I remember how it was -- JR
Saturday, January 01, 2022
Schools are Now Vaccinating Children without Their Parents’ Consent
Schools in blue states are making it clear to parents that they will use every dirty trick at their disposal to vaccinate children — with or without explicit parental consent.
Dr. Aaron Kheriarty, who is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, shared the harrowing news on Twitter.
“LA Unified School District is vaccinating children without parental consent,” Kheriarty said. “They send your kid home with a form, and when the kid comes back to school—whether or not the form is signed—they consider the child’s presence at school ‘consent’.”
“This is a gross abuse and a violation of state law and basic principles of medical ethics, disproportionately impacting ethnic minorities,” he added. “School authorities who are pulling these stunts are now on notice. The public is aware.”
One example the doctor citized comes from the LAUSD. She says that her kid was vaccinated without her consent in exchange for pizza.
“Maribel Duarte says her 13-year-old son, a student at the Barack Obama Global Prep Academy in South LA, brought home a vaccine card after having accepted the COVID-19 vaccine at school,” NBC 4 reported.
“She says he said yes when someone offered it in exchange for pizza,” the woman said.
“The lady that gave him the shot and signed the paper told my son, ‘Please don’t say anything. I don’t want to get in trouble,'” the report continued.
“The LAUSD says student matters are confidential and wouldn’t comment specifically, but did say its ‘safe schools to safe steps incentive program’ is meant to ensure several steps are in place for vaccinated students to receive prizes,” the report added. “Duarte says she’s not against the vaccine. She’s vaccinated herself, but it’s different with her son.”
“He has problems with asthma and allergy problems,” she said.
The NBC report adds that Jennifer Kennedy, an attorney who is following closely the two cases against the LAUSD over the vaccine mandate, said the problem is that kids in California can’t consent to vaccination. Both are ultimately seeking an end to the mandate, it noted.
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UK: Education secretary to work with staffing agencies to fill teacher absences due to Covid
The Secretary of State for Education will be working with education recruiters to help schools fill high teacher absences in the continuing Covid pandemic.
Education secretary Nawhid Zahawi has promised to work with educators and teacher supply agencies over the coming days to boost supply staff to schools and colleges to deal with the issues of teachers staying off due to Covid-19.
In a letter to educators, schools staff and parents on the Education Hub website, Zawahi has called for retired teachers to join the supply staff workforce, and has said the government will help them to register with supply agencies as “the best way” to boost the temporary workforce available to the sector.
“We want to make sure that as many supply staff as possible are available to schools and colleges,” Zahawi said. “That is why we are now looking at what steps and measures we can put in place to boost supply capacity.
“Senior DfE [Department for Education] officials have already begun to discuss this with key stakeholders,” he said.
Headteachers' unions have warned of possible disruption to in-person lessons in the new year if the Omicron variant leads to even higher staff absences.
Commenting on the call for retired teachers to return to school in order to ease Covid-19 pressures, Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Of course, we support measures that could help to reduce education disruption. With this call for retired teachers to come forward the government is admitting they are assuming there will be substantial disruption of education in January.”
Courtney went on to say: “We are also extremely concerned about the proposal to recruit these retired staff through teacher supply agencies which rake off scarce funds from schools to maximise their profits whilst minimising the pay they offer supply teachers. That is not the right way to behave in response to a national call to arms.
“Northern Ireland and Scotland have much better systems for employment of supply staff and these could be stood up quickly in England if there were sufficient political will. Local authorities are well placed to scale up or create pools of supply.”
Latest DfE figures show 2.4% of teachers and school leaders, around 13,000 people, were absent from schools in England due to Covid-related reasons on 9 December.
School leaders and academy chain chiefs are preparing for the possibility of having to switch to online learning next term – and some pupils have been asked to take laptops home before Christmas just in case.
Latest DfE figures show 2.4% of teachers and school leaders are absent through Covid.
The DfE has also announced it will be extending its workforce fund for schools and colleges facing the greatest staffing and funding challenges amid Covid-19 to the February half-term.
But education unions and Labour have warned that the government’s actions are “unlikely” to be enough to solve the problem with staff shortages.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “This is all coming very late in the day for a situation which is already critical and has been so for some time, and the initiative will need to be well publicised, promoted and supported in order to have any degree of success.
“It is also important to emphasise that even then it is very unlikely to be enough to solve a problem at such a scale as this, and the government does need to do much more in terms of supporting control measures, such as testing and ventilation, in order to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “There is no doubt that there has been a shortage of supply staff available in recent months. This has placed an added pressure on schools and it looks like things are about to get worse rather than better.
“Of course, given the current situation, it would be helpful if there were more suitably qualified teachers available with recent relevant experience and with the appropriate safeguarding checks.
“However, this proposal does raise a whole host of important questions that will need answering urgently. Ultimately, it must remain the case that school leaders decide who has the appropriate expertise and qualifications to teach classes in their schools. Having a greater number of supply teachers to call upon could be helpful, but it will not take away from the very challenging circumstances schools could find themselves operating under.
“We also need to be very clear that if things get to this stage, it will mean that education will look very different in January and this is sending a clear signal that we could be talking about a very different type of provision at the start of next year. That has huge implications for things like exams, assessment and inspection.”
Stephen Morgan MP, Labour’s shadow schools minister, said: “This is a sticking plaster, and only part of what’s needed to keep children and staff safely in class next term.
“The government’s failure to get a proper workforce plan in place leaves staff, children and parents relying on good will from retired staff and volunteers, many of whom face additional risks themselves.
“Ministers continue to fall short on delivering basic covid protections in schools. They should adopt Labour’s Christmas vaccine guarantee to ensure all eligible children can get their jab during the holidays. Government must also implement proper ventilation measures in schools, open windows and cold classrooms aren’t good enough for our children.”
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Biden's Education Secretary says children SHOULD be back in the classroom full-time and insists White House is trying to guarantee tests for students as cities including D.C. require proof they are negative
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona is calling on schools to maintain in-person learning, as millions of U.S. school children prepare to return to classes after holiday breaks amid the spread of the omicron variant.
Cardona said students should be in the classroom 'every day' when possible – as some schools sent students home early before Christmas amid the spike of coronavirus infections. Some schools have announced temporary returns to 'virtual' learning amid the outbreak. Many are hurrying to implement new testing policies.
'If you are fully staffed to provide a safe school environment, students should be in the classroom full time every day. We've done this before and we did it before vaccines were available. If you recall, we reopened schools this year, right at the height of the Delta variant,' he told ABC's 'Good Morning America.'
He was responding to a question about whether schools should consider going back to remote classes or delaying the start of in-person school.
Cardona pointed to the availability of vaccines and mitigation strategies – as well as a growing body of research on the learning loss associated with keeping students away from school.
'We know what works we know mitigation strategies work. Now we have access to vaccines for children as young as five. We know what to do. And let's remember our students suffer when they're not in the classroom,' he said.
'We need to do everything in our power to provide in person learning options to students as soon as possible and making sure that we have the resources that are available [through] the American rescue plan being used to fully staff our schools provide testing protocols, mitigation strategies, so that our students stay in the classroom.'
Cardona spoke as the nation recorded 489,267 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday amid the rapid rise of the omicron variant – the most of any country in the world.
A number of school systems are rushing to impose new covid testing requirements as they prepare for students to return from holiday breaks.
Washington, D.C. extended its winter break by two days to allow for distribution of tests, and Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that students must test negative before returning to school.
New York and California are among the states sending millions of rapid test kits to schools, amid a nationwide shortage.
Prince George's County, Maryland announced in mid-December that it was switching to remote learning through mid-January amid a spike in cases.
Cardona didn't respond direction when asked if he could 'guarantee' that any school or district that wanted tests could get them. He instead pointed to the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which included funds for covid relief.
'Since the American rescue plan was passed in March, money was made available, $10 billion, for testing, in schools and districts across the country have been engaged in setting up testing protocols going as far back as March. So the testing supply that schools are using is different than what you might see happening at CVS or Walgreens where folks are looking for tests,' he said.
'We've also partnered with Rockefeller Foundation, who are working to get school systems set up for testing. Some of the guidance that we put out last week shows examples of that and provides resources for districts that are interested in getting those systems set up to move on that,' he said.
Cardona said he was 'pleased' with new Centers for Disease Control guidelines shortening quarantine and isolation periods, as the requirements sidelined teachers, just like they have other essential workers.
'I'm really pleased with this because to me, what this is going to do is allow for some of the staffing issues to go away,' he said. 'We know that many schools couldn't open because teachers or educators were in quarantine. The fact that it's shortened now allows for educators to get back to the classroom and our students to have schools open.'
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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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