Urgent: California Goes Full Jonestown

the calm and casual destruction of the family

AB 665, which would expand the population of minors who can receive mental health treatment without parental consent — including treatment in residential care facilities, which means the forced removal of children from their families despite the absence of abuse or neglect — has advanced through the California Assembly, and now awaits action in the Senate. I’ve written about the bill before, and the characterization of it as a “kidnapping bill” by critics, but the debate on the floor of the Assembly last week said all of the quiet parts out loud. The debate was calm, collegial, restrained, and breathtakingly insane. Here’s Asm. Blanca Rubio (D-Baldwin Park), a former school board member from suburban Los Angeles, semi-coherently explaining her extraordinary view of parenting:

If you don’t feel like watching all of that, here’s what she said:

As a mother of a 16 and a 14 year-old, and a former teacher — well, as a teacher — I can tell you that as a parent, I am not equipped, as a teacher I am not equipped, to give mental health, or to provide mental health services, for my children, even though I am a trained teacher. I understand, you know, the reluctance of children making their own decisions, but I, as a mother, have raised my children, and I think I'm raising them to make their own decisions, and if they're having a crisis, I trust them to be able to go to talk to somebody. Again, most children don't talk to their parents. So if there's somebody that they can talk to, I prefer that rather than not having any services at all.

Mental health only comes from mental health services, and parents aren’t licensed to provide those. So.

The historian Christopher Lasch famously described the long process by which family functions were displaced by the “helping professions,” and see for example the discussion here about the Progressive-era writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman and her parable about commercially baked bread: If professional bakers make a more consistently light and fluffy loaf than home bakers, then why not professionalize a wider range of household functions? Moral instruction and psychological grounding, say for example.

Here we are — not thirty years since Lasch most forcefully advanced the claim that the helping professions are hollowing out the family — watching a California legislator explain that she’s a parent, but she knows she can’t possibly help her own children through a mental health crisis, because she’s not credentialed in the correct professional field.

Speaking of the helping professions, Asm. Corey Jackson (D-Riverside) is a social worker — a doctor of social work, no less — and he explained to the Assembly that families are actually the problem:

And yes, you can hear the squirrels chattering in my backyard as a background noise. Again, here’s what he said, in case you don’t want to watch him say it:

Many of us come from communities in which has a large stigma when it comes to mental health. And when a professional deems that it would be necessary, and certainly if a young person knows that they need additional support than what their family can give them, it is critical that they get the help that they need. We can also not forget about various families within our state, and throughout this nation, who in many cases are not living in very safe environments. And in many cases, these mental health issues originate from the family situations. So this is not just something that we can just continue with this talking points and this narrative about parents' rights. Let's just talk about saving lives.

Mental health issues originate from families, so “when a professional deems” that a family should be broken, who are we to argue?

And finally, here’s the co-author of AB 665 in the lower house, Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles), making clear the precise degree of parental rights that are likely to survive in California:

“The bill leaves in place the presumption in favor of parental involvement, unless the therapist determines that parental involvement would be inappropriate.” So, see, you have the right to participate in your child’s life unless “the therapist determines” that you do not have that right. It’s a right until a third party declares that it’s not a right, which means that it’s not a right at all.

We need to make the children healthier by getting them away from their families.

AB 665 passed in the California Assembly 57-9.

Jim Jones Was Normal

You can watch the whole Assembly debate on AB 665 here; since other bills were discussed in the same session, fast forward to 1:25:30. Scroll to 1:42:27 to see Asm. Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Los Angeles) link the removal of children from their homes on “mental health” grounds to sexual identity: "In fact, it is the reality that often the parents are a problem when it comes to LGBTQ+ kids."

This bill is likely to become law.