I remember how it was -- JR
Sunday, January 16, 2022
Illinois School Districts Supports “After School Satan Club” Meeting In Elementary Schools
Leaders of the Satanic Temple gathered in a crimson-walled living room of a Victorian manse in Salem-Mass renowned for its witch trials making discussing plans for an after-school program in the nation’s public elementary schools.
The group argues that Christian evangelical groups have already infiltrated the lives of America’s children through after-school religious programming in public schools, and they are determined to give children a choice: Jesus or Satan.
“It’s critical that children understand that there are multiple perspectives on all issues and that they have a choice in how they think,” said Doug Mesner, the Satanic Temple’s co-founder.
The group is scheduled to introduce its After School Satan Club to public elementary schools Monday, including one in Prince George’s County.
One Illinois school district confirmed that it has made the decision to allow the “After School Satan Club” to take place at Jane Addams Elementary School.
A copy of a flyer promoting the club, which is aimed at first through fifth graders, has been made available to students in the lobby of elementary schools, though the district claims it does not distribute them.
According to the flyer, the club will meet on Jan. 13, Feb. 10, March 10, April 14, and May 12 at Jane Addams Elementary.
Chapter heads from New York, Boston, Utah, and Arizona along with others from Minneapolis, Detroit, San Jose, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and Florida participating online, were in Salem Monday to discuss plans for promoting the club.
The Satanic Temple is bringing its fight over the constitutional separation of church and state to the nation’s schools.
According to Mesner, who goes by the professional name of Lucien Greaves, “Satan” is just a “metaphorical construct” intended to represent the rejection of all forms of tyranny over the human mind.
The curriculum for the proposed after-school clubs allegedly focuses on the development of reasoning and social skills. The group says meetings will include a healthful snack, literature lesson, creative learning activities, a science lesson, puzzle-solving, and an art project. Every child will receive a membership card and is required to have a signed parental permission slip to attend.
“We think it’s important for kids to be able to see multiple points of view, to reason things through, to have empathy and feelings of benevolence for their fellow human beings,” said the Satanic Temple’s Utah chapter head, who goes by the name Chalice Blythe.)
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University of Kentucky Student Publications resumes in-person classes as omicron cases rise
The new year brings new challenges for UK, and the omicron COVID-19 variant has become one of the most relevant. The university has implemented further actions to prevent the spread across campus.
UK has purchased two KN95 masks for each individual coming to the main campus and is in the process of purchasing more, according to a campus-wide email from president Eli Capilouto on Jan. 7.
These masks are being handed out at wellness huts, in dorms during move-ins and in other various locations on campus.
During Jewell Hall move-in, KN95 masks were found piled up on elevator floors and miscellaneous hallways just two days into the new semester, residential advisor Aza Appelman said.
Jewell Hall residential advisors have to ask many of their residents to put on a mask when going through the lobby and hallways where many often pull them out of their pocket after being told to do so, Appelman said.
“A good majority follow the mask policy with little complaining, but many blatantly refuse to wear their masks, or they put them on when authoritative figures are around only to rip them off when they get into an elevator or onto a different floor,” Appelman said.
Alongside enforcing the mask mandate, the university is recommending students be vaccinated, receive the booster shot as well as the flu shot and to be “constantly” tested if not vaccinated, according to UK spokesperson Jay Blanton.
“Now, we're really going to push for boosters because we know those are particularly effective against this current strain omicron, which appears to be much more highly transmissible but also appears to be less severe,” Blanton said.
UK will implement a booster incentive program around Feb. 1 similar to the earlier one for COVID-19 vaccinations but with cash prizes, Blanton said.
“I think booster incentives are great,” UK sophomore Ella Zombolo said. “As a person who wasn’t going to get the booster, it does lean me into the ways of getting it for all of the great prizes that are available.”
Also wary about receiving their booster, Appelman is planning on getting theirs later into the semester due to the incentive program and overall concern for others’ health and safety.
UK sophomore Thomas Francisco received his booster upon his arrival for the spring semester due to the many people he knows who have tested positive, but he also had other ideas to minimize the spread.
“I feel like a week or two of semi-isolation and online classes could be a slightly better response on the university’s part, but I’m really pretty indifferent about it because isolation means my mental health will likely take a hit,” Francisco said.
Appelman also expresses similar opinions with the ideas of an initial delay and isolation.
“I think delaying in-person classes by two weeks would be extremely beneficial,” Appelman said. “Going ahead and starting back in-person when we don’t absolutely have to seem unjustified.”
Nonetheless, relying heavily on vaccination rates, Capilouto is pushing forward with in-person education and as much normalcy as possible.
Most recent numbers show that the UK community is 90.8% vaccinated — students at 87.8% and faculty at 96.7% — according to the email.
Capilouto’s email also said “we [university staff and faculty] are here to educate students” and acknowledged that students perform better academically and socially when on campus and in-person.
“I am definitely a little scared [and] concerned to go back to in-person classes right now with what’s going on, but I’m also a little relieved,” Francisco said. “I don’t think I can mentally handle the isolation that would come from moving all classes online.”
Blanton said mental health issues such as those from students who are feeling isolated and disconnected are trying to be prevented and helped
“I would definitely rather be at school and in-person for mental health reasons, but only if it’s safe,” Appelman said. “For me personally, even being allowed to stay on campus but have online classes sounds nicer than just being sent home.”
Zombolo also said she’s ready to be back and attend her new classes where she can see her fellow friends across campus in midst of the pandemic.
“I think UK is taking the right procedures in order to have the university be in-person,” Zombolo said. “They care about their students and their education, and it shows that they do by having us come back to campus.”
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Covid-19: Australian kids are not all right
As schooling systems struggle to manage head-spinning changes to Covid-19 rules, many parents are despairing over possible delays to classrooms reopening. Already Queensland has postponed the start of term one for a fortnight, and South Australia is staggering the return to school for various year levels.
Open-air classrooms on verandas or under trees, air filters, rapid testing and hybrid models of classrooms and remote learning are the most likely scenarios as education departments rush to rewrite the school rules to deal with the wildfire Omicron outbreak.
Despite the eagerness to resume children’s education, many families are reluctant to send kids to school at the peak of a pandemic they have been conditioned to fear.
The Parenthood, an advocacy group for Australian parents, says the changing rules are confusing and distressing for families.
“Parents are unsure of what to do and children are asking lots of questions,’’ The Parenthood executive director Georgie Dent tells Inquirer.
“Many parents are really concerned about children being back in the classroom at the peak of the outbreak, while others are concerned about the mental health impact and do want their kids go back to school.
“Before Christmas hundreds of cases in a single day were of really serious concern and now we’ve ballooned to 100,000 cases a day and (politicians) are saying that’s OK – that’s a really big leap.’’
Teachers, burnt out by two years of on-off remote teaching, are threatening classroom boycotts unless governments do more to protect them in their workplace.
Scott Morrison invoked the wrath of teacher unions when he revealed on Thursday that national cabinet had exempted teachers and childcare workers from close contact isolation requirements.
Promising a more detailed back-to-school plan next week, he hinted that teachers would be given access to free rapid antigen (RAT) tests for regular surveillance testing of Covid-19.
Morrison warned that school closures would worsen the 10 per cent workforce absenteeism rate to 15 per cent, as parents would be forced to stay home to look after children.
“Schools open means shops open,’’ Morrison declared after the national cabinet meeting. “Schools open means hospitals are open. It means aged-care facilities are open. It means essential services and groceries are on the shelves.
“Childcare and schools are essential and should be the first to open and last to close where possible.’’
With 500 childcare centres closed this week due to Omicron outbreaks, the prognosis looks bleak for a seamless return to school at the end of the month. Only 6 per cent of primary school students have had their first dose of Covid-19 vaccines, although 75 per cent of high school students are double-jabbed.
Australian Education Union (AEU) president Correna Haythorpe is furious that teachers are being treated like “babysitters’’ so other parents can go to work.
“The vast majority of children will not be vaccinated for the return to school and that is of deep concern to our members because Omicron is highly transmissible,’’ she tells Inquirer.
“A two-week delay may not be long enough, and some states may have to shift to remote learning.’’
The union is urging teachers to stay home if they don’t feel safe working in classrooms.
“We will be saying to members that if you feel unsafe or uncertain or worried you are potentially putting other people at risk, you should not be going into a school environment,’’ she says.
“You should still be paid. If you are a close contact but not ill, you can work remotely. It’s not industrial action – members have sick leave and so on they can access.’’
The union’s advice flies in the face of national cabinet’s decision to lump teachers in with other essential workers who can continue working even if a household member is sick with Covid-19, provided they have no symptoms and a negative test.
Haythorpe says teachers should have access to free rapid tests, which are now even harder to find than masks were at the start of the pandemic.
“Teachers have worked so hard to provide education, whether remote or face-to-face, to put the students first,’’ she says.
“To be told the reason schools need to be open is for workforce considerations, rather than prioritising the education of our young people safely, is deeply offensive.
“You can’t on the one hand say teachers are essential and must go to work, and on the other hand not provide them with the essential tools that are needed to ensure their safety and the safety of students in their care.’’
National cabinet is working on the fine details of a back-to-school operational plan to cover potential school closures, infection control, mask wearing and surveillance testing for Covid-19.
Under the plan, schools and childcare centres are deemed to be essential “and should be the first to open and the last to close wherever possible in outbreak situations, with face-to-face learning prioritised’’.
State leaders have agreed that “no vulnerable child or child of an essential worker is turned away’’ from classrooms, implying that even if schools shut down, a skeleton teaching staff will be required to supervise children onsite.
As always, the states are going their own way: Victoria and NSW are adamant that schools will open on schedule but Queensland has postponed term one by two weeks, with Year 11 and 12 students starting remote learning a week before other kids head back to class.
South Australia is staggering return dates for different year levels, and is “looking closely’’ at the use of air purifiers in schools as it works to improve natural ventilation in classrooms.
A NSW Education spokesperson says that schools will be “made Covid-19 safe through a combination of physical distancing, mask wearing, strict hygiene practices and frequent cleaning of schools’.’ Rapid antigen test kits will also be used.
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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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