The Hatch Youth Safe Zones Project works with school officials to provide counseling to students and staff who identify as LGBT.
Hatch Youth, which is part of the Montrose Center, writes on its website that it seeks to provide an “affirming space” for LGBT youth.
“The counseling is provided by a professional therapist from the Center with a minimum of a Master’s Degree. Youth who are interested in speaking to a therapist simply need to contact their Communities In Schools representative to set up an appointment,” according to the Safe Zones Project page.
Lamar High School Principal Rita Graves highlighted in a report that HISD partners with an organization called Communities In Schools, which was responsible for bringing the Safe Zones Project to her campus.
According to the Communities In Schools website, CIS operates in 25 different schools in Houston ISD. While not all of the schools listed on the website have an active Safe Zones Project, parents can speak with the CIS coordinator listed on the website to find out if one is active at their local school.
At Lamar High School, according to the CIS coordinator Adrianne Williams, students can get a referral to CIS from school staff to join CIS-sponsored programs including the Safe Zones Project.
After speaking with multiple CIS coordinators, Texas Scorecard confirmed that the Safe Zones Project is approved at the school level by individual principals.
A CIS Coordinator at Scarborough High School said that he would like to start the program, but the principal and his direct manager would have to sign off.
Alma Gutierrez, CIS Coordinator at Wheatley High School, said she would be interested in the program but because the school is in the New Education System it is more difficult to gather students during school hours and her principal was less inclined to approve such programs.
HISD launched the New Education System to reform underperforming schools.
Debanhi Tijerina, a CIS counselor at Lamar High School, said that students who are referred to CIS and disclose that they are LGBT are told about the Montrose Center Safe Zones program.
According to Tijerina, students then get a consent form asking for a parent’s signature. She said that last year the consent form did not disclose that the group was LGBT affiliated, only calling it a social group. She said the form has been updated.
A Montrose Center counselor comes to Lamar High School once a week on Wednesdays to meet with students for about 45 minutes to an hour.
Corey Gresham, CIS coordinator for Yates High School, said he is trying to get the project reestablished at the school after it was canceled last year due to low attendance.
