Free Republic

On September 30, the National School Boards Association (NSBA) sent a letter to the Biden administration denouncing the nationwide parental protests taking place at school board meetings against Critical Race Theory, Critical Gender Theory, pornography in the classroom, mask mandates, vaccine requirements, and remote learning. It turns out that parents all over the country are upset about the indoctrination and censorship in America’s government schools. An army of moms (and dads) have been asserting their parental responsibilities and their constitutional rights by showing up to school board meetings and voicing—sometimes angrily—their contempt and disgust for those school boards and teachers...

The tension between parents and American school-board members has worsened since we first reported that members of the boards were quitting en masse over “toxic” parents opposing masks, vaccine mandates and CRT. And according to the National School Boards Association, an organization that represents school board members, the risks of violence breaking out involving a parent and a school-board member have intensified to such a degree that the organization is asking the federal government to start providing security to board members and teachers to protect them from “terrorist” parents. Terrorists?The organization made its demands in a letter to President Biden,...

On the surface Apple’s new features sound both sensible and commendable – but they also open a Pandora’s box of privacy and surveillance issues. Don’t worry, the tech company has assured everyone, the prying is for purely benevolent purposes. On Thursday Apple announced a new set of “protection for children” features that will look through US iPhones for images of child abuse. One of these features is a tool called neuralMatch, which will scan photo libraries to see if they contain anything that matches a database of known child abuse imagery. Another feature, which parents can enable or disable, scans...

Also shielded from parental consent or knowledge, cross-sex hormones and abortionsSACRAMENTO – Gov. Newsom is celebrating the signing of two abortion rights bills this week, one that requires insurance companies to hide from parents certain medical services their children are receiving. The other prohibits the videotaping of clients and employees of abortion clinics, but fails to protect pro-life sidewalk counselors who videotape their work for their own protection. AB 1184, sponsored by Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, prohibits insurance companies from revealing to the policyholder the “sensitive” services of anyone on their policy, including minor children, even though the policy...

According to Pfizer, recent clinical trials show their COVID-19 vaccine is ”safe” and creates strong antibodies in children aged five to 11-year-olds. In a highly-anticipated press release Monday, the medical research company said it would seek FDA emergency use authorization for the vaccine’s in children by the end of the month. Pfizer said they used a third of the full size dosage for their clinical trials with children and reportedly saw antibodies just as strong as those found in fully vaccinated adults. “We measure the ability of antibody from the children that were vaccinated to kill the virus and how...

A growing number of young people are combating “climate anxiety,” and a majority think “humanity is doomed,” according to a study published in Lancet Planetary Health Tuesday. According to the study, which authors claim is the most comprehensive study in the world analyzing “young people’s fear about the climate crisis,” 45 percent of 16-25-year-olds said, “climate-related anxiety and distress is affecting their daily lives and ability to function normally,” Vice News reported of the study. Approximately 10,000 young people were surveyed across ten countries, 60 percent of which said national governments are “betraying” the present and future generations by not...

Marin County has put together a plan to start vaccinating children Oct. 30 if the Food and Drug Administration approves the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for ages 5 to 11 by then.

A new report from a watchdog organization alleges school officials in an Illinois district imprisoned children to closets because they were not wearing masks during class. The report comes from the Edgar County Watchdogs blog site, where a posting first charged the officials in the Teutopolis School District "without so much as even contacting the parents," put the five students in "separate confined rooms for several hours." The reason was that the students "were trying to breath freely without a mask on their face," the report said. The state's governor had announced a mask requirement for people in schools.

Children and young people around the world are experiencing increasing anxiety over the fate of the planet -- specifically climate change and how lawmakers are handling the looming crisis, according to new research. Scientists who surveyed 10,000 young people, ages 16 to 25, across 10 countries, found "widespread psychological distress" among them, and, for the first time, discovered that the anxiety was significantly related to perceived government inaction... ...Nearly half of all young people surveyed, more than 45%, said their feelings about climate change negatively affect their daily life and functioning, according to the study. Another 75% of those surveyed...

Students at a Washington state high school wanted to mark the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by wearing red, white and blue at a Patriot’s Day-themed game the day before the anniversary but were refused because the event could "unintentionally cause offense to some who see it differently," according to a report. Jason Rantz, a host on KTTH 770/94.5FM, reported that the event was canceled by an unnamed staffer at Eastlake High School in Sammamish "at the last minute." A student told the show that he was informed that the "red, white and blue was going to be...

A Georgia mother has been arrested following a violent attack against a 61-year-old preschool teacher. The alleged assault occurred Wednesday at St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church in Grovetown. An attorney who says he is representing the teacher gave our team an exclusive video of the attack in question. In it, you see a woman, who the attorney identifies as Kasey Brooks, attack her son’s teacher June Barrow at St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church. Her attorney reached out to me after I knocked on Barrow’s door to ask her about the incident that has many of you talking. The...

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband announced that they are parents of two new-born children. The gay couple was photographed in a hospital bed sporting what appears to be hospital admission bracelets while cradling two infants. The black and white photograph gives the impression that they – um – well – never mind. “We are delighted to welcome Penelope Rose and Joseph August Buttigieg to our family,” Buttigieg, 39, said in a statement on social media, sharing a photograph of his daughter and son. So who were the birth mothers and why were their significant contributions not acknowledged? "Chasten...

After a summer of angry school board debates over mandatory masking at schools, Gov. Tom Wolf stepped up and took the heat himself Tuesday, defending his administration’s new order - and the about-face it took to issue it - to make masking mandatory for all students and staff at all Pennsylvania schools effective Sept. 7. The order by Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam, Wolf said, comes in the face of a new wave of COVID-19 cases, driven by the Delta variant and a huge population of school children who aren’t even eligible for vaccinations yet. In Pennsylvania, the two-week...

Medical professionals are suing President Joe Biden’s administration over a mandate requiring doctors to perform transgender surgeries in violation of their religious beliefs or medical judgement. Represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, the American College of Pediatricians, the Catholic Medical Association and an OB-GYN doctor specializing in adolescent care filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Chattanooga Thursday against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “The law and the medical profession have long recognized and respected the biological differences between boys and girls and the unique needs they each present in...

The public school system in America is in crisis — the worst crisis since the forced bussing and integration issues of the 1970s. Simply put, parents and students have lost faith in the school system to educate. They doubt whether the schools have the best interests of their students at heart. This poisonous doubt is having a tangible effect on enrollment. Despite the fact that public education is free, parents are sending their children to private schools with more reliable, more predictable policies. Enrollment in public schools nationwide declined by 3 percent last year. But it was the numbers for...

Chief Health Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday that "hopefully" making young kids wear face masks won’t have any "lasting negative impact" on them. During an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Dr. Fauci said it’s important to keep an "open mind" about masking after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that unvaccinated children ages 2 and older wear masks and that students wear masks in all K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status, in light of the rapid spread of the COVID-19 delta variant. "It's not comfortable, obviously, for children to wear masks, particularly the younger children,"...

The mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, Stephen Benjamin, declared a state of emergency in the state capital on Wednesday, triggered by Prisma Health Children’s Hospital in Columbia reporting that it is reaching a “strained capacity” of children being diagnosed with COVID-19. The Columbia City Council in South Carolina subsequently ratified the state of emergency during an emergency meeting on Thursday, mandating masks for all faculty, staff, visitors, and children in public and private schools, and daycares that instruct children from ages 2 to 14. The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office issued a press release later that day stating that it...

Apple Inc is planning to install a software on U.S. iPhones that will scan for child abuse imagery, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Earlier this week, the company had elaborated its planned system, called "neuralMatch," to academics in the United States via a virtual meeting, the report said https://www.ft.com/content/14440f81-d405-452f-97e2-a81458f5411f, adding that its plan could be publicized widely as soon as this week.

This Sunday, the public also heard from Dr. Anthony Fauci's boss, Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the NIH. On "Fox News Sunday," Dr. Collins spoke with Dana Perino, who was filling in for Chris Wallace. On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced new guidelines that students, staff, and teachers at K-12 schools wear masks, regardless of vaccination status. Of particular interest and concern, then, is the idea of children under 12, who are not even eligible to be vaccinated yet, should have to wear masks. Such guidelines have drawn particular ire. As Perino and Collins discussed: PERINO:...

[Catholic Caucus] Is Msgr. Burrill the Tip of the Iceberg?As a sex abuse victims’ advocate and a former Catholic seminary instructor and formator, I am led to question the validity of arguments put forward by Rev. James Martin, SJ, Steven P. Millies, and others in defense of Msgr. Jeffrey Burrill. For example, in response to Burrill’s resignation as the now-former General Secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Millies wrote, “This is the hook on which the ‘story’ hangs, a long-discredited link between sexual abuse and homosexuality. It is hard to call that something other than a slur...