Scandal-hit Virginia school board faces calls to ditch member for 'woke-washing' 9/11

A scandal hit Virginia school board is now facing calls to ditch a member who claimed a moment of silence to mark the anniversary of the terror attacks would cause harm to minorities who faced persecution as a result of the terror attack.

On the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks members of the Fairfax County School Board entertained a resolution for a moment of silence. It was intended to honor the first responders who risked their lives to save countless lives, as well as the the nearly 3,000 victims who died and those who were injured as a result of the terrorist attacks carried out that day.

But outspoken board member Abrar Omeish, who has previously sparked outrage for alleged anti-Semitic comments and encouraging high schoolers to remember 'jihad', voted against the resolution, saying it was not 'anti-racist' and failed to address 'state-sponsored traumas.'

'I vote against this today, because our omission of these realities causes harm. We're levitating a traumatic event without sufficient cultural competence,' she said.

'The token phrasing around 9/11 is 'Never Forget.' As a nation we remember a jarring event, no doubt, but we chose to forget, as this resolution does, the fear, the ostracization, and the collective blame felt by Arab Americans, American Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus and all brown or other individuals that have been mistaken for Muslims since that day over the past two decades.' she added.

'Why are we forgetting the experience of these families, their traumas?' Omeish asked.

She later added: 'I hope we can include these components in our broader anti-racist, [and] anti-bias work.

He speech saw a rebuke issued by fellow board member Dr Ricardy Anderson, who accused Omeish of trying to derail a motion that had previously been discussed.

And while Omeish voted against the motion, it was ultimately passed thanks to votes from all other members of the board.

It also sparked fury with a parent in attendance.

'I'd expect that no parent can speak up to this, we are restricted about how..' she said before she was interrupted by board member Stella Pekarsky who asked her to 'please sit down and stay quiet.'

Omeish's comments even led to a call from a local paper to censure and remove her from the school board.

'As Fairfax County School Board Members, you must immediately issue a public statement separating yourselves from the hateful and callous rhetoric of your colleague and hold Ms. Omeish accountable for her words and actions, once and for all,' the Fairfax County Times said in an op-ed.

On Saturday, it emerged that 16 local education groups have also signed a letter addressed to the paper calling on Omeish to quit.

Omeish, who is the sole Muslim member on the Virginia school board, is no stranger to controversy.

This summer she called on graduating high school students to remember 'jihad' at their commencement as she warned they were entering a world of, 'racism, extreme versions of individualism and capitalism, [and] white supremacy.'

In English, she told them that: 'The world sees the accolade, the diploma, the fruit of all your years yet be reminded of the detail of your struggle.'

But when she repeated the speech in Arabic, she told students to remember their 'jihad' - a word meaning both 'struggle' and, specifically, holy war waged on behalf of Islam.

Omeish, who was 24 when she won her place on the board in November 2019, making her one of Virginia's youngest elected officials, has touted various progressive initiatives at the school.

She has promoted a Black History Month assembly that ensured, she said, 'that we confront our history and answer honestly about the ills of our past.'

Others included the school's first-time recognition of Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this year, and the school's Equity Club, which she said had become a standard in the Fairfax School District.

Fairfax itself has hit the headlines amid clashes over the teaching of critical race theory, with parents including Nomani also claiming that the school is dumbing down its curriculum in a bit to achieve equity - equality of outcomes - for student

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10005417/Scandal-hit-Virginia-school-board-faces-calls-ditch-member-blasted-9-11-moment-silence.html

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96 Percent of Kentucky School Boards Vote to Retain Mask Mandates

The vast majority of Kentucky school boards voted in favor of maintaining masks requirements in schools, according to the Kentucky School Boards Association.

Out of the state's 171 public school districts, 165, or 96 percent, announced that mask requirements will be enforced.

Kentucky's school mask mandate expires Friday under recently-enacted legislation, which was passed earlier this month during a special legislative session.

Senate Bill 1, which became law Sept. 9, reversed the Kentucky Board of Education’s mask requirement for public schools, instead leaving the decision on mask mandates up to individual districts. The bill also bars the state from implementing mask mandates in schools until June 2023.

The GOP-controlled legislature voted to pass the bill earlier this month before Gov. Andy Beshear (D) vetoed the aspects that prevented mask mandates. However, the veto was quickly overridden after a vote from the legislature. The part of the bill that eliminates the statewide mask mandate took effect Friday, according to the Kentucky School Board Association's website.

This comes as the governor reported 5,133 new COVID-19 cases and 45 new deaths in the state on Friday.

He also said that 24 children are in the hospital with the coronavirus.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/landonmion/2021/09/17/96-percent-of-kentucky-school-boards-vote-to-retain-mask-mandates-n2596101

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Endless: More Universities Impose Ludicrous COVID Restrictions on Vaccinated Students

We told you a few weeks ago about a battle at Amherst College over heavy-handed, anti-science restrictions imposed on a nearly universally-vaccinated community. Among other things, the school closed dining halls and severely limited students' freedom of movement, including going into town. Mask mandates remained in place for all, regardless of vaccination status.

We noted that Duke University also decided to force vaccinated members of its community to wear masks, even at outdoor events. Duke appears to have relaxed their rules a bit, but not much, while the status quo at Amherst is unclear (the administration had pledged to start phasing out certain components of their lockdown this week).

Other institutions of higher learning are evidently getting in on the action, including a host of prestigious schools. Here's Cornell's COVID dashboard, informing students that things are going well, with cases in the 'green zone,' but they still must wear masks, even if vaccinated -- and the microscopic percentage of unvaccinated students should also mask up outdoors in some circumstances, despite overwhelming data showing outdoor transmission to be virtually nonexistent:

This Ivy League school literally calls its policy the "new normal," which is disturbing. This is not science, and it's not a reasonable or sustainable endgame. Demanding indefinite masking for fully-vaccinated young people, who were already overwhelmingly unlikely to suffer serious COVID cases or death, is lunacy. It's elite neurosis and COVID 'safety' theater run amok. Let's check in at Georgetown:

No water drinking. This is just nuts, as are school districts evidently paying money for elaborate and useless safety theater measures like this. Of course a powerful Democratic union is in on this embarrassing scheme:

The Atlantic's Derek Thompson, who has written extensively about the absurdity of institutions clinging to anti-scientific practices even after they've been exposed as pointless, snarks: "There is no question that if COVID were transmitted via cobwebs on the ceiling, this would be an amazing way to fight the virus."

Meanwhile, as New York State reinstates a universal mask requirement that includes two-year-olds (for crying out loud), a mother is alleging that she and her son were kicked off an American Airlines flight because she couldn't keep a mask on the young boy -- who is asthmatic and was struggling to breathe. He's two:

The mother of an asthmatic two-year-old has slammed the “truly evil, power-tripping” attendant who removed her family from an American Airlines flight over mask compliance. Amanda Pendarvis and her young son, Waylon, were travelling from Dallas to Colorado on Monday when the flight attendant noticed the child was having trouble keeping his mask on. “He got on the intercom and to say to the entire plane, ‘I’m sorry for the delay but we are dealing with a non-compliant traveller,” Ms Pendarvis said of the encounter. “I was not refusing a mask, nor did I even say I wouldn’t try to keep a mask on my son. We were escorted off the plane as I was holding a mask over his little face. I genuinely don’t have words.”

Absolute, anti-science, officious madness. I'll leave you with this:

She's unmasked indoors, then emerges in a 'tax the rich' dress (worn to a veritable festival of wealth, which serves as a massive tax write-off for extremely wealthy people), with her gown being held up by the masked help. Play the videos of AOC, and the masked asthmatic toddler getting booted of a flight, back to back, then ask yourself what the hell we're doing as a society

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2021/09/17/endless-more-fully-vaccinated-universities-impose-insane-covid-restrictions-on-students-n2595995

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