Free Republic

Former champion gymnast Jennifer Sey laughed at soccer all-star Megan Rapinoe over her recent comments shrugging off the ability of trans athletes participating in women's sports. ... 1986 U.S. National Gymnastics gold medalist .. cited a 2017 match between the U.S. Women's Soccer team and a team made up of 15-year-old high school boys and how the pro-athletes were defeated by the group of male adolescents. ... the best women's soccer team in the world lost to 15-year-old high school boys, how - why was that? How did that happen?" Sey posed to Rapinoe. "An average high school boys team....

There are many reasons why so many US public schools remained persistently closed for well over a year, but at the top of the list is Randi Weingarten. She is the President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and served as the self-appointed and media-anointed spokesperson for teachers’ unions throughout the pandemic. Weingarten appeared regularly across national media outlets for well over two years, relentlessly touting the dangers of public schools and the risk to teachers from in-person instruction. She also painted anyone who advocated for schools to open as heartless and cruel. Now that it’s become clear what...

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention weaponized research itself by putting out its own flawed studies in its own non-peer-reviewed medical journal, MMWR... public health officials actively propagated misinformation that ruined lives and forever damaged public trust in the medical profession. ... Misinformation #1: Natural immunity offers little protection compared to vaccinated immunity.. A Lancet study looked at 65 major studies in 19 countries on natural immunity. The researchers concluded that natural immunity was . ... Since the Athenian plague of 430 BC, it has been observed that those who recovered after infection were protected ... Most Americans who were...

CDC said that increases in Strep A, flu and RSV cases are tied to lockdowns ... Leading US health officials have finally acknowledged that pandemic restrictions they supported may have fueled a boom in respiratory bugs currently overwhelming hospitals. Healthcare systems across the country have been pushed to the brink after an unseasonably high number of flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases with some pediatric units forced to erect inflatable tents to treat patients in parking lots. ... In a statement to DailyMail.com, the CDC said it was 'hearing from some doctors and state health departments about an apparent...

Said he was told to stay silent on doomsday modeling.. A senior epidemiologist has publicly apologized to his daughter’s generation for failing to more strenuously oppose “morally wrong” COVID lockdown measures such as school closures that caused massive damage to children. The stunning admission was made by Professor Mark Woolhouse, who revealed to Sky News that he was told to “correct” his views after he criticized doomsday COVID models. The Edinburgh University academic said “plain common sense” was a “casualty” of lockdown and that his daughter’s generation “has been so badly served by mine.” Decrying harmful lockdown measures such as...

As the mainstream narrative about the origin of COVID-19 falls apart, it’s time to put other widely accepted facts about the virus—and the devastating measures they were used to justify—under the same scrutiny. On March 13, 2020, the public school district where I teach announced that all classrooms and buildings would be closed for two weeks. Then two weeks turned into two months, and two months turned into over a full year without in-person instruction. My school serves a diverse population of low-income students in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is impossible to overstate the severity of this disruption...

The iconic CBS Sunday morning news show “Face the Nation” edited out a network correspondent’s passionate criticism of COVID-19 policies for the harm they have caused children and teenagers who have a minuscule chance of suffering serious illness or death from the disease. Newsbusters reported the remarks of CBS correspondent Jan Crawford were axed seconds before they would have aired Sunday. “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, in a special year-end show with a reporter roundtable, pivoted the discussion, saying, Well, I want to get to underreported stories as well, Jan?” Crawford immediately responded, saying her to underreported story centered...

Dr. Steven Templeton, an Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, attends the inaugural conference of the Brownstone Institute in Hartford, Conn. on Nov. 13, 2021. Lockdowns, school closures, universal masking, vaccine mandates; these responses to COVID-19 are “self-destructive” and more politicized than scientific, according to immunologist Steven Templeton. Templeton once worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for four years. Now he’s an associate professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Indiana University. At the inaugural Brownstone Institute conference on Nov. 13, he shared his views with EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders”...

While the science suggests educators should end virtual schooling, many schools remain closed to millions of young people whose mental health is tanking.Almost a year after COVID-19 reached the United States and government-mandated lockdowns began shutting down nearly every aspect of American life, many schools across the nation have yet to reopen for in-person learning. While the science and data, previously ignored by the virtue-signaling left, suggests that educational leaders should seriously consider ending virtual schooling for the sake of students’ mental health and academic advancement, many school districts remain closed, offering only online classes or virtual learning options to...

As an adult who teaches, I got to choose an open school. Union politics have now barred millions of families from a similar privilege.I don’t blame schools for closing in March. Very little was known about COVID-19 then, so closures seemed the safest decision amid the uncertainty. Neither do I blame schools for a meager showing that semester. My own district threw together online curricula and instructional materials practically overnight. The results were dismal, but it’s the best many could have done given the situation. However, we’ve now had nine months to understand this virus, and all the evidence favors...

The idea that bars should remain open yet schools remain closed runs counter to any sense of logic, not to mention good public policy.The past nine months have seen more than a quarter-million Americans die from the coronavirus. Each and every death represents a tragedy — a life cut short, an empty place at the family table this holiday season, children mourning their parents, even parents mourning their children. But a separate and ongoing tragedy has also struck at countless more than another quarter-million Americans: Children who have disappeared from school following last spring’s COVID-19 closures. A survey conducted by...

Better late than never. Perhaps because he believes Joe Biden will be inaugurated in January, Dr. Fauci is finally admitting that children do not get terribly ill from or transmit COVID-19 in any significant way. Weird, since Switzerland figured this out in April. Detailed genetic studies in Iceland showed that children were not passing the virus to adults in any significant numbers in June. And German researchers asserted that children could actually act as a brake on transmission within the community. ... Senator Paul correctly noted Sweden’s experience, which never closed their primary schools and did not see a spike...

As big government makes one-size-fits-all decisions for California families, leaving kids without essential resources and their constitutionally guaranteed right to education, parents are asking, 'What does that future look like?' California students have officially kicked off their school year, but they’ve hardly gone “back to school.” Thanks to Gov. Gavin Newsom, 34 counties are on the so-called state monitoring list as of this writing, meaning children in those counties are barred from attending in-person classes.In coordination with the Dhillon Law Group, a band of California parents filed a lawsuit with a U.S. District Court challenging the Democrat governor’s mandate and...

There will be “intergenerational consequences for child growth and development.” ... lockdowns and school closures are doing more harm to children than the coronavirus itself, with many more deaths expected to come from the reaction to the outbreak, rather than the pandemic itself. ... UNICEF director Henrietta H Fore said Monday, “The repercussions of the pandemic are causing more harm to children than the disease itself.” UNICEF nutrition program chief Victor Aguayo noted that the most harm is being done “by having schools closed, by having primary health care services disrupted, by having nutritional programs dysfunctional.” The officials pointed to...

Scientists are yet to find a single confirmed case of a teacher catching coronavirus from a pupil anywhere in the world, a leading epidemiologist has said. Mark Woolhouse, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Edinburgh University, offered reassurance to staff preparing for the full reopening of schools next month. Professor Woolhouse, a member of the UK government’s scientific advisory group, Sage, said that in hindsight closing schools in March was probably a mistake, but the limited role children play in spreading the virus only became clear further along the infection curve.

When public school districts have a monopoly, they can easily justify delaying school or implementing extended closures. School choice is the solution. Across the country, school districts are announcing delayed openings or full-on closures for the semester or year. In its place, they will offer virtual learning as they did in the spring.Despite President Trump’s clear opposition to this (or because of it), school district leaders insist that a risk of a COVID-19 outbreak is too great to safely reopen schools. This is doubtful, seeing that schools would have to be “guaranteeing that no one will get sick if schools...

School closures ordered by the Islamic State militant group have resulted in an estimated 670,000 children in Syria being deprived of an education ... The Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot that has seized territory in Syria and Iraq, began shutting schools in areas in eastern Syria in November. The closures were ordered pending a religious revision of the curriculum. ... Between 1.3 million and 1.6 million Syrian children have been prevented from attending school as a result of the now five-year civil war, which has killed more than 200,000 and displaced half the country’s population ... In September, students...

Juan Gonzalez wrote a great piece in yesterday's Daily News on how the Young Leaders Elementary School, a school opened up by Uncle Mike in 2008, is now on the list of possible closures. Funny thing is, Young Leaders Elementary School replaced another closed school, PS 220 back in 2008. PS 220 was run by one of the classiest principals ever to work for the DOE, Michelle Kahn. I know Michelle is up above having the last laugh. She should. Again, students and their families education is going to again be uprooted and thrown into disarray. Will another school be...

Carroll ISD: After school activities canceled. including field trips, performances and competitions. Cleburne ISD: Closed. Denton ISD: After school activities canceled. including banquets, parent nights, concerts. Fort Worth ISD: Closed-All schools through May 8th. Lewisville ISD: Closed- Hebron Valley Elementary Only through May 6. Richardson ISD: Closed-Canyon Creek Elementary Only. Reopens May 4th. Fort Worth Can Academy: Closed. Richard Milburn Academy: Closed

Breaking New on CNN a few minutes ago. A reporter said Sonny Perdue is going to close Georgia's Public Schools Monday and Tuesday of next week to conserve fuel and energy.