Letters to the Editor: Teachers must speak up for students, future; What is the state thinking?; No exercise in bad air; Playing with semantics -…

Teachers must speak up for students, future

I have been a teacher in Santa Maria for 25 years. Why is there no public response to the farce that has become the politics of public education? The speakers of the national unions cannot represent us. It is time for teachers to speak up.

When Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers shares a link to a Washington Post article that claims parents have no right to shape their kids school curriculum, we must speak up.

When educators and media pundits claim no CRT is being taught in public schools, we must speak up. The Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum for K-12 adopted by the California Board of Education in March 2021 is a CRT promulgation (Chap. 3; pg. 31-32).

When staff distribute a dictionary with 21 words to describe types of gender and 10 new pronouns, we must speak up. Speak up for truth. Every person on our campus is welcome and valued and must be treated with dignity and respect because they are people.

When districts implement mask mandates, we must speak up. Individuals can choose to wear a mask. Parents have a right to mask their children. No one has a right to force others to do so.

When people are being coerced into making health decisions that go against their judgement or are not based on discussions with their doctors, we must speak up.

When people try to erase history in the name of righting past wrongs, we must speak up.

Too many in public education have lost their way. There is no education without truth.

In Janus vs. AFSCME, the Supreme Court affirmed the First Amendment and declared teachers are not required to be part of a teachers union to keep their jobs. If the unions dont represent you, its time to leave the union. That is one way we can speak up. We must speak up for the students who need us, the parents who trust us and the future that awaits us all.

Kerry Millhorn

Nipomo

How dare the State of California want to take away our right to catch COVID! It has already taken away our right to get, suffer from, and potentially die from mumps, measles, whooping cough, diptheria, tuberculosis, and polio by insisting we vaccinate our children before they go to school. What can the state be thinking?

Betty Gunn

Santa Maria

This goes out to the people responsible for all the students who are asked to exercise in this horrible air quality environment. I see kids running for track class, and just heard the football game going on at the Neighbor Bowl last night (which was way too loud by the way); and they are even doing band practice outdoors.

Come on, use common sense, watch out for your kids' health and keep them out of this smoke and heavy particulate matter that we call "air" these days!

Eileen Eberhart

Hanford

In a recent commentary, chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner, Byron York appears to take umbrage at some circles calling the Jan. 6 Capitol riot an armed insurrection. He then asks, How many rioters were armed? And what weapons did they have? What were the arms in the armed insurrection?

He argues, Of the 670 (defendants with federal charges against them), I counted 82 who face weapons-related charges. Thats about 12% of the total. And of course, the number of people charged with anything, 670, is far smaller than the number who were on the Capitol grounds that day.

Mr. York wants us to believe that 82 people with weapons arent enough to create an armed insurrection and that 670 defendants charged is insignificant compared to the total number of rioters on Jan. 6. Really.

He lists the variety of weapons used by the 82 defendants as: A helmet. A baton. A crutch. A walking stick. Handgun. Pepper Spray. Flagpole. Knife. Baseball bat. Crowd control barrier. Police shield. Hockey stick. Desk drawer.

Mr. York then points out that guns are the most serious and that of the 670, (only) five suspects are charged with possessing firearms. But none are charged with using them during the riot.

He then offers excuses for each having a gun during the riot while vilifying, scapegoating, and throwing shade at Capitol Police Lt. Micheal Byrd by pointing out, The only shot that was fired during that time was by Capitol Police Lt. Micheal Byrd, who shot and killed rioter Ashli Babbitt as she tried to force her way into an area near the chamber.

No mention of Lt. Micheal Byrd being exonerated and his heroics in protecting members of Congress from kidnapping or death at the hands of armed insurrectionists.

Mr. York also scapegoats antifa remarking, Some weapons were clearly brought in anticipation of a fight. Some rioters thought they would be battling antifa. As if the intent to kill members of antifa makes having weapons seem reasonable during the riot.

Finally Mr. York concludes, what happened on Jan. 6 was a riot But a look at the Justice Department prosecutions simply does not make the case it was an armed insurrection.

Mr. York seems to want to minimize and offer excuses for riot attendees on Jan. 6. Anybody that saw footage of the Jan. 6 riot knows it wasnt peaceful and that plenty of people had weapons and were using them to injure, maim, kill and threaten our elected members of Congress.

I find it shameful and disgusting that Mr. York is not demanding all involved in crimes during the armed insurrection on Jan. 6 be held accountable. Instead he is making the semantics of labeling the riot as an armed insurrection seem more important than finding out the truth about what occurred, holding those involved accountable, and administering justice.

Nelson Sagisi

Santa Maria

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Letters to the Editor: Teachers must speak up for students, future; What is the state thinking?; No exercise in bad air; Playing with semantics -...