The Town-Crier
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December 8 - December 14, 2017
Page 3
NEWS
County OKs Preliminary Reading Of Conversion Therapy Ban
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report The Palm Beach County Commission gave preliminary approval Tuesday, Dec. 5 to an ordinance that would prohibit the practice of so-called “conversion therapy” on minors. The commissioners voted 6-1 on the item, with Commissioner Hal Valeche dissenting. The ordinance is intended to protect the physical and psychological well-being of minors, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or questioning (LGBTQ) youth from exposure to risks caused by conversion therapy by state-licensed providers. Individuals not licensed by the state, such as members of the clergy, are not subject to the ban. Assistant County Administrator Todd Bonlarron said that Palm Beach County would be the first
to pass such an ordinance as a county government in Florida, although several municipalities in the county, such as Wellington, have approved similar ordinances. A similar ordinance was brought before commissioners in MiamiDade County recently that did not pass due to the broad nature of some of the definitions, Bonlarron said, explaining that at that particular meeting, the scope of who would be regulated was discussed, which was beyond licensed providers. “The contentions were that under the Miami-Dade ordinance, it could actually pertain to parents counseling their children… or clergy and others who are nonlicensed practitioners,” he said. “I think we have dealt with that.” During public comment, several people spoke both for and against
the proposed ordinance, including Dr. Julie Hamilton, a licensed family therapist, who asserted that the ordinance is unlawful because it violates the Florida Patients’ Bill of Rights and is outside the county’s jurisdiction. “The State of Florida regulates the practice of any of the professions, anyone licensed by the state,” Hamilton said. “The state has already set up rules that prohibit us from harming children.” She added that therapy is voluntary, and children cannot be forced by their parents to undergo conversion therapy. “If a parent drags a gay or lesbian youth in and the child doesn’t want to change, the therapist can’t help them,” Hamilton said. “Therapy is voluntary. It’s not coercive. What’s harmful here is this ordinance does prohibit mi-
nors from seeking therapy if they want change.” Dr. Rachel Needle, a licensed psychologist, said the practice of conversion therapy is based on the false premise that being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender is a mental disorder that needs to be cured. “Sexual orientation and gender identity are not mental disorders or diseases, therefore any attempt to cure or suppress or change that are inherently invalid,” Needle said. “Efforts to ‘cure’ an LGBTQ person are based on theories of questionable scientific validity.” She pointed out that the American Psychiatric Association has noted that so-called conversion therapists cannot produce any scientific evidence to substantiate their claims of a cure. “Researchers actually found
that a person’s so-called therapies aimed at changing one’s gender identity or sexual orientation can result in a number of mental health issues for minors, including shame, guilt, depression, decreased self-esteem, increased self-hatred, feelings of anger and betrayal, loss of friends, social withdrawal, problems with sexual and emotional intimacy, high-risk behaviors, confusion, self-harm, substance abuse and suicidal ideation,” Needle said. “Attempting to change one’s sexual orientation can have a devastating effect on a minor. These change efforts are guided by people’s biases and can negatively affect minors’ mental health.” She added that a number of associations have issued statements against conversion or reparative therapy, including the American
Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Commissioner Steve Abrams asked whether the ordinance is within the board’s jurisdiction, and County Attorney Denise Nieman said there are two ways that the county might be preempted from legislating in a particular area, through an expressed preemption — and there is no expressed preemption in Florida law — or through an implied preemption, which a court would have to draw from a legislative scheme. “In this regard, you are writing on a clean slate,” Nieman said. “There has been no court in the State of Florida to address this type of question, and so I am also See BAN, page 15
Committee Members Share Reports From Wellington Schools
By Jack Lowenstein Town-Crier Staff Report Wellington’s Education Committee met Tuesday, Dec. 5 and shared reports from School Advisory Council meetings attended by committee members. “This is the first time we’re doing these, at least, recently. I think it probably would be more appropriate in the future to call it a school liaison report,” Committee Chair John Webber said. “I understand, because I’m in the same situation, that SAC meetings can be difficult to make, but at least if you can take responsibility for reaching out to the school and communicating with them.” Committee Member Donna Baxter shared the report for Palm Beach Central High School. Moving forward, it will normally be covered by Committee Member Shelly Albright. “We’ve had three really wonderful programs through our SAC meetings this year so far,” Baxter said. “We had a presentation for our ninth and tenth grade AVID students and parents. We’re growing that program, and we’re seeing some really wonderful results. They’ve had a few field trips so far, and they’re really seeing the benefit of looking to the future and that college is within their grasp.” Baxter noted that CVS Pharmacy partnered with PBCHS to share a presentation on prescrip-
tion drug and opioid abuse. “It was eye-opening. It was very scary, but it was extremely informative,” Baxter said. “We are trying to move toward some really strong parent informational programs to provide our parents with as much information as possible to parent their high schoolers. I would highly recommend the CVS program.” Webber commended the students from Palm Beach Central, and others, who worked with the village to clear debris from neighborhood parks after Hurricane Irma. Webber shared his report for Wellington High School. He recognized Cara Hayden for her future role as the new principal at WHS, and he also thanked retiring WHS Principal Mario Crocetti for his years of dedicated service as an educator. Both were present at the meeting. Webber reported on Wellington Landings Middle School, which recently hosted an open house for its choice programs, which include a fine arts program involving journalism, band, chorus, hand bells, dance, art, speech and debate, law studies and TV production, Webber said. “They also have a pre-information technology academy, which will allow the kids once they have completed it to have certification adults pay quite a lot of money for,” he said. “Hopefully, it won’t
be out of date by the time they are out of high school, but it certainly is a great advance for them. There were probably about 300 students and parents, fifth-graders there, and me. We really got an opportunity to hear about the programs.” He saluted WLMS teacher Theresa Flowers for being named the 2017 outstanding social studies teacher of the year. “She was recognized among all the middle school social studies teachers in the state,” Webber said. “She teaches civics to seventh graders and does a wonderful job.” Baxter also presented on Emerald Cove Middle School. “Emerald Cove was recognized in the top 20 percent of middle schools in the nation,” Baxter said. “They have instituted a college shirt day on Fridays to get the students interested and excited and thinking about college even in middle school. They reported at that time that they received four students as a result of the hurricane tragedy in the Caribbean. They’ve also started a ‘coffee with a counselor’ event, where students can sit more informally and talk about their future with the counselor, and they were also promoting their going green campaign at that time.” Committee Member Beth Gillespie presented on Elbridge Gale Elementary School. “The Elbridge Gale chess team
At the Dec. 5 meeting, Wellington’s Education Committee and central region superintendents Vivian Green and Edward Tierney recognized Orlando Mastrapa (fourth from right), the new assistant principal at New Horizons Elementary School. recently won first place in all three categories for the school district, and their linguistics academic games team won second place for the school district,” she said. “In November, one of their students won an essay contest and got to speak to an astronaut on the International Space Station. The fifth-graders hosted a Veterans Day breakfast. They’ve got Chick-fil-A fundraisers going like crazy. They’ve already raised almost $5,000 with that. Last year, they won for the entire state in
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society fundraising, and that is going to launch in March.” Gillespie noted the organic garden on campus at Elbridge Gale as well as its robotics team. She said she would be able to share more about it at a future committee meeting. Committee Member Ruthann Retterbush reported on Wellington Elementary School, noting that the school is going to see some longneeded improvements to traffic flow going in and out.
PHOTO BY JACK LOWENSTEIN/TOWN-CRIER
“Traffic flow at Wellington Elementary has been a problem for at least 19 years. That’s a little bit of a long time,” Retterbush said. “So, they had a meeting with the village about changing the traffic flow coming down Big Blue Trace. They said that would be happening possibly during spring break or even over the Christmas break. So, that’s definitely something we want to look at.” Webber shared news from Binks Forest Elementary School. The See SCHOOLS, page 15
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