When Haley Taylor Schlitz saw Tarrant County commissioners had blocked $115,334 in state grant money from going to girls empowerment group Girls Inc. of Tarrant County, the first thing she did was grab her phone.
She drafted out what she wanted to say. And then she posted the video to X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
Taylor Schlitz told her followers that County Judge Tim O’Hare and commissioners Gary Fickes and Manny Ramirez were “politically grandstanding” when they chose to block the funds from going to Girls Inc.. She said it shouldn’t be tolerated.
And then she took matters into her own hands. Taylor Schlitz created a GoFundMe to raise the $115,334 for Girls Inc. of Tarrant County herself.
“Let us unite in sending an unyielding message to Republicans,” Taylor Schlitz said in the video. “We will not stand by as they attempt to silence the voices of our girls.”
In an interview with the Star-Telegram Wednesday evening, Taylor Schlitz, a 21-year-old fifth grade teacher at a Fort Worth charter school, said the news caught the right person on the right day.
“Somebody needs to tell Judge O’Hare no,” she said. “Like, somebody needs to stand up to him and tell him, ‘We’re not going to let you, like, we’re not going to silently sit by and just watch you shut down programs and groups and organizations and events that have been specifically crafted to serve African American and Latino girls.”
Girls Inc. of Tarrant County primarily focuses its work on girls in the Northside and Diamond Hill neighborhoods.
“I don’t know who you think Tarrant County is, or who we’re becoming, but that’s not it,” Taylor Schlitz said.
Those who showed up to Tuesday’s commissioners meeting to speak out against giving the state money to Girls Inc. of Tarrant County mostly complained about the national organization’s views on supporting the LGBTQ community and abortion. Some called Girls Inc. a political organization that was “highly partisan” and “hate group.”
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