Meanwhile with the kiddos…
Lunch breaks are short these days, but considering all of the COVIDs going around it seems like a good time for an update. As most of the regular readers know, I teach in one of the school districts that decided not to mandate masks. This is in spite of the fact that all of our schools are in Harris County.
I get it. You have the governor saying one thing and the county judge saying something different. As many of the social media memes say, you have all of the medical doctors and PhDs saying this and yet my buddy Earle (who made a D in Biology) is telling me something else. Who do I believe?
El Jefe and Juanita were all over the governor yesterday, so I’ll just say that this is what the English teachers call irony. I think it’s situational irony, but I’ve slept since we reviewed irony with my sophomores. I just know that it isn’t Alanis Morrissette irony.
At least our district has had the presence of mind to post signs in English and Spanish recommending the masks. Of course, some of our campus leaders are wearing masks and some aren’t. A majority of the students are wearing masks. So, maybe not all is lost.
Our campus is a unique place. We teach kids trades where they can become certified before they graduate. That includes vet tech and child guidance. We have three and four year old children roaming the halls and the occasional dog as well. While that makes for an interesting environment on most days, it is especially worrisome these days with COVID. Even if every student of the school were vaccinated, those preschoolers certainly aren’t.
I manage a group of about 20 students every year. A couple of them are home because someone in their family tested positive. Then I have a few more that might be home schooling because our district doesn’t offer a virtual option. Statisticians will tell you about the dangers of extrapolating from such a small sample, but our minds can’t help going there.
So, while the rest of the world struggles how to handle the news of our beloved governor getting the COVID, those of us here are bracing for the worst. The kids are packed in like sardines and we all know how that will turn out. If you pray to a supreme being we’d love a shout out. If you don’t then whatever positive thoughts you can muster are well appreciated.
Hum…
“A Texas school board has found a loophole in Greg Abbott’s ban on school mask mandates by instead adding masks to the district’s dress code.”
https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1427812904863154181
1In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice.
~ Charles Dickens ~ Great Expectations
2Whatever affects some one directly affects all indirectly – MLK
3I don’t remember what subject(s) you teach the 20, but I hope that whatever it is, there is a tie-in for their lives in the midst of COVID in Texas. Something that helps them advocate for their own health, something which builds protection for them and their families, something which will help the community or its ill get better.
4Are we having fun yet?—Zippy the Pinhead
5G. Foresight, I saw that too, and it oughta be the tactic every school district uses. It should be easily defended in any court. Like my daughter pointed out, if any school district can dictate the length of pants or skirts, colors worn, anything remotely gang related, or otherwise offensive without violating personal freedom, how could they not be free to dictate masks as well?
6“our beloved governor”, cough choke urk.. Nick has satire and irony down pretty damn good.
.
7That Paris, TX school board/superintendent are geniuses, should get some awards for that great policy idea, and also the huge FU to Abbutt. Surprising since it’s a heavily Rethug NE Texas area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Independent_School_District
Makes sense with no irony, just blind senseless hypocrisy.
8Upscale white lades love their kids, too, and are fierce in defending the little darlings from disease, reality, and empathy.
John, I’m what is called a case manager. I have 20 special education students I’m responsible for. I do not teach them, but work directly with them to make sure they are succeeding and work directly with their teachers to make sure their needs are being met. I also serve as a support facilitator in English and social studies classes. So, I’m not technically the teacher of record for anyone. I lend a helping hand whenever I can and look out for their academic, social, and emotional well being.
9I’m so sorry for the mess in which you and your charges find yourselves. Sending positive vibes — for all the good they will do under the circumstances.
On an aside, may I suggest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcnCYdZw72k&ab_channel=BeauoftheFifthColumn
It MIGHT bring a chuckle. Or perhaps a tear to your eye. I doubt you’ll be unmoved.
10My daughter is a teaching assistant who helps educationally challenged students in the classroom. I understand your problems and worries and send my support to you at this incredibly tense and uncertain time. What the republicans are doing is evil, criminal, deadly and they do it to us while often protecting themselves, unbeknownst to us. They do it for power and we all suffer. I hope you can stand strong and do the best you can for yourself and your charges.
11Best wishes Nick.
12Irony is wasted on the stupid.
13Oscar Wilde
Biden begins breaking bunch of bastards butts *:
Muuhhaha, good ol’ ‘slow’ Joe Biden just commenced to beating about their sorry buttheads Abbutt, DeSantass, and the rest with a bunch of really big sticks.
.
Joe Biden takes aim at states blocking mask mandates, setting Gov. Greg Abbott up for showdown with feds
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/18/greg-abbott-joe-biden-texas-mask-mandates/
* Gots the most appropriate Don Henley’s ‘Dirt Laundry’ lyrics running in muh haid:
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em all around…
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/donhenley/dirtylaundry.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Laundry_(Don_Henley_song)
14Y’all should read this article [+ 2min video] too.
From a longtime journalist and founder/editor of the San Antonio Report, Robert Rivard, who got down in the trenches today amongst some of the most ignorant MAGAots you’ll ever find anywhere. :
“Unmasked, protesters rally against public health measures”:
https://sanantonioreport.org/unmasked-protesters-rally-against-public-health-measures/
Excerpt :
“I do not share these scenes with readers to belittle individuals. I do so because I believe they are clearly living in a state of delusion, one devoid of science and facts, one filled with lies, disinformation, and misguided claims of personal freedom somehow threatened by prudent public health measures such as vaccination, mask use, and social distancing.
They are a danger to themselves, to their children, and a serious roadblock to containing the pandemic….
Most of the protesters Friday appeared to be educated, middle-class adults, mostly white, who should know better. But they do not know better.
These people have been brainwashed, and their collective beliefs and the elected leaders who willingly seek their votes represent a dangerous challenge to democracy. I do not know how to undo the damage done by an autocratic president who tried to delegitimize the election and use the powers of his office to stay in power. His populist distrust of Washington institutions, scientists, his belief in the “deep state,” his anti-immigrant sentiments — all of it has fueled a movement that continues to metastasize seven months after he left office.
Friday’s anti-mask protesters and their seemingly wacky claims should scare you. They scare me.
Their embrace of so many lies threatening public health anew is spreading, just like a virus, one where there is no vaccination, no safety in masks.”
I’m effing scared too. These ‘friends of COVID19’ are giving a huge boost to the virus’s abilities to mutate into even more dangerous variants. Perhaps even becoming the world’s next smallpox or Black Death pandemic. We could nickname it the ‘Red Death’ then in the US, after the Rethugs; or the virutrump strain.
15Correction to my above SAR comment, the ‘opinion’ article was first published on 14 August. It comes with a bunch of heated comments, perhaps the most I’ve ever seen over there.
16Sandridge @14, 15, & 16, PresJoe is definitely showing some moxie! To be honest back in the NV primary caucus days he was was low man on our dance card behind Mayor Who Me deal with racism and who cares.
But dayum. Out of Afghanistan. Vaccinations free and available well ahead of schedule in April. We’re ready to forgive him; oops embrace him should he send VP Harris to the Senate floor to shoot down Mandible Manchin, Sinema along with Moscow Mitch and all the QOP quislings.
Hey. Who can dislike a guy married to Jill with Champ and Major as part of the bargain?
17What I hate about all of it is that the Covidiots aren’t made to feel responsible for their own idiocy. Somehow, someone that could not be bothered to mask up and/or get the shots gets bumped to the front of the line while people that have genuine health emergencies get left out in the cold. So, they literally wreak all kinds of havoc and feel nothing in response.
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