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Monday, July 20, 2020
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Virginia Mandates Slavery Lessons for Kindergarteners Parents, educators take issue with new curriculum
Virginia kindergarten students will learn about institutional racism alongside the alphabet, according to a new curriculum created for the upcoming school year.
Loudoun County is adding "social justice" to the mission of teaching elementary school students reading, writing, and arithmetic. The Washington, D.C., suburb—the richest county in the country—has teamed up with the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) education arm Teaching Tolerance to develop its new curriculum. The proposed lesson plan will restructure history and social studies classes to emphasize slavery as fundamental to American society for students from kindergarten to the fifth grade.
"Sugarcoating or ignoring slavery until later grades makes students more upset by or even resistant to true stories about American history," the curriculum reads. "Long before we teach algebra, we teach its component parts. We should structure history instruction the same way."
Not every Loudoun County educator is on board with the administration's direction. A longtime elementary school teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said that the school system had always taught students about the reality of slavery—lessons that typically begin in the fourth grade. She said the administrative focus to push racial politics on students who do not yet know how to read is motivated by politics, rather than education.
"I teach lower grades in elementary school.… [Never before] did I have to teach about slavery," the teacher said. "Our standards were always [to] teach about famous Americans, George Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., people like that. But, it was all very general and the bigger picture, we highlighted their accomplishments."
The new Teaching Tolerance kindergarten curriculum requires teachers to explain social justice theories to five-year-olds. The Loudoun County elementary school teacher believes this curriculum will prove divisive for children who...
Portland's Dem mayor attempts to blame Trump for ongoing violence — then immediately gets fact checked
‘...we haven't heard or seen a plan to stop the vandalism or the riots’
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat, attempted to blame the federal government for enflaming tensions in Portland — but immediately got fact checked.
During a press conference with local media on Friday, Wheeler claimed that rhetoric from President Donald Trump and other top government officials, along with intervention from federal law enforcement officers, has enflamed violence in the City of Roses after, as the mayor claimed, local officials had quelled protesters.
"The feds came in, on the heels of some really inflammatory public messaging coming out of Washington, D.C., from the president directly, as well as the Department of Homeland Security, they blew the whole thing back up again," Wheeler claimed.
"So, in one day, we saw the numbers escalate, we saw new people coming to Portland from out of state," he added. "This whole situation is now blowing up as a result of the tactics being used by the federal government."
But a reporter on the call pointed out that local officials have failed to stop the ongoing violence that has plagued Portland for nearly two months.
"The federal government says that they wouldn't have had to into the city if city leaders had gotten a handle on the riots," the reporter said. "You say that we can handle it better than the feds can, but we haven't heard or seen a plan to stop the vandalism or the riots, even prior to the federal government, or federal officers, getting into town."
According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, clandestine officers belonging to the U.S. Marshals Special Operations Group and Customs and Border Protection's BORTAC were deployed in Portland to protect federal property.
In a statement, Customs and Border Protection said:
While the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) respects every American's right to protest peacefully, violence and civil unrest will not be tolerated. Violent anarchists have organized events in Portland over the last several weeks with willful intent to damage and destroy federal property, as well as injure federal officers and agents. These criminal actions will not be tolerated.
CBP agents had information indicating the person in the video was suspected of assaults against federal agents or destruction of federal property. Once CBP agents approached the suspect, a large and violent mob moved towards their location. For everyone's safety, CBP agents quickly moved the suspect to a safer location for further questioning. The CBP agents identified themselves and were wearing CBP insignia during the encounter. The names of the agents were not displayed due to recent doxing incidents against law enforcement personnel who...
Muslim Refugee arrested after fire at Nantes cathedral destroys grand organ
The 39-year-old is a Rwandan refugee who worked at the cathedral as a volunteer and was in charge of locking up on Friday night.
A man has been arrested in connection with a fire at Nantes cathedral that destroyed the grand organ and blew out stained glass windows.
The 39-year-old is a Rwandan refugee who worked at the 15th-Century gothic structure as a volunteer and was in charge of locking up on Friday night, TV channel LCI said.
Prosecutor Pierre Sennes said the man had been taken into custody so that alleged inconsistencies in his schedule could be examined.
An investigation for possible arson is under way. Mr Sennes said on Saturday that three fires had been started and there was no sign of a break-in.
Le Parisien newspaper said an "electric counter" may have been linked to one of the fires at the historic cathedral in western France.
The unnamed refugee's lawyer Quentin Chabert said: "To my knowledge, as things stand, there is nothing that directly links my client to the cathedral fire."
The cathedral's rector Father Hubert Champenois told BFM TV that the man in custody had worked there for several years and he trusted him completely.
Firefighters have been picking up fragments of broken stained glass as they combed the scene for clues.
It took several hours to bring the blaze under control after it...
Firefighters have been picking up fragments of broken stained glass as they combed the scene for clues.
It took several hours to bring the blaze under control after it...
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