Sex Ed Week at GVSU has Ottawa Impact digging into county's health department

OTTAWA COUNTY — For the second time in as many weeks, the far-right political group Ottawa Impact is taking aim at the county health department — this time alleging the department sponsored sex education activities at Grand Valley State University.

The college hosted its annual Sex Ed Week from Feb. 6-10, which included lectures, discussions and entertainment-related events meant to provide students with the “language and skills to advocate for their health and well-being as they mature into sexually healthy adults,” according to the school’s website.

That included screening from the Ottawa County and Kent County health departments for sexually transmitted infections — and healthy living materials, such as condoms, toothbrushes and lip balm.

'Polyamory, fetishes and more'

During the week of instruction, an ultra-conservative anonymous blog, The Midwesterner — launched in early 2023 — published a post accusing the Ottawa County Department of Public Health of sponsoring Sex Ed Week, which it characterized as “raunchy” and wrote "students are being taught about polyamory, fetishes and more.”

The blog post received immediate attention from conservative stalwarts, including 2022 Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon and far-right West Michigan radio personality Justin Barclay, both of whom retweeted the blog’s post to their followers.

Ottawa County’s logo was removed from the GVSU event’s website that night, and Kent County’s was removed by Thursday morning.

In short order, Barclay — who characterized the event as “sick and twisted” on Twitter — invited Ottawa County Board of Commissioners Chair Joe Moss, founder of Ottawa Impact, to the taping of his Feb. 9 radio show.

Barclay asked Moss what his reaction was to “what looks like taxpayer dollars being allocated at this event.”

“What we do, we’re accountable to our taxpayers,” Moss responded via phone. “And from what I’m hearing, they’re not happy.

“I think there needs to be accountability where it needs to be, and critical thought when making decisions on what kind of events people decide to participate in or sponsor and support."

Barclay speculated the removal of the Ottawa County logo from the event's website was perhaps indicative of the health department’s effort to “hide its involvement."

“Other counties might be OK with this, but considering the massive upset in this last election, people voted for family values,” Moss told Barclay.

More:Did the majority of Ottawa County support Ottawa Impact at the polls? The data says no

But sex education is common at most Michigan universities — and is, in fact, a required point of focus for local health departments. Universities sometimes use centers, such as Michigan State University’s Gender and Sexuality Campus Center, or classes, such as Central Michigan University’s Introduction to Human Sexuality.

Although primarily funded through tuition and fee revenue, Michigan’s public universities (as well as public community colleges) are partially funded through appropriations from the state, and all 45 health departments that service Michigan's 83 counties are required by state law to provide specific services, including:

• Infectious disease control

• Sexually transmitted disease control and prevention

• Immunization

• Hearing screening and vision services

• Public water supply/private ground water supply

• Onsite sewage management

• Food protection

The Ottawa County Department of Public Health has provided sexually transmitted infection testing at GVSU's Allendale campus once a month for the past three years. Its involvement at Sex Ed Week was limited to STI testing and the provision of condoms for young adults on a voluntary basis.

According to a statement provided to MLive by Ottawa County Department of Public Health Communications Specialist Alison Clark on Feb. 9, the health department requested that GVSU remove the department’s logo “because it gave the appearance that the department is a sponsor of this event, and it is not. OCDPH did not contribute any funding for this event."

According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, people under age 25 are at the highest risk of being diagnosed with gonorrhea, chlamydia or both. In 2021, people under 25 in Michigan made up 66 percent of chlamydia cases, 45 percent of gonorrhea cases and 61 percent of cases in which the patient had both gonorrhea and chlamydia.

After providing the statement to MLive, Clark asked her words be retracted. When asked why, she told MLive it was at the request of Ottawa County Administrator John Gibbs.

Health department a known OI target

An Ottawa County employee with knowledge of the situation told The Sentinel on Friday they believed the new controversy "seemed like an attempt by Ottawa Impact to build a narrative of inappropriate conduct related to sexual health services within the health department."

That also would provide the board with a reason to question current health officer Adeline Hambley's role. This could help the board pave the way for its desired appointment of Nathaniel Kelly, whom the new board would like to see replace Hambley. The previous board appointed Hambley to the position in December.

The Sentinel has granted anonymity to the county employee, who said they feared the county would retaliate if they spoke on the record.

"What is said by board members has a profound impact on county operation," the county employee said. "Overall, people are scared, and are afraid of losing their jobs — for doing their jobs. There are rumors of employees organizing unions to better protect themselves."

More:Ottawa County board picks internal candidate as new health officer

Ottawa Impact has a majority on the new board of commissioners, which took office in January. OI-backed or promoted commissioners hold nine seats on the 11-member board.

Moss and his organization have been vocal about their frustration with public health departments, and said the Ottawa County Department of Public Health would be scrutinized closely once he and other Ottawa Impact commissioners came to power.

Much of the animosity comes from Moss’ failed lawsuit against the county, the previous board of commissioners and former health officer Lisa Stefanovsky for temporarily closing Libertas Christian School, where Moss’ children attend, due to noncompliance of the state's 2020 COVID-19 mandates.

More:Court of Appeals upholds Ottawa County health officer's right to issue mask mandate

An appeals court in December 2022 also said Stefanovsky acted legally and appropriately when she issued a pre-K-6 mask mandate during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was rescinded shortly after a vaccine was approved by the FDA for the 5-11 age group.

Ottawa Impact vowed on the campaign trail last summer, among other things, to prevent any future mask mandates in the county to defend “the constitutionally protected rights of parents to make health and education decisions for their own children.”

Moss told Hambley in a health and human services committee meeting in late January, “I just want to be clear that the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners has a very firm stance on mandates, and that there will not be mandates in Ottawa County. … (The) Ottawa County local government health department will not overstep parental rights. I just wanted to make that exceedingly clear.”

“Ultimately — the decision, because the liability lies on the health officer role — the decision lies on the health officer role,” Hambley said.

Ottawa Impact, in 2022, also vowed to fight back against what it called “the sexualization of Michigan’s children and the push to eliminate parents from education and medical decisions (which) has occurred under the strategic influence of activists within Michigan government and special interest groups.” The promise listed the state’s local health departments as complicit in this "activist mentality," according to Ottawa Impact’s website.

The group made good on several campaign promises during its first meeting Jan. 3, where seven of the eight new commissioners and one Ottawa Impact-endorsed incumbent made a series of sudden, sweeping changes not listed on the original agenda, including:

• Firing county administrator John Shay and replacing him with Gibbs.

• Eliminating the county’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Office and firing its staff.

• Putting forward its preferred choice of health officer, Nathaniel Kelly, who currently works as a health and safety manager at a Grand Rapids-area HVAC company and has no previous work history in public health.

• Firing its longtime corporate legal counsel Doug Van Essen and hiring Kallman Legal Group, which has familial ties to Moss’ current business partner, Joel Kallman.

• Changing the county’s inclusive motto of “Where You Belong” to “Where Freedom Rings.”

Attorney General Dana Nessel’s Office announced Jan. 4 it was reviewing the board’s Jan. 3 meeting for numerous potential violations of the Open Meetings Act. That review is ongoing.

A previous, similar debate

Several Ottawa Impact commissioners have already expressed their disapproval of the county’s sexual health website providing links to Bedsider.org and PowerToDecide.org in early 2022, which they said were "activist" and contained inappropriate content, such as tools to find an abortion-service provider.

During the campaign season in 2022, Ottawa Impact published several posts to its website claiming “Ottawa County provides pro-abortion resources through the health department and by alignment of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Department with pro-abortion organizations.”

It further claimed that six Republican incumbent county commissioners — all of whom Ottawa Impact was challenging in the August primary election — were pro-abortion, a claim all of the incumbents vehemently denied. After the allegations, the county GOP censured the incumbents and the local Right to Life organization switched its support to the newcomers.

More:Amid in-fighting, censures: What is the future for Ottawa County conservatism?

After the health department removed the links, Ottawa Impact claimed the move was proof the department had committed wrongdoing for having the links on its website in the first place.

During a somewhat contentious health and human services committee meeting on Jan. 31, Commissioner Jacob Bonnema addressed Hambley, saying the links were “activist websites filled with vulgar material, vulgar language, anti-Supreme Court information.”

The links in question were actually posted to the health department’s website a few years ago, according to the source in the county. That person said sites are evaluated when they are posted, but aren't monitored for updates or changes — particularly when the county is in the midst of a pandemic. That's why there is a disclaimer on the county's website that says the county does not endorse links on its sites.

Hambley pointed out to Bonnema that all available health department personnel were dedicated to pandemic-mitigation efforts for the past three years, and that monitoring dead links or checking to make sure links on the site were still relevant wasn't a priority during the health crisis.

Bonnema pushed Hambley for the identity of the person who put the links on the site.

“Who advocated for those websites to be the two on our website? Any progress (on) figuring out who that person was? … I’d like you to come back with a name.”

OI commissioners Lucy Ebel and Sylvia Rhodea supported Bonnema's request.

More:Ottawa commissioners spar over health officer choice during committee meeting

Moss, a frequent guest on Barclay’s show, told the radio host the GVSU event was “eerily similar” to the link kerfuffle of 2022.

“The health department was promoting radicalized sexual content. This kinda feels like the same thing is going on here,” Moss said.

What health departments are required to provide

The Ottawa County Department of Public Health currently receives federal Title X funding (as a sub-recipient of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services) to provide services related to contraception and family planning.

Norm Hess, executive director of the Michigan Association for Local Public Health, or MALPH, previously told The Sentinel the county’s three sites — Holland, Hudsonville and Grand Haven — must provide a broad range of medically approved family planning services, which includes all FDA-approved contraceptive products and natural family planning methods.

“I am not sure what would be the ramifications of the commission deciding to suspend these services without going through proper channels to end their contract with the state,” Hess said.

Hambley explained at the Jan. 31 health and human services meeting that citizens are given pamphlets that give all the available options for family planning, including information for local adoption services as well as the Maternal Infant Health Program.

Former county administrator Shay also published a statement after the 2022 accusations from Ottawa Impact, outlining what the health department was required to do to service its residents.

“Because of recent misinformation about (the) Ottawa County Department of Public Health’s pregnancy services, we want to clarify what services the department provides and does not provide, as well as the law under which these services are administered,” the statement read.

Shay confirmed the department provides contraceptive products and natural family planning methods, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment services, pregnancy testing and non-directive information based on client request.

Shay also said OCDPH doesn't provide pregnancy termination, nor funding to any organization that provides abortions.

“Because OCDPH receives federal Title X Family Planning funds, the department must comply with Title X rules,” the statement read, adding “services must be provided to teens who request them. Parental participation and consent are encouraged by OCDPH, but may not be required per federal and state laws.

"Staff may not coerce an individual to employ a particular method of family planning. If asked about pregnancy options, OCDPH staff may only provide neutral, factual and non-directive information. This means that OCDPH cannot advise or influence a client toward any option.”

That could prove problematic for Moss, who told Barclay during the radio program that he hoped OCDPH staff were promoting abstinence.

Kent County’s reaction to Sex Ed Week

According to the Ottawa health department’s summer 2022 data, teen pregnancy rates in Ottawa County have decreased 76 percent over the past two decades and are currently the fourth-lowest among Michigan’s 83 counties.

On Feb. 9, the Sex Ed Week controversy filtered up to the Kent County Board of Commissioners.

Kent County Administrator Al Vandenberg — who held the same role in Ottawa County prior to Shay's hire — said at the board’s Thursday meeting the Kent County Health Department has never allocated county tax dollars to the event, MLive reported.

“Kent County has not financially participated in the past or present for this event,” Vandenberg said.

Kent County did provide state-funded vouchers to the event for free sexually transmitted infection testing, but no health department staff were present for the event, said Assistant Kent County Administrator Lori Latham.

“We’re not even sure how that logo got there or why, but we are exploring that,” Republican Kent County Board Chair Stan Stek said.

MLive reported one Democratic commissioner defended GVSU and the Kent County Health Department.

“Even if the method in which some of these are being talked about wouldn’t necessarily make a great evening activity for me, I express my gratitude to GVSU for providing a setting that is comfortable for students who may not have had other means to learn about sex and healthy sexual activity in their homes and in their high schools,” said Kent County Commissioner Stephen Wooden.

In response, Republican Commissioner Matt Kallman — also a relative of Moss’ business partner and the lawyers at Kallman Legal Group — said: “If there are students that have made it to become students at Grand Valley State University that are not educated about sex, I’m happy to help educate them.”

“Yikes,” Stek said.

— Sarah Leach is executive editor of The Holland Sentinel. Contact her at sarah.leach@hollandsentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @SentinelLeach.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Sex Ed Week at GVSU has Ottawa Impact digging into the county health department