SEL is used as a way to assess and treat a child’s mental health in the classroom. It essentially turns our schools into mental health clinics using teachers and counselors instead of highly educated and clinically trained Child Psychologists Ph.D. SEL is now a product sold to schools that think they can dabble in child psychology.
School administrators are also failing to obtain informed consent by parents and guardians when they dabble in this form of pseudo-psychology. There is a requirement in federal law that school administrators must obtain informed consent from parents and guardians when assessing or providing mental health services. (Every Student Succeeds Act ESSA Sec. 4002 General Provisions)
While I don’t expect you to become experts on New Age religions or mental health services, I wanted to share this video because it explains how SEL is grounded in New Age religion and the Occult. I can’t imagine that anyone, including Governor Sununu, had any of this background information when the SAMHSA grant was accepted. But now that we know that the ONE organization that is considered the gate-keeper for all SEL programs (CASEL) has their foundation grounded in the Occult and New Age religion, you will be better equipped to scrutinize these specific mental health grants targeted at our public schools.
I apologize for the length of this video because it does take over two hours to watch it. However, I think much of it is covered well in the first half hour to 45 minutes. If you are unable to watch the entire video, you should get a good grasp on the history of SEL in the first hour.
If New Hampshire is going to accept funds to provide mental health services or assessments for children in our public schools, this form of new age religion, funded by a mental health grant, is unacceptable.
I hope in the future, this information will help you better analyze mental health grants coming into our public schools. There are many disturbing issues with CASEL, but knowing the foundation of this program is a new age religion cloaked as mental health treatment deserves everyone’s attention.
Sincerely,
Ann Marie Banfield
TRUST REQUIRES TRANSPARENCY
