NYC Vaccine Mandate for Teachers Delayed by Federal Judge Just Days Before Set to Go into Effect

A vaccine mandate expected to go into effect on Monday has been temporarily halted thanks to a Friday night reprieve by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Melissa Klein reported for The New York Post that the court granted a temporary injunction against the vaccine mandate and sent it to a three-judge panel for "expedited review." The hearing will take place on Wednesday.

Mayor Bill de Blasio in August announced a mandate that NYC school teachers and school staff members must have at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine or else they would lose their job. It's the largest school system in the country.

"It’s the first no-test-option vaccination mandate for a broad group of city workers in the nation’s most populous city. And it mirrors a similar statewide mandate for hospital and nursing home workers set to go into effect Monday," Michael Hill reported for the Associated Press.

While there is no such option, unvaccinated teachers and staff members must meanwhile still continue to submit their negative test results.

Klein pointed out that among those subject to the mandate include safety officers, which leads to other concerns over security and working longer hours to make up for staffing issues:

In addition, nearly 1,500 unvaccinated school safety agents — of 4,300 under NYPD supervision — could also be barred from working, creating a potential security crisis at schools.

The Teamsters union representing the agents, Local 237, is expected to file a labor complaint Monday because those on duty next week will be forced to work 12-hour shifts — 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday — to make up for the gaps in staffing.

“Rather than negotiating with Local 237 prior to announcing and implementing the vaccine mandate to avoid this very problem, the City and NYPD now place the burden of their ill-considered policy choice on the backs” of the school safety agents, the complaint says, according to a copy obtained by The Post.

While the hearing isn't scheduled to take place until Wednesday, the Department of Education (DOE) anticipates they will be victorious. An email from Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter was sent out to DOE staff Saturday morning saying "we should continue to prepare for the possibility that the vaccine mandate will go into effect later in the week."

"We’re confident our vaccine mandate will continue to be upheld once all the facts have been presented, because that is the level of protection our students and staff deserve." Danielle Filson, a spokesperson for NYC Public Schools said.

More than 82 percent have been vaccinated, which means as 28,000 workers have not been, Klein pointed out.

Earlier this month Leah reported that Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Laurence L. Love issued a temporary restraining order against the mandate. He lifted that order on Wednesday.

Mayor Bill de Blasio also announced a mandate in August requiring proof of partial vaccination for those who wished to go out to eat, exercise at the gym, go to concert performances, or other indoor activities. "If you want to participate in our city fully, you've got to get vaccinated," de Blasio said during an August 3 press conference.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2021/09/25/nyc-vaccine-mandate-for-teachers-delayed-by-federal-judge-just-days-before-set-to-n2596492

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Christopher Rufo: The media is lying about CRT -- parents of every race oppose teaching it in schools

Over the past year, the left-leaning media has peddled the narrative that an emotional constellation of "white resentment," "white fragility," "white rage," and "white fear" drives opposition to critical race theory in America’s public schools. Now NBC News claims it can prove it.

In a long story featuring analysis of demographic data, NBC News reporter Tyler Kingkade and data editor Nigel Chiwaya claim that the parent uprisings against critical race theory, which have occurred in more than 200 school districts across the country, are a "backlash" against "rapid demographic change" and "the exposure of white students to students of color."

Or, to put it bluntly, it’s the ugly reaction of white racism in the face of rapidly integrating schools. As left-leaning Slate concluded, NBC’s reporting proves that fear of "white replacement" and the desire to "protect whiteness" motivate the anti-critical race theory movement.

There is only one problem: NBC’s analysis is nonsense. The report, like the left-wing narrative about critical race theory more generally, fails both statistically and imaginatively. NBC News builds its narrative on the claim that "many of the school districts facing backlash over equity initiatives are diversifying faster than the national average."

The report provides data for 33 school districts, which undermine its argument in two ways: first, one-third of these districts have diversified slower, rather than faster, than the national average; and second, according to NBC News’ own reporting, there have been anti-critical race theory protests in at least 220 school districts nationwide, which means that NBC failed even to analyze 85 percent of the evidence.

But the NBC report, like almost all mainstream media coverage, fails an even greater imaginative test: these publications cannot imagine a world outside the framing of the 1960s civil rights era, comparing opposition to critical race theory with racial segregation, Jim Crow, and the Ku Klux Klan. NBC suggests darkly that these communities "have long segregated their schools" to exclude blacks, while the Slate piece makes a more explicit comparison between parent protesters and "Louisiana’s White League," "racist mass shooters," and the "Capitol insurrectionists."

These comparisons fall apart after the most basic examination. Parents in Fairfax and Loudoun County, Virginia, whom the NBC News report cast in a negative light, aren’t old-line racists and segregationists but educated, affluent, and diverse citizens in the elite suburbs surrounding Washington, D.C.

Contrary to the narrative about white families lashing out against an influx of minority students, the leader of the parent opposition in Fairfax County is an Indian-American woman, Asra Nomani, who has blasted critical race theory for reducing academic standards and discriminating against high-performing Asians. And Loudoun County has roughly the same proportion of blacks as it did 20 years ago; the highest rate of population growth has been among Asians and Latinos, who, according to a recent Rasmussen poll, oppose critical race theory by a two-to-one margin—the same as white voters.

Virginia public school district denounces CRT curriculum Video
NBC News’ misleading report is part of a broader campaign to confuse the public about critical race theory. Over the summer, as the parent protests began to make headlines, left-leaning media initially claimed that CRT was an obscure theory found only in law schools. But parents saw the overwhelming amount of reporting about critical race theory in their schools and powerful organizations, including the national teachers’ union and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, explicitly endorsing critical race theory in public education. When these and other attempts at denial and deflection failed, left-leaning activists and journalists fell back on an old sawhorse: decrying opponents as racists.

This gambit will not work, either. Though few parents have delved into the bibliographies of critical race theory architects like Derrick Bell or Kimberlé Crenshaw, most parents have an instinctual feel for the danger that such divisive ideologies pose to their kids. Polling data going back nine months marks a clear progression: the more Americans hear about critical race theory, the likelier they are to oppose it.

In a poll conducted between December 2020 and February 2021, the Heritage Foundation found that only 35 percent of parents were familiar with critical race theory, with 14 percent having an unfavorable opinion and 26 percent having a favorable opinion, while the rest were neutral or unsure. This summer, however, after six months of heavy media coverage, those numbers turned upside down. A June 2021 Economist/YouGov poll found that 64 percent of adults had heard of critical race theory, of whom 58 percent had an unfavorable opinion and 38 percent had a favorable opinion.

The racial dynamics, too, scramble the lazy narrative about "white backlash." New data from Manhattan Institute and Echelon Insights, based on polling in America’s fastest-growing cities, shows that parents oppose critical race theory in the public school curriculum by a massive 42-point margin, and a strong majority of black and Hispanic parents oppose critical race theory and support removing "concepts such as white privilege and systemic racism" from the curriculum. The reality, contra Slate and NBC News, is that most parents, including minorities, oppose critical race theory.

Finally, opposition to critical race theory isn’t strictly a conservative or Republican issue. For example, Loudoun and Fairfax Counties, which NBC News painted as bastions of backward-looking conservatism, are in fact quite liberal: in 2020, voters in these two counties picked Joe Biden by a 25-point and 39-point margin, respectively. And yet, according to a Public Opinion Strategies poll, they oppose critical race theory in schools by an eight-point margin, and 59 percent of public-school parents view the theory negatively.

Americans have moved past the politics of the 1960s. They are tolerant, integrated, and in agreement that malicious racial theories of all kinds should stay out of the classroom. It’s past time for the media to take note.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/media-crt-parents-race-oppose-teaching-schools-christopher-rufo

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A university in Washington has created segregated housing specifically for Black students

Will they be sent to the back of the bus as well?

Western Washington University has designated the fourth floor of Alma Clark Glass Hall as housing reserved for its "Black Affinity Housing program," becoming the latest school to adopt such a program.

"The program will explore and celebrate the diversity of Black and African American people and culture, with historical and contemporary context," the program website reads, also saying that all "Western students residing in the program help foster a warm and vibrant community supporting social, personal and academic success."

"Black Affinity Housing residents, representing all diverse identities, pride themselves on fostering a sense of belonging for all residents by creating a safe environment for open, honest, and sometimes challenging dialogue," the website continues.

The university hosted a webinar in April on the subject, saying the segregated living space gives students "the opportunity to live in a shared space… with others who have a shared identity, specifically a marginalized identity."

Additionally, the university said that the Black student organizations and Black applicants to the school have called for the housing program and defended the move as "not breaking ground on something new."

The controversial program segregating student housing based on race has been adopted at some other colleges, including the University of Colorado at Boulder, Stanford University and Cornell University.

American University in Washington, D.C., announced it would be offering Black Affinity Housing after the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.

Western Washington University did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/western-washington-university-black-affinity-housing

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