I remember how it was -- JR
UK: Fury over Oxford University plan to hire academics based on how woke they are
Oxford dons are furious that a candidate’s “woke score” could be part of the criteria for hiring academics, under new proposals aimed at boosting staff diversity.
The university’s race equality task force has published a series of recommendations aimed at increasing the number of people it hires from ethnic minority backgrounds.
In a consultation document, seen by The Telegraph, the task force said it was “important to embed EDI” - which stands for equality, diversity and inclusion - into “all recruitment”.
They went on to recommend that “good citizenship and/or commitment to EDI work” should be an “essential criteria” for applicants in all reward and recognition processes.
This proposal has prompted a backlash from Oxford dons, who fear this would mean they have to give researchers a “woke score” when they apply for a job.
“One of the big issues that may well upset dons is that EDI is meant to be embedded as a criteria when making academic appointments,” a senior don said.
"If we are supposed to pay attention to their EDI - their woke score - does this mean it doesn't matter if they are useless at teaching and research? Or do you now have to get a minimum woke score to get a job?”
The academic explained one of the questions that was suggested as a way to “tease out” a candidate’s views on diversity was: “Can you give me examples on how you have called out these kinds of issues in your previous appointment?”
He said: “So you are being interviewed for a job in alchemy, yet you have to go out your way to show you have tried to virtue signal - to an old codger like me it just seems crazy. Do you mark someone down because they haven’t jumped on the woke bandwagon?”
Staff and students asked how to increase diversity
The document also says that a “centrally funded pool of trained EDI observers” should be set up to “provide support” to recruitment panels on request.
The task force which published the consultation is co-chaired by Anne Trefethen and Martin Williams, two of the university’s pro vice-Chancellors, as well as Prof Patricia Daley, an expert in the human geography of Africa.
Students and staff have been invited to submit their responses to the consultation by Wednesday. The task force will then draw up a university-wide strategy on equality and diversity which they will need to submit to Council - Oxford’s governing body - for approval before it can become official university policy.
The document also includes a series of recommendations about how to increase the diversity of its student body.
This includes funding a programme of inclusive teaching, curriculum diversification and decolonising activities” across university departments and faculties.
It also says the university should come up with a strategy on how to raise awareness about and reduce the incidence of “microaggressions”.
This could include “encouraging individuals to educate themselves on the experiences of others and empowering everyone to become active bystanders when they witness harassment or abuse”.
The document also recommends that a programme of training and awareness activities should be rolled out that “go beyond online training”.
The training would be aimed at ensuring students and academics “continuously learn and better understand microaggressions and stereotypes”.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/17/fury-oxford-university-plan-hire-academics-based-woke/
*********************************************Schools Across US Tighten Security, Increase Police Presence After TikTok Shooting Threats
School officials and authorities across the United States said they were amping up security on Thursday after threats were made on TikTok and other social media suggesting that shootings would take place on Dec. 17.
It is unclear where the anonymous and vague school threat first originated from but the posts warn of shootings and bomb threats at schools around the country on Friday.
Authorities have said they have received no evidence suggesting that the posts were credible but school officials across states including Arizona, Washington, Connecticut, Illinois, Montana, New York, and Pennsylvania said they have amped up security across education facilities as a precautionary measure.
The Naugatuck Police Department in Connecticut issued a statement telling parents they would increase their presence and patrols at Borough Schools in the “coming days” due to an “uptick in unrelated threats at schools in the region.”
“While there has been NO threat against Naugatuck Schools, students, or staff, the public can anticipate our presence to increase the community’s sense of safety during the coming school days,” police said.
Police in Seattle said they have opened investigations into threats at two schools, “which led to the closure of one high school campus,” per a statement issued Wednesday.
“This morning, police received calls from Seattle Public Schools staff, reporting a social media threat involving students at Franklin High School and a potential threat at Rainier Beach High School,” police said. “The nature of the specific threat at Franklin led school officials to close the campus for the day.”
“Rainier Beach did not receive any specific threats and continued the school day sheltered in place,” officials added. “The Seattle Police Department is working closely with Seattle Public Schools to address campus safety and will provide additional patrols as needed.”
In Arizona, the Scottsdale Unified School District, in a letter to parents, said the threats appear to be “generic and are being posted nationwide” but noted that there would be an increased police presence on and around its on Thursday and Friday.
In New York, Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol said area schools will have an increased police presence Friday, Syracuse reported.
Elsewhere, Michigan’s Charlton Police Department issued a statement Thursday saying it’s “aware of a Snap Chat message about a threat to Charlton Middle School” and the agency is “actively working with other agencies and the school.”
“We believe this threat may be related to [a] Tik Tok challenge and not a credible threat. We have patrols concentrated in certain areas as a precaution,” officials said.
According to the Baltimore Public School District, law enforcement agencies investigated the threat “and determined that it originated in Arizona and is not credible.
“BCPS has been made aware of an anonymous threat posted on TikTok targeting all schools in the United States. The post alleges that there are planned school shootings that will take place on Friday, December 17,” the school district wrote on Twitter.
“Law enforcement agencies have investigated this threat and determined that it originated in Arizona and is not credible. We want to continue to encourage members of Team BCPS to report suspicious or threatening activities or postings,” they added.
TikTok in a statement Thursday said, “We handle even rumored threats with utmost seriousness, which is why we’re working with law enforcement to look into warnings about potential violence at schools even though we have not found evidence of such threats originating or spreading via TikTok.”
Under U.S. law, internet companies such as TikTok are generally exempt from liability for the material users post on their networks, owing to a provision in Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act
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Parents Erupt at California School Board Meeting Over Alleged ‘Coaching’ of Students Into LGBTQ Club
A mixed crowd of more than 150 people packed a school board meeting in Salinas, Calif., on Dec. 15 as frustrated parents clashed with supporters of two teachers accused of subverting parents and recruiting middle school students into a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club.
Jessica Konen, one of about 30 people who spoke during an extended public comment period, told the board that school staff indoctrinated her child and usurped her parental authority.
Konen blasted the board and accused teachers and staff of coaching her gender dysphoric daughter through the Equality Club, an LGBTQ+ support group now called the You Be You (UBU) Club at Buena Vista Middle School.
“I stand here today in front of all of you because I am outraged. Is this really barely coming to light? Are you guys serious?” she said. “How could you even allow this? How could you even have this meeting to question it? How dare you let these teachers come in and act as if they have done nothing wrong? A mistake? How long of a mistake?”
Konen went public with her story after controversy erupted over an audio recording leaked to “Irreversible Damage” author Abigail Shrier and The Epoch Times that revealed two teachers at a California Teachers Association (CTA) conference dismissing parents’ concerns about homosexual and transgender indoctrination at school.
The two seventh-grade teachers from Buena Vista Middle School in Salinas, Calif., were recorded coaching other teachers how to hide the nature of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, or Questioning (LGBTQ+) Clubs, also known as GSA clubs, from parents. They led a workshop called “How we run a ‘GSA’ in Conservative Communities” at the CTA’s “2021 LGBTQ+ Issues Conference, Beyond the Binary: Identity & Imagining Possibilities” in Palm Springs, Calif., from Oct. 29 to 31.
Spreckels Union School District (SUSD) has since suspended the teachers with pay pending the outcome of an independent third-party investigation.
At the Dec. 15 Spreckels Union School District (SUSD) meeting, Konen accused Buena Vista Middle School staff of failing to tell her that her child might be having suicidal thoughts based on internet searches, while some school staff allegedly knew about them.
“They didn’t tell me that my child was suicidal,” she said. “You allow these teachers to open their classrooms, teaching predatorial information to a young child, a mindful child that doesn’t even know how to comprehend it all. How do you not know what’s going on your own campuses? Did you think that no parent would ever come forward? You will not quiet me today. I will stand here today and protect my child along with every other child who has not come forward yet.”
“Do they have psychiatry degrees that I was unaware of, because I didn’t hire them? I did not hire them to sit there and nitpick my child’s brain. You took away my ability to parent my child,” Konen added.
She accused Buena Vista Middle School teachers and administrators of contributing to her daughter’s gender confusion.
“You planted seeds,” she said. “Your job was to educate my child in math, science, English, etc. Do your job and let me do mine!”
Parents cheered and applauded her speech.
Preceding Konen’s comments, her father, Gunter Konen, told the board he was infuriated when he found out how Konen and his granddaughter had been treated. He said his granddaughter was a straight-A student before she was “coached” by staff on gender issues.
“She’s the one that’s confused, because she was coached,” he said.
“[Child Protective Services] was called on my daughter because she went to school to have a discussion with the teacher for hiding the fact that [her daughter] was given a new name—a boy’s name,” he said.
Suggesting to a girl that she may be a boy or to a boy he may be a girl is wrong, he said.
“That’s just vile nonsense,” he said.
“I think education needs to be grounded on truth,” Gunter Konen said. “I just feel that our kids are impressionable at that age, and we should keep the parents informed. I say resign or repent.”
Cheryl Duffus, a parent of two boys who attended Buena Vista Middle School said she has complained to administration multiple times about how one of the teachers had taken pushed LGBTQ activism to “unacceptable” levels.
“On one occasion, I picked my youngest one up from school during an all-school assembly, where he and other students were supposed to walk under a rainbow arch in the inner court to support the club. This was an all-school event, not just for members of the GSA club,” Duffus said.
After the incident, the principal assured Duffus he would talk to one of the teachers about the activism and ask her to “tone it down.”
Duffus said four other parents made similar complaints to Tarallo the same year: 2015.
“This issue is not about a GSA club on campus. It has nothing to do with that. This issue is about deceiving parents, stalking children, and these are children. They’re 12 years old,” she said.
What happened to Jessica Konen and her family was “horrific,” she said.
Trustee Michael Scott said he supports the decision to conduct a third-party investigation surrounding the UBU Club in light of the leaked audio.
However, he accused Shrier of framing what’s happening with transgender youth “in terms of a war.”
“We are not at war here. Everyone loses in a war,” Scott said. “War is completely contrary to our core values of compassion, kindness, and respect. I believe we should do everything we can to support and be inclusive,” Scott said.
“I am hopeful the third-party investigation will provide a clearer picture of the circumstances surrounding the UBU Club,” he said.
Any subsequent action should be responsive to the values, beliefs, and priorities of the community which are to be inclusive and “social emotionally” supportive.
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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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