I remember how it was -- JR
Thursday, September 23, 2021
Reparations Could Be Coming to This Virginia School District
Loudon County, Virginia, which is already in the news quite a bit over issues with Critical Race Theory (CRT) and transgender pronouns, just made news once again. According to Nathaniel Cline for Loudon Times-Mirror, the Loudon County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday directed the Joint Board of Supervisors and School Board Committee to study the harm faced by the Black community.
Despite the U.S. Supreme Court finding that racial segregation in public schools is illegal when it decided Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the Loudon County school district remained segregated until 1965.
The measure passed 6-3, with Republican Supervisors Caleb Kershner (R-Catoctin), Matt Letourneau (R-Dulles), and Tony Buffington (R-Blue Ridge) voted against.
Kershner is quoted in Cline's piece as expressing concerns over a lack of a specific action:
Kershner and Letourneau cited questions and concerns with Briskman’s motion, saying the initiative does not define any particular action.
“We don't know all the details, perhaps, but we know there was a history of segregation, there was a history of all sorts of things that occurred in this county, but I would think the discussion we would want to have is about how do we move forward as a society, as a county, as a school system, all those things together [to] address them,” Letourneau said.
“My mind goes to places that are completely unrelated to the school system — economic development, business grants for the disadvantaged; all those sorts of things. But those aren't topics for the Joint School Board,” he said, “And I'm not sure a public hearing, or a Truth and Reconciliation committee is going to get us there.”
Further, Cline reported that Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) has already signed a similar initiative, Executive Order 32. The order, from June 4, 2019, established the Commission to Examine Racial Inequity in Virginia Law. According to a press release from the governor's office at that time:
The Commission will review the Virginia Acts of Assembly, Code of Virginia, and administrative regulations with the goal of identifying and making recommendations to address laws that were intended to or could have the effect of promoting or enabling racial discrimination or inequity. In the case of the Acts of Assembly, discriminatory laws were enacted and in some cases obviated by court rulings, but the words still remain.
And, according to a subsequent press release, from February 2021:
The Commission’s recommendations played a key role in the formation of Governor Northam’s current legislative agenda, which includes proposals to automatically restore the voting rights of people with felony convictions, legalize adult-use marijuana, abolish the death penalty, invest in education infrastructure and early childhood education, expand expungement of previous convictions, and protect the ownership rights of “heirs property.” The Commission’s work also informed many of Governor Northam’s legislative proposals for the August 2020 special session that centered on meaningful police reform and COVID-19 relief.
Governor Northam established the Commission to Examine Racial Inequity in Virginia Law in June 2019 and appointed its members in September 2019. The Commission was initially tasked with reviewing the Acts of Assembly, Code of Virginia, and administrative regulations to identify racially discriminatory language still on Virginia’s books and making recommendations to address laws that were intended to or could have the effect of promoting or enabling racial discrimination or inequity. The Commission’s interim report, published in December 2019, cited nearly 100 instances of overtly discriminatory language. Working closely with the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, Governor Northam proposed and secured the unanimous passage of fourteen bills that repealed racist language related to education, housing, transportation, health care, voting, and more. While many of these Acts of Assembly are longer enforced or have been invalidated by subsequent federal and state legislation and court decisions, they had remained enshrined in law.
In June 2020, Governor Northam extended the term and scope of the Commission with the goals of identifying existing state laws and regulations that create or perpetuate racial disparities and developing policies that increase protections for minority and marginalized Virginians. The Commission’s expanded charge underscores the Northam Administration’s ongoing work to remedy historical inequities in areas like education, health care, housing, and criminal justice.
...
The Commission’s work is slated to continue after the 2021 legislative session, when members will focus their attention on laws and regulations that directly contribute to inequity in economic achievement and stability. The Commission will also use this report as a tool to engage with people across the Commonwealth and gain a deeper understanding of the effects of and solutions to centuries of state-sanctioned racial bias and discrimination in Virginia.
Reporting from Tom Fitzgerald with FOX 5 quotes Supervisor Juli Briskman, who brought up the proposal, as saying the board should remain focused on the issue before them:
On Tuesday night, County Supervisor Juli Briskman will call for a vote on her new initiative for both the county government and public schools to study what she called the harm caused by the county’s discrimination of Black residents, and its impact on Black students.
"The anti-CRT movement is much more about ‘today’ and what we’re teaching today. And my Board member initiative is looking back at potential harm that was because we operated segregated schools illegally against the ruling of Brown vs. the Board of Education," Briskman said.
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But with tempers having already flared up in Loudoun County in school board meetings, Briskman says she’s not concerned about turned up the heat with a debate on disparities because she start it’s a systemic issue that needs to be dealt with.
"I would just encourage our joint commission or whatever committee to come out of this to just ignore the outside noise because what’s happening in Fairfax and us, has little to do with us and in many ways has to do with ‘message testing’ for the 2022 elections and beyond," she said.
Meanwhile, another school district in Virginia is making headlines for other reasons.
In Stafford County, as FOX 5 also reported, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve a resolution that denounces teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT), the 1619 Project, and requiring students to give preferred pronouns as a way to cater to transgender students.
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Why a School Staffer Came to Work in Blackface to Protest COVID Vaccine Mandate
Matt Vespa
I'm against a COVID vaccine mandate. I think what Biden did was probably one of the most authoritarian edicts issued in recent memory. Private businesses with more than 100 employees must vaccinate all their workers. OSHA, who can't do its job enforcing workplace safety standards right now, now has the added duty of being infectious diseases police. We have a medical Stasi. President Brain Worm says he welcomes GOP lawsuits.
Now, at the local level, there were vaccine mandates for schools and other places. It's also shocking to see the media's narrative on this collapse within hours. Remember, they want to convince us that MAGA-supporting whites are the reason we're stuck in pandemic mode. Well, it turns out a lot of Democratic Party-supporting voter blocs, like black voters are not getting the shot. There have been huge protests in New York City over the vaccine mandates. Teachers' unions are not all onboard either. Are these people voracious readers of conservative media? No.
And now we have a school staffer in Newberg, Oregon, coming to work in blackface, claiming to be "Rosa Parks" in protest of this ordinance. Look, there are many ways to oppose these mandates—this is not the right way
A staff member at Mabel Rush Elementary School in Newberg showed up to work in Blackface on Friday, calling herself Rosa Parks and doing so in protest of a vaccine mandate for all school district staff.
A fellow staff member at the school who provided initial information on the incident said Lauren Pefferle — a special education assistant who the school district said it would not name due to it being a personnel matter — darkened her face with iodine.
The concerned staff member, who requested anonymity for this story, said Pefferle explained her reasoning: that she intended to look like Rosa Parks and have her actions serve as a protest of a vaccine mandate. Pefferle was soon removed from school grounds and placed on administrative leave, according to a district statement.
"Last Friday, one of our employees reported for work in Blackface," district's statement said. "The employee was removed from the location and (human resources) has placed the employee on administrative leave. The administration of Newberg Public Schools condemns all expressions of racism.
"It is important to remember how Blackface has been used to misrepresent Black communities and do harm. We acknowledge the violence this represents and the trauma it evokes regardless of intention.
This is just embarrassing. What is it with Left Coast whites being so racist? They called black cops the n-word during the summer riots of 2020. And now, doing blackface to protest vaccine mandates? This isn’t the way, but I won't stop white liberals and their moronic antics.
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Ohio: Mayor’s Ultimatum to School Board: Resign, or Face Charges
Stories like this are disturbing enough when they happen in the Democrat domiciles of New York, Illinois, or California, but this happened in America’s heartland. The Buckeye State is known for having some of the top school districts and best-trained teachers in the nation. And yet, this story out of the town of Hudson, Ohio, just goes to show how deeply corrupt the public education system has become.
Hudson Mayor Craig Shubert confronted his errant school board on September 13 with the statement: “It has come to my attention that your educators are distributing essentially what is child pornography in the classroom. I’ve spoken to a judge this evening and she’s already confirmed that. So I’m going to give you a simple choice: Either choose to resign from this board of education, or you will be charged.” This was met with enthusiastic applause from parents in the audience.
These are pretty serious charges and are based on several instances of “grooming” happening at Hudson High School. The most egregious is a writing prompt book used by a college-level class. The book, 642 Things to Write About, has several explicit prompts such as “write an X-rated Disney scenario,” “write a sex scene you wouldn’t show your mom,” and “describe your favorite part of a man’s body using only verbs.”
One of the students who was interviewed about this book stated that she found this salacious material within a few minutes of looking though the book. It was pervasive enough that a cursory examination would have exposed this trash for what it was. Students were also not allowed to bring this book home, so their parents weren’t able to see firsthand what was in it — which indicates that the educator was fully aware of how bad it was and wanted no pushback.
Just think of how many adults this book had to get past before it landed in the hands of these kids. It had to be viewed and approved by the teacher, department colleagues, the school administration, and the school board. This book had been used for six years and is only now being called into the light. It is the failing in judgment by several layers of accountability. High school students are minors, and this material is asking these impressionable adolescents to engage in their own sexualization. It is sick.
A local police officer who attended the meeting demanded more accountability from teachers and a way to prosecute them with video evidence when they display this child-sex-grooming behavior. His reasoning is that if police officers have to wear body cams, then classrooms should have cameras so that law enforcement and parents have a viable means of proof of what is being taught in their children’s classrooms. While this sentiment is understandable, it may be a bridge too far. It is rife with the potential for misuse and overreach by governing bodies. There has to be a balance between accountability and allowing good teachers to do what they do best.
To be fair, perhaps a few of these writing prompts could be used for good purposes. Here’s a link of a hundred PG-13-rated prompts taken from the book. However, even in those 100 prompts, some still could be interpreted in a perverted way.
In other words, even if teachers are being discrete — i.e., not giving out this book to students but still using some of the prompts — they could still run into trouble if they’re not careful. The most responsible solution is: Don’t use this book. There are better resources out there, and even if there weren’t, teachers can always make their own.
This school board exhibited criminally poor judgement because it allowed schools to engage in this malpractice. Everyone in the chain of command holds some measure of responsibility. All those who allowed this book to be used as an “educational resource” should be charged and prosecuted.
As of this writing, the school board is not going to resign, according to the school board’s president, David Zuro. So in typical leftist behavior, they won’t take responsibility.
If you are a parent with children in the public school, these are the types of issues that your children will likely face in their classes. If it can happen in Hudson, Ohio, it can happen in your child’s school as well. Ask your teens about what they are doing and learning so that you can help stand up for them should the situation arise.
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My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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