Politics and Current
Tennessee House passes bill allowing teachers to carry guns –
On April 23, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed a bill authorizing the training teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns on school campuses. HB1202/SB1321 also doesn’t allow parents or other teachers to determine exactly who’s armed. The bill will go to Governor Bill Lee’s desk to be signed into law.
As reported by the Associated Press, the bill passed the Tennessee House by a 68-28 vote, largely along party lines. All but 4 members of the Tennessee Republican House voted in favor of the bill, which didn’t go down well with members of the state Democratic Party or members of the general public who chanted “Blood on your hands” as Republicans voted for the bill.
The bill is a pointy turn from the response to the Covenant School shooting in 2023. After that incident, Governor Lee expressed his desire to keep guns away from individuals who could pose a threat to themselves or others. State Republicans also refused to add a lot of Democratic amendments, including parental consent, notice when a teacher is armed and college district civil liability for injuries, damages or deaths suffered by staff carrying weapons.
Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones told the AP that he thinks Republicans within the state are too attached to money from gun lobbyists. “My Republican colleagues continue to hold our state hostage, holding our state at gunpoint to appeal to their gun industry donors,” said Jones, a Republican. “It’s morally crazy.”
After the vote, the House voted to reprimand Jones for recording on his phone, leading to him barring him from speaking on the ground until April 24. It is value noting that the Republican response to the shooting was not to introduce gun control. This have to be fought, even when the proposal to restrict gun sales got here directly from Governor Lee himself. Shortly after the shooting, Republicans actually passed a bill giving gun manufacturers, dealers and sellers more protections, in addition to allowing teachers in pre-K and kindergarten classrooms to carry handguns on those campuses.
Meanwhile, parents too protested against the potential law in a letter which was presented to Republican Jones by Sarah Shoop Newman, with the support of his adviser. The letter, which collected over 5,300 signatures, expressed concerns that the weapon posed a threat to children. “Anyone who has not received extensive training resembling that provided to law enforcement officers is probably going to be psychologically unprepared to take their very own life, especially the lifetime of a student aggressor.
Such training should include many elements, resembling threat assessment, de-escalation, how to work with students with disabilities, school law, trauma-informed practice and, most significantly, specific responses to an armed attacker. Many of those requirements were specifically rejected within the proposed amendments to SB1325, contrary to the recommendations of NASRO and the FBI.
The letter continues: “We must ensure that every student in every school has adequate protection so that they are truly safe when their parents walk them off each morning, rather than inadequate security measures that could put students and staff at risk. Ultimately, we need preventative measures against gun violence to ensure that no other community in our state experiences the tragedy that occurred at Covenant School on March 27, 2023.”
Politics and Current
Trump’s dismantling of the Department of Education spells doom for Black America
President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promise to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education is being criticized as a possible whitewash of the American education system and a challenge to Title I and Title VI that would prevent funding for special education, school lunch programs, and the possible cancellation of summer schools.
Duncan fears “the whitewashing of our history” and adds: “We have to worry about defunding the most vulnerable groups in society. Title I Money for Poor Children – money for children with special needs or school lunches – anything that can be taken away.”
He continued: “Focus on after-school programs and summer schools may be taken away. Access to higher education – may be restricted.”
Duncan, also A Howard University’s board of trustees has expressed concern about HBCU funding during the second Trump administration. During Trump’s first term, his adviser Steve Bannon argued that committing to more funding for the institution after a White House meeting with Trump can be unconstitutional, justifying concerns that such conduct constitutes discrimination against other races and ethnic groups.
HBCU supporters are concerned about whether or not they can be funded at the appropriate level. Historically, HBCUs have needed more funding, especially amid challenges from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling banning race-based admissions to predominantly white colleges, also often called affirmative motion. Applications to HBCUs are on the rise, causing schools to fret about housing capability, scholarships and sophistication sizes.
Former U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., said Trump’s education proposals are “appalling.”
Jones continued: “The Department of Education is also responsible for investigating anti-Semitism on college campuses, which Republicans say is important to them.”
He added: “But when the rubber meets the road, (Republicans) will quickly abandon it, undermining this important federal department.”
As President-elect Trump prepares to take the oath of office in roughly 70 days, IMD’s Global Competitiveness Center Competitiveness Report 2024 ranks American educational standing twelfth in the world.
Trump said he desires to “fire the radical left accreditors who have allowed our colleges and universities to be dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics.”
In recent years, some Republican governors have opposed the College Board’s accreditation of an AP African-American studies course that provided college credit.
Bumbaugh believes that anything that just isn’t directly related to federal funding is an area government issue for schools. However, he said, voters could have a say in that call because “it will likely be through school board elections and then through state-level elections, similar to governors, where the governor selects state education chiefs.”
Politics and Current
North Carolina Plantation Descendants Won’t ‘Cower’ From ‘Disrespectful’ Massive Texts About Slavery After Donald Trump’s Election
Descendants of certainly one of North Carolina’s largest plantations have condemned mass text messages sent to Black Americans across the country informing them that they’ve been “selected to pick cotton” the day after Donald Trump was re-elected president.
Black people across the country were sent the identical message with slight differences, informing them that that they had been “selected to pick cotton on the nearest plantation.”
Dozens of text messages informed recipients that the “executive slaves” would arrive in a “brown van” that will transport them to the plantations after which inform the victims which “plantation group,” marked AZ, they belonged to.
Beverly Evans said ABC11 that “people who received these messages felt disrespected, and all of us, as Black people, felt disrespected because of this.”
The 76-year-old recently learned that she is descended from a family that was once enslaved on the Stagville Plantation in Durham, North Carolina. According to Stagville’s websitethe plantation belonged to the Bennehan-Cameron family, which enslaved over 900 people across 30,000 acres of land within the state.
The North Carolina Department of Historic Sites reported that some people even received text messages mentioning the Stagville plantation:
“We have become aware that some North Carolinians have received alarming text messages regarding the Stagville State Historic Plantation Site. North Carolina Historic Sites condemns these acts that sought to incite fear and division by weaponizing history. Stagville is a sacred space where visitors can grapple with the history of slavery, emancipation and injustice. We will cooperate with law enforcement to investigate these hateful and fraudulent messages.”
Another person whose family was once enslaved on the Stagville plantation asserted that he wouldn’t be unnerved by messages designed to stoke fear and intimidation.
“We don’t hide anymore. We are no longer intimidated. Those days are over,” said Ricky Hart. “They can try the intimidation factor or the fear factor, but it won’t work anymore.”
The news sparked a social media firestorm and was condemned by many state and federal elected officials. Authorities strongly urged anyone who received the message to contact local FBI field offices and state agencies.
Federal agents opened an investigation and dispatched criminal, cyber and counterintelligence agencies to analyze the matter. It is unclear right now whether the lyrics come from the United States or abroad.
A spokesman for CTIA, the official trade association representing the U.S. wireless communications industry, he told NBC News blocked many messages and the numbers that sent them. The association urged people to send spam text messages to 7726 or “SPAM” to report them to their wireless service provider.
Divisive and hateful rhetoric has increased throughout the last presidential election cycle. Trump has been hailed by his opponents as a significant influencer of this rhetoric, raising concerns that race relations within the country will proceed to deteriorate once he returns to office.
The NAACP released an announcement stating that the messages “represent an alarming increase in vile and disgusting rhetoric from racist groups across the country who now feel emboldened to spread hate and fan the flames of fear many of us feel in the wake of Tuesday’s election results.”
Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, condemned the text messages last week, stating: “If we can find the origin of these messages that promote this kind of ugliness on our behalf, we will of course take legal action to stop it.”
Politics and Current
As an Afro-Latina, I struggle to understand why Latinos voted for Trump – essence
Celeste Polanco
As we tried to discuss the election results, my mother’s hopeless voice welcomed my call. I heard my stepdad cheer, “Yay!” within the background. Unfortunately, he’s one among the numerous Latinos who supported Trump’s presidency. Anger surged through my body as I heard my father figure praising a person who could care less concerning the woman he “loved” probably the most – my mother. This is the truth for many Latinos who cannot understand why other Latinos would vote for Donald Trump.
54% Latinos voted for Trump, 18% greater than within the 2020 election. These are the identical men who got here from women. By electing a person who has made countless racist comments about our own culture, they’ve concurrently turned their backs on the ladies they got here here to vote for. As an Afro-Latina, seeing these results online and in my family is deeply disheartening and an enormous sign of disrespect.
In the Latino community, men are placed on a pedestal by the ladies within the household. These women cook, clean, raise children, work or stay at home for their careers, and more. Women carry Latinas on their backs just to be paid to accomplish that, with their rights to their bodies questioned. These usually are not only the bodies of their moms and wives, but additionally of their grandmothers, daughters and granddaughters. The results of this election are a transparent signal that the Latino pedestal has been held too high for too long. Trump-supporting Latinos bask within the election ends in the presence of the ladies they were supposed to protect.
Some of those men have a good time with 37% Latinas who voted for Trump are 7% greater than in 2020. These are the identical women who almost definitely won’t have the proper to end an unwanted pregnancy. This also concerns a more essential issue – these women placed on a pedestal a person who doesn’t respect them.
Donald Trump has been outspoken about women’s bodies and has even been accused of sexual assault, and yet women still select him. As Latinas, we’d like to stop supporting and making excuses for men who don’t select us in our home or country. This is our way of showing our daughters that it’s okay to accept disrespect. We also show them that there is no such thing as a “no” in politics.
Voting for Donald Trump is an act of violence against many groups, but especially against women. Healing is how I and plenty of others get through this time. I found peace in allowing my tears to flow and soften as I released my anger. By embracing the healing process, we as women can move forward.
Go for a walk, cry, shout, block, unfollow, end friendships and set boundaries. This is your healing process; there is no such thing as a right or unsuitable way to do it. Your emotions usually are not very high. They are on time. And despite what is occurring in our country, please remember: You and your body still matter.
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