{"id":237859,"date":"2025-09-19T02:34:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T02:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/237859\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T02:34:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T02:34:09","slug":"hamilton-county-school-board-meeting-sees-protests-over-mental-health-services-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/237859\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton County School Board meeting sees protests over mental health services Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CHATTANOOGA, Tenn \u2014 The Hamilton County School Board is set to hear from passionate parents about their decision to end a private mental health treatment company&#8217;s contract with the school district.<\/p>\n<p>Thursday night marked the implementation of several new policies at Hamilton County&#8217;s school board meetings, coinciding with protests and a push from at least one board member to reinstate mental health services for students.<\/p>\n<p>Attendees at the meeting faced new rules, including security checks with wands for weapons and a limit of 120 people allowed inside at a time. <\/p>\n<p>Once someone is finished speaking, they&#8217;re required to leave the building.<\/p>\n<p>Outside the board room, demonstrators gathered to advocate for the return of Centerstone&#8217;s mental health services.<\/p>\n<p>Elizabeth Haley, Executive Director of Seed Theatre, expressed the determination of the protesters. <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We have a significant number of people who are planning to come out onto the grass, to also show up and be heard, with signs and with their voices,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Since Hamilton County school board refused to have a listening session, we do not refuse to be heard, we will not be silenced, we will be heard by our representatives, and the constituents will have their way.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>District 6 board member Ben Connor <a href=\"https:\/\/newschannel9.com\/news\/crisis-in-the-classroom\/student-mental-health-board-member-suggests-policy-revision-for-hamilton-county-schools-centerstone-memorandum-of-understanding-ben-connor-ben-daugherty-healthcare-services-students-kids-therapy-therapeutic-on-campus-in-classrooms#\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"https:\/\/newschannel9.com\/news\/crisis-in-the-classroom\/student-mental-health-board-member-suggests-policy-revision-for-hamilton-county-schools-centerstone-memorandum-of-understanding-ben-connor-ben-daugherty-healthcare-services-students-kids-therapy-therapeutic-on-campus-in-classrooms#\" class=\"themeColorForLinks\" rel=\"noopener\">proposed a background check for Centerstone employees<\/a>, addressing concerns from other board members about who would be treating students. <\/p>\n<p>The memorandum of understanding would restore and reinstate Centerstone&#8217;s counseling services with Hamilton County Schools. The vote on this proposal is scheduled for the end of the night&#8217;s agenda.<\/p>\n<p>We have a crew at the Hamilton County School Board meeting as it progresses. Depend on us to keep you posted, and check this story later for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHATTANOOGA, Tenn \u2014 The Hamilton County School Board is set to hear from passionate parents about their decision&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":237860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[95316,106686,210,517,9475,66576,7237,36509,5677,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-237859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-centerstone","9":"tag-hamilton-county","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-parents","13":"tag-policies","14":"tag-protests","15":"tag-school-board","16":"tag-services","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115228631408716184","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}