This and That, May 8, 2021
A national news roundup of public education stories.
First up, Proposed Texas Law Wants to Make School Children "Battlefield" Ready" - this from Parents Magazine:
A new bill introduced in Texas would require public and open-enrollment charter schools to install "bleeding stations" and train kids in trauma care methods developed by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and the Department of Homeland Security. This type of trauma care is intended to be used by trained professionals to prevent or stop perilous blood loss. It also includes using "battlefield trauma" tools such as tourniquets, chest seals, and compression bandages.
Meanwhile over on Twitter, actual ER doctors are saying no way. Especially given the horrific wounds that come from an AR 15. For example, a witness on the scene in the Allen, Texas shooting said he ran to help and turned over a little girl whose face was gone.
If we are at this time and place in this country where we think this is helping, we are failing.
Next, Their District Banned "Let's Go Brandon Shirts. Now Students are Suing - this from Education Week. I love a good court case so let's go see what it's about.
A school district’s prohibition on shirts and hoodies with the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon!”—a well-understood message in opposition to President Joe Biden—is the latest in a long line of legal battles over student apparel. But it is one that may provide schools with some guidance in an increasingly partisan age.
The slogan originated at a 2021 NASCAR race in Talladega, Ala., when the crowd chanted “F--- Joe Biden” as the race’s winner, Brandon Brown, was being interviewed on TV, and a host remarked on what she thought was being chanted: “Let’s go, Brandon!”
“The district prohibits clothing or styles of expression that are vulgar or profane,” the district’s lawyers said in a letter to a group representing students who were told they could not wear apparel with the slogan. “The commonly known meaning of the slogan ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ is intended to ridicule the president with profanity.”
“That pluralistic democracy is made possible by the First Amendment, which protects our right to speak our minds without government punishment” and bars “viewpoint discrimination against public school students,” says the suit, D.A. v. Tri County Area Schools, filed in federal district court in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Well, if it's the First Amendment, then all the school district prohibitions about curse words, sexism, drug use, etc. just go out the window because all of that could be called free speech. And, in this case, these kids know EXACTLY what the term means - it's not innocuous. Districts need to prove that there was "risk of disruption" and that doesn't seem to be the case here. More like, "kids, have some manners in public places like schools."
Next, From Campus Rape Cases to Child Abuse Cases Report, Worst Case Data Breach Rocks Minneapolis Public Schools - From The 74:
Their drawn-out response is revealed in a trove of highly sensitive Minneapolis Public Schools records that are now readily available online — tens of thousands of leaked documents purportedly stolen from the Minneapolis district and posted by a money-crazed ransomware gang in March. The leaked files — more than 189,000 in total — offer raw accounts of rape allegations, child abuse reports and student mental health crises.
The records were uncovered in my latest investigation into the ransomware attack on Minneapolis schools — in what the district called an "encryption event" and one expert described as "heartbreaking and extraordinary." The files, which can be found through a Google search, offer a particularly vast collection of sensitive information about students and employees who are now vulnerable to abuse.
They also provide rare insight into the district’s civil rights investigation process for sexual assault and racial discrimination complaints, and detailed information on campus security and other district operations that many school systems seek to keep under wraps.
One of the masked teens pointed a gun at the boy and pulled the trigger three times.
Multiple sources confirm the bus' onboard video system recorded the whole attack, including a point-blank attempt to shoot the middle schooler in the head.
When the gun didn't fire after three tries, the attackers physically beat the 14-year-old boy. When the attackers ran off, the driver moved the bus to a safe area.
The head of the drivers' union wants more security. He said the driver and aide thought they were going to be killed.
And folks, this story illustrates why I would like to see more parents who are gun owners held responsible for not securing their guns in their homes. Those boys didn't get the gun out of a garbage can.
What is fascinating about how gun issues are playing out in the U.S., we see the GOP supporting a lower age for gun ownership but higher ages for voting. Hmmm.
Next, Walkout 2 Learn: Florida Students Walk Out of School to Protest DeSantis Education Policies - this from Teen Vogue:
Florida’s Republican-led state legislature and governor have passed multiple pieces of legislation that censor conversations in the classroom about gender, sexuality, and race, stripping rights from the very students the state’s schools are meant to serve.
“We cannot stop these hateful bills from becoming law," Zander Moricz, the 19-year-old executive director and founder of Walkout 2 Learn, tells Teen Vogue. “They are ignoring us. They are not dealing with our perspectives.” So young people are pushing back with a day of walkouts and protests in response to Governor DeSantis’s agenda for students and schools, which includes the legislation dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, the “Individual Freedom Act" (previously known as the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act"), attempts to ban AP African American studies in schools, and efforts to pull funding for diversity programs at state colleges. The Social Equity through Education Alliance (SEE) brought together a coalition of youth organizations from across the state and united a coalition of organizations on the ground in the lead up to Walkout 2 Learn.
Beyond that, Moricz continues, “we're building power in the long term
through registering young voters so that when we have a chance to regain
that legislature, we're there to take it. When we have the chance to
put good people in positions of power in Florida, we’re going to take
it, while recognizing that we don't have time to spare. We need to
provide ourselves with curriculum, with resources, with activations,
with communities. It’s a short- and long-term strategy that allows
survival and then, hopefully, a chance at reclaiming our state.”
Next, States’ Push to Protect Kids Online Could Remake the Internet - from the NY Times:
People in Louisiana who visited Pornhub in recent months were met with a surprising new demand. Before they could stream sexually explicit videos, they had to provide proof that they were at least 18.
That’s because Louisiana lawmakers had passed legislation last year requiring publishers of online material that could be “harmful to minors” to verify that their users were adults.
Louisiana is at the forefront of a sweeping national push to insulate young people from potentially harmful content by requiring certain online services to bar or limit minors on their platforms. As a result, people in many other states may soon find that they, too, need to use credentials like digitized drivers’ licenses to access a host of services, including popular social media apps.
The proposed restrictions, introduced by at least two dozen states over the last year, could alter not only the online experiences of children and adolescents. They could also remake the internet for millions of adults, ushering in a tectonic cultural shift to a stricter, age-gated online world.
Utah and Arkansas recently enacted laws that would require social apps like TikTok and Instagram to verify their users’ ages and obtain parental consent before granting accounts to minors. While many sites already ask people signing up for accounts for their birth dates — a self-reporting system that children can often subvert by entering a fake birth year — the new state rules could prompt many platforms to institute more stringent age-verification systems involving government IDs.
In a related story, Pornhub blocks access in Utah over age verification law- this from CNN:
Some of the internet’s biggest adult websites, including Pornhub, are now blocking access to Utah users over a new age verification law that takes effect on Wednesday.
“As you may know, your elected officials in Utah are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website,” the message said. “While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users, and in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk.”
A few comments from Reddit:
- I think you're confused about why people are mad. It isn't about porn. It's about having a theocracy attempting to control our habits with a straw man.
- The very legislators that claim to love freedom and small government want to control what you watch and what social media your kids can use.
I'll have to write a separate post on this; I'm interested in what parents want to see the government do to protect kids without making it hard on adults to access some Internet site.
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