This and That, September 3, 2025

 Feelings are mixed in The Seattle Times' comment section on this headline:

Seattle students return to school, whether they want to or not: ‘I don’t want to learn stuff’

That quote comes from a 13-year old so sure, that might exactly express that frame of mind. But readers thought it was not a positive start for the new school year and some felt it should not have been attached to the student's name (fearing ridicule for the student). 

Personally, on the headline, I think they could have done better. Maybe they thought it was funny. 

On the superintendent search front, we learn from this article that current superintendent Fred Podesta has NOT applied for the permanent job. 

On Saturday, September 6th, there will be the Grand Opening for the new Waterfront Park. Free music, food trucks and family fun from 11 am - 9 pm. 

Looks like President Gina Topp will be speaking to parents in West Seattle about HC. The meeting is Sunday, September 7th at 3 pm at the High Point Library. I'm sure attendance is open to all.

On the national front, one funny item, one good idea, and one dangerous idea. 

Funny

The headline says it all: First lady Melania Trump will head effort to teach next generation about AI.

She hopes to carve out a new role as the First Lady of Technology, combining her passion for children’s well-being with her tech-forward vision, as demonstrated by her advocacy for the “Take It Down Act,” which combats AI-generated deepfakes, and her work on an AI-powered audiobook version of her best-selling memoir “Melania.

For the Presidential Challenge, teams of students from K-12 will use AI tools such as large language models, robotics, computer vision, decision trees, and neural networks to solve a community problem by creating a phone app or website.

Prizes range from a Presidential Certificate of Achievement, to Cloud Credits and a $10,000 check. State champions will be announced next March, followed by a national championship in June. 

“The Presidential AI Challenge marks our first step in equipping every child with the knowledge base and tools to utilize this emerging technology,” says Mrs. Trump.  

“But this is only the beginning. It is essential that every member of our academic community, including our great educators, administrators, and students rise to this historic challenge with on-going curiosity, perseverance, and ingenuity.”

The competition is fine but Melania Trump as the AI leader? Hilarious. And First Lady? In name only. 

Good Idea

The governors of three western states - California, Oregon, and Washington - have joined together to create a new health partnership in the face of the Trump administration's dumbing down of the CDC. 

On Wednesday, Govs. Tina Kotek, Bob Ferguson, and Gavin Newsom, of Oregon, Washington, and California, respectively, announced the creation of the West Coast Health Alliance — a group to share public health information “to ensure residents remain protected by science, not politics.”

“President Donald Trump’s mass firing of CDC doctors and scientists — and his blatant politicization of the agency — is a direct assault on the health and safety of the American people,” the statement said. “The CDC has become a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science, ideology that will lead to severe health consequences. California, Oregon, and Washington will not allow the people of our states to be put at risk.”

They are also working to make sure that immunization recommendations are informed by national medical organizations and that the public will always have access to “consistent, science-based recommendations they can rely on.”

 Dangerous Idea

The state of Florida is going to stop mandating vaccines for Florida's school-aged population. From the BBC:

The state's top health official, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, likened the mandates to "slavery", in announcing the plans.

"Who am I to tell you what your child should put in your body?" he said. "I don't have that right. Your body is a gift from God."

Florida officials did not give a timeline or details on ending the mandates. Several may only be repealed through a vote by the Republican-led state legislature, while others can be scrapped by the state health department. 

While every state requires children to be vaccinated in order to attend public schools, each one has different policies about giving exemptions to the mandates. 

If parents stop getting vaccinations in big numbers, it will likely end herd immunity in Florida. 

Dr Nahid Bhadelia, director of the Boston University Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases, added: "It's particularly unfortunate for Florida because its such a big travel hub. They have people coming and going from Florida all over the world."

Both public and private schools in Florida do require vaccinations so it will be interesting to see what their legislature does AND what districts and parents then do.

To note, support for vaccinating kids against infectious diseases dropped from 81% in 1991 to 62% in 2019 to 51% last year. One thought on the pushback is that younger adults have no experience with any of these diseases and have not really seen the terrible outcomes that could follow.