Seen on a Texas Highway

By dianeravitch

August 26, 2021 //

Wrong! Leaving little kids vulnerable to a deadly virus in the middle of a pandemic is really child abuse.

Categories Health, Safety

49 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

quikwrit says:

August 26, 2021 at 11:32 am

The United States Supreme Court has twice ruled that states and school districts have the constitutional right to mandate vaccinations, rulings that also apply to masks — and those who would like to see those rulings overturned had better think twice because those rulings are also the basis for states having the power to regulate abortions: If state authority to mandate vaccinations is overturned, so is state authority to regulate abortions.
The key Supreme Court ruling that recognizes the authority of states to mandate vaccinations is Jacobsen v. Massachusetts. In this case Pastor Henning Jacobsen had a previous bad reaction to a vaccination and therefore refused the state’s mandate that he and his son be vaccinated because he believed that his family had a hereditary danger from vaccinations and that he also believed that vaccinations caused disease. The State of Massachusetts fined Jacobsen for his refusal to be vaccinated, so he took Massachusetts to court, and his case went all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court. The Court ruled in favor of the state, pointing out that “in every well ordered society charged with the duty of conserving the safety of its members, the rights of the individual in respect to his personal liberty may at times, under the pressure of great dangers, be subjected to such restraint, to be enforced by reasonable regulations, as the safety of the general public may demand” — adding that “real liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own [liberty], whether in respect of his person or his property, regardless of the injury that may be done to others.” Furthermore, the Court ruled that mandatory vaccinations are “necessary in order to protect the public health and secure the public safety”. The Supreme Court reaffirmed that ruling again in the case of Zucht v. King in which the Court ruled that a school system can refuse admission to any student who fails to receive a required vaccination.

George Washington mandated vaccinations

The practice of mandating vaccinations for the Common Good of all Americans is part of America’s tradition from the very beginning: General George Washington, The Father of America, issued the order on Feb. 5, 1777, that mandated vaccinations for all Revolutionary War soldiers and any citizen wanting to join the Revolutionary Army. General Washington declared in writing that “I have determined that troops shall be inoculated. This expedient may be attended with some inconveniences and some disadvantages, but I trust its consequences will have the most happy effects. Necessity not only authorizes but seems to require this measure, for should the disorder infect the army in the natural way and rage with its virulence we should have more to dread from it than from the sword of the enemy.”
General Washington, who had himself suffered from smallpox as a teenager, strongly believed in the effectiveness of vaccination and in 1776 had persuaded his wife to be vaccinated. Back then, vaccination was nothing like the painless pinprick of today’s vaccinations with vaccines produced on germ-free labs — back then vaccination was painful because it required taking a sharp metal “scratcher” on which there was smallpox virus gotten from someone else’s smallpox sores and scratching the viruses into another person’s skin.
General Washington mandated vaccination because he and America’s other Founding Fathers believed that Americans should always act first for the Common Good of every other American, not for their personal interest — and America’s Founding Fathers put that belief in the Common Good being first above individual interests in writing in the Preamble of our Constitution.

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- retired teacher says:
  
  August 26, 2021 at 1:24 pm
  
  Thanks for the perspective.
  
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speduktr says:

August 26, 2021 at 12:02 pm

I have yet to hear of any deaths from masking.

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- GregB says:
  
  August 26, 2021 at 2:01 pm
  
  Heck, even the Lone Ranger didn’t kill anyone.
  
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  - leftcoastteacher says:
    
    August 26, 2021 at 4:08 pm
    
    Good one!
    
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  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    August 26, 2021 at 4:52 pm
    
    Corona Sahbee’s mask only covered his eyes, so it’s amazing he didn’t kill anyone.
    
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  - Yvonne says:
    
    August 27, 2021 at 9:20 am
    
    Thank you. You are right. Good one indeed.
    
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- leftcoastteacher says:
  
  August 26, 2021 at 8:18 pm
  
  If covering your mouth were lethal, Mitch McConnell would long be dead from wearing pants.
  
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  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    August 27, 2021 at 10:30 am
    
    And if covering your brain were lethal, he’d be long dead for the very same reason.
    
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retired teacher says:

August 26, 2021 at 12:20 pm

This is right wing propaganda and fear mongering. Young children would not be traumatized by wearing a mask any more than they are by sitting in a car seat. The objective is to keep them safe, and young children are capable of understanding this. It is far more traumatizing for young children to lose a parent, sibling or contract the virus themselves.

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  August 26, 2021 at 1:11 pm
  
  I have seen my own 8-year-old grandson dutifully putting on his mask. He never objects.
  
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- Don Corley says:
  
  August 26, 2021 at 2:13 pm
  
  Perfectly said!
  
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- Beth says:
  
  August 26, 2021 at 7:27 pm
  
  I often wonder if the right-wingers pass around talking points bc the crazy Karol Markowicz at the Post has been beating the “masking is child abuse” drum, too.
  
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Peter Goodman says:

August 26, 2021 at 1:00 pm

Return Texas to Mexico

Sent from my iPhone Peter Goodman Ed in the Apple

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- GregB says:
  
  August 26, 2021 at 2:02 pm
  
  What do you have against Mexico?
  
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- SomeDAM Poet says:
  
  August 26, 2021 at 5:23 pm
  
  Would the merger be called Texico or Mexas?
  
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  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    August 26, 2021 at 5:27 pm
    
    Remember the ammo!
    The AR 15
    Remember the cammo!
    The tan and the green
    
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  - leftcoastteacher says:
    
    August 26, 2021 at 8:21 pm
    
    All my exes lived in Texas
    Until they died of the disease.
    
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- Duane E Swacker says:
  
  August 26, 2021 at 5:59 pm
  
  Me parece mala idea.
  
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kathyirwin1 says:

August 26, 2021 at 1:11 pm

Trivium Academy Carrollton Texas Today.
“Trivium Charter School leaders are asking parents to keep their kids home from school tomorrow if possible, but will officially close the school Friday, August 27th. It will remain closed until September 7th.
I spoke with a parent who said the 3rd and 5th grade classes have been hit the hardest.
Today those 60 3rd and 5th grade students were doing remote learning and still there were 86 absences today at the 530 kid school.
12% of teachers are out sick.
The Denton County, Texas health department was consulted and it was decided in an emergency board meeting a few minutes ago that the school would close.
Some board members expressed concern saying that the Governor has really put them in a tough spot with the school not able to enforce masks or get funding for remote learning.”

“Carrollton’s 600-student Trivium Academy had 56 lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases by Wednesday, with “the virus is so widespread that contact tracing becomes almost impossible.” No Mask Mandate School

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kathyirwin1 says:

August 26, 2021 at 1:28 pm

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Children now make up 36% of Tennessee’s reported COVID-19 cases, marking yet another sobering milestone in the state’s battle against the high contagious delta variant, Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey said Wednesday 8/25.

“We had 14,000 pediatric cases in the last seven days, which is a 57% increase over the week prior,” Piercey told reporters. “Right now, 36% of all of our cases in the state are among children when it’s historically been in the 10 to 15% range.”

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Ben says:

August 26, 2021 at 1:31 pm

Simple response to people who don’t think masks are effective is this: why do Drs and nurses wear masks? Because they are EFFECTIVE!!!They always have and always will wear them.
Imagine this for a sec: Drs and nurses in one of the nations largest hospitals are on strike! They no longer want to wear masks (especially during surgery)because their personal freedom has been infringed on. Wonder what the patients would say?
That is as preposterous as kids not wearing masks in school. Child abuse my …

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Lloyd Lofthouse says:

August 26, 2021 at 1:35 pm

I leave the house about once every two weeks for a couple of hours to do some shopping. Almost all of the little children I see are not wearing masks. In between the rare outings, I order online and what I buy is delivered to my front door.

My first thought every time I see little children without masks on is that the parents of those children are insane, stupid or ignorant fools. They are ignorant fools if they are not keeping up to date with the latest pandemic news. They are stupid fools if they know that children are being infected by the Delta variant and dying from it.

They are insane (much worse than being a fool and still not an excuse) if they think a mask is child abuse and dying from COVID Delta isn’t.

Now, it is possible if the child is in their terrible two stage of growth and development that it might be impossible for some parents to keep the mask on their child, but then the parent should keep the child home and not take the kid out shopping in public. Most locations have an option that allows us to shop online and have our items delivered to our porch.

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Kenneth Kolk says:

August 26, 2021 at 1:50 pm

I the company that owns the truck exhibits such stupidity they don’t need our business or money! After 1/6/21 we decided to boycott any business that had kept the GOP & Trump signs and flags on display on their trucks and/or property. If they really care about little kids they should be encouraging people to get vaccinated.

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dianeravitch says:

August 26, 2021 at 2:06 pm

Thanks, FLERP. Will do.

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Chiara says:

August 26, 2021 at 2:31 pm

Remember when the ed reform echo chamber went ga ga over Amanda Ripley because she wrote a book bashing public schools?

She’s back and now she’s selling a new book AND a movie:

https://www.the74million.org/article/the-74-interview-author-amanda-ripley-on-the-pandemic-trust-in-american-education-and-the-new-film-about-why-american-schools-arent-the-best-in-the-world/

If you’re a public school and you’re hiring these people as consultants you should have your head examined. All gimmicky fads, self promotion and slick marketing. And the echo chamber falls for it every time. A closed circle. The echo chamber promote fellow ed reformers and ’round and ’round it goes.

They were promoting an economist from Brown who had many, many opinions on covid in schools, athough she has no background or experience in either education or infectious disease. She was selling a book too.

Ed reform is a smart career choice. Endless opportunity for savvy self-marketing. Doesn’t do a thing for public school students, but it’s hugely beneficial for the adult members of the echo chamber.

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Chiara says:

August 26, 2021 at 2:36 pm

“In a discussion with The 74’s Kevin Mahnken, Ripley talked about the “mediocre vibe” she has detected in American classrooms, the declining faith we feel in our institutions and one another, and the sequence of bitter arguments that have plagued education policy over the past year. And while the film doesn’t address the COVID-19 crisis, she has also noted that schools in some of the highest-achieving countries reopened much sooner than in the United States.”

The ed reform public schools expert who has absolutely no background in public schools detects a “mediocre vibe” in public schools.

You really can’t make this stuff up. I hope to God no public school is paying for it.

Public schools have to make a clean break from the “ed reform movement” and go their own way. There is absolutely nothing of value here for their students.

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  August 26, 2021 at 2:38 pm
  
  Amanda Ripley wrote the cover story at TIME presenting Michelle Rhee as the miracle-worker who knew how to “fix” American education.
  
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  - Chiara says:
    
    August 26, 2021 at 2:44 pm
    
    Not only is she an expert on US public schools, she is also (now) an expert on “conflict”.
    
    Is there anything she isn’t an expert on? Cardiac rehabilitation care? Does she have opinions on that will be quoted as fact and relentlessly marketed by the echo chamber?
    
    All she had to write in that book was “public schools suck” and these people would have helped her sell a half million copies. I’d be amazed if any of them read it.
    
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  - Chiara says:
    
    August 26, 2021 at 3:02 pm
    
    Well, that explains it. That was when she became our leading authority on what is wrong with public schools.
    
    The Professional Public School Critics Association.
    
    It’s a big group and they’re extremely well-compensated and seem to grow every year. They’re practically their own sector at this point.
    
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- bethree5 says:
  
  August 26, 2021 at 7:27 pm
  
  “[Ripley] has also noted that schools in some of the highest-achieving countries reopened much sooner than in the United States.” Brilliant. Ah, let’s see: China probably opened its schools earlier: the pandemic spread started there, and through quick lockdowns and universal masking got the spread under control quickly. And a few Scandinavian countries managed rather brief closures, because they (a)used closed community bldgs and churches and outdoor settings to augment school space, thus enabling 6ft distancing, and (b)prioritized in-person schooling over indoor bars, restaurants, gyms, barbers, etc.
  
  Next point, Ripley?
  
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Chiara says:

August 26, 2021 at 2:52 pm

Like echo chambers everywhere, the ed reform echo chamber is predictable. I started to see them all promoting universal vouchers when they concluded the latest private school voucher campaign and now, as always, the whole group are following:

https://www.crpe.org/thelens/families-delivered-innovative-solutions-pandemic-fueled-education-disruptions-policymakers

By the next political cycle every ed reform echo chamber member will be enthusiastically promoting universal vouchers. There will be no dissenters, or even real analysis of any kind. Vouchers = Good.

This is the last goal met. They will have succeeded in completely removing the “public” in public education.

It’s a shame. The last universal public system in the US is taken private. HUGE ideological win for the Right though- successfully eradicating the loathed “government schools” and replacing them with a deregulated private contractor system.

And no labor unions, of course. That’s a side benefit.

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John Ogozalek says:

August 26, 2021 at 3:00 pm

Using the term “child abuse” under frivolous conditions is despicable. Period.

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bpollock42 says:

August 26, 2021 at 4:02 pm

The Texas Taliban run the lone star state.

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- SomeDAM Poet says:
  
  August 26, 2021 at 5:30 pm
  
  Texanistan
  
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- SomeDAM Poet says:
  
  August 26, 2021 at 5:35 pm
  
  Texanistan
  
  Texanistan
  The Lone Star State
  Afghanistan
  The Texas fate
  
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  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    August 26, 2021 at 5:39 pm
    
    We should pull out of Texas before it falls to the Texiban.
    
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  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    August 26, 2021 at 5:49 pm
    
    The Democrats in the Texanistan Legislature are the government in exile
    
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  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    August 26, 2021 at 5:51 pm
    
    They were the first to leave
    
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  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    August 26, 2021 at 5:52 pm
    
    They ain’t no fools
    
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  - Duane E Swacker says:
    
    August 26, 2021 at 6:02 pm
    
    We should pull out of Texas before it becomes pregnant and plops out another little Texas-Texasita.
    
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SomeDAM Poet says:

August 26, 2021 at 4:56 pm

What’s wrong with this picture?

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bethree5 says:

August 26, 2021 at 7:46 pm

This CNBC report just makes me livid.
“Texas began requesting external assistance just two weeks ago, when Abbott announced that the Texas Department of State Health Services had coordinated a first wave of over 2,500 out-of-state workers to respond to the delta variant. With this latest call, Texas will have approximately 8,100 outside medical personnel, including nurses and respiratory therapists.

Covid patients are currently taking up more than half of all intensive care beds in Texas as of Thursday, compared with 30% nationwide, according to the Department of Health and Human Services…

…Abbott supports vaccines and the use of antibodies but opposes mask and vaccine mandates, banning local governments and schools from enacting those requirements and threatening any who disobey with a $1,000 fine.”

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- SomeDAM Poet says:
  
  August 27, 2021 at 10:34 am
  
  That Abbott supports antibodies (Republicans) is nothing new.
  
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bethree5 says:

August 27, 2021 at 9:39 am

The Fickle Finger of WordPress places my comments in moderation a lot lately.

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- SomeDAM Poet says:
  
  August 27, 2021 at 10:35 am
  
  Prolly cuz the WordPress happiness engineers are from Texas.
  
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    August 27, 2021 at 10:41 am
    
    SDP,
    WordPress tech support workers are called Happiness Engineers.
    I learned a few days ago that customer service reps at Bombas (socks) also call themselves Happiness Engineers.
    Maybe schools should have some, like the ones that used to be called guidance counselors or social workers.
    
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- dianeravitch says:
  
  August 27, 2021 at 10:48 am
  
  Sorry your earlier comment sent into moderation. I’m as puzzled as you.
  
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  - bethree5 says:
    
    August 28, 2021 at 12:59 pm
    
    the slap-happy engineers…
    
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