Wither Central Bucks School District? Bucks GOP Chair on ‘Insurrection Index,’ How to Protect LGBTQ Students, Share Your Abortion Stories, And More!
A blitzkrieg of de facto book bans could disappear resources for almost all of a child’s time in this Bucks County school district.
This week I asked Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, to take a look at Central Bucks School District’s draft library policy policy and spoke with her afterwards. It is really dangerous and all students will suffer.
Read my column: Central Bucks School District’s Draft Library Policy Overhaul Opens the Door to Censorship
Many Central Bucks parents are concerned about the direction the district seems to be goin – down — and whether the district’s reputation will become irrevocably harmed. Here’s a few reasons why:
In light of everything happening in Central Bucks, and throughout Bucks County, I reached out to Rethinking Schools who allowed us to share this editorial Protecting Trans Youth. Here is an excerpt:
It also means building classrooms and curricula that resist the dehumanization of LGBTQ+ people that these attacks engender. It means always using our students’ correct pronouns and names; normalizing Queer stories and people through the books on our shelves, the films, podcasts, stories, and poems in our curricula; addressing gender and sexuality across the curriculum, not just in ELA or health class; teaching the history of social movements, including the LGBTQ+ movement; supporting student efforts to organize against homophobia and transphobia — QSAsor banned book clubs or rallies; and it means recognizing the deadly stakes if we don’t.
Congratulations to Bucks County GOP Chair Pat Poprik for being named to voting rights group Public Wise’s ‘Insurrection Index.’
There is a rally for abortion rights Sunday in Doylestown. Guest columnist Kelly Dejong shared her abortion story in the column “The Truth Of Our Abortion Stories Need To Be Shared.” She says these stories live in the shadows cloaked in unnecessary shame and our truth must shine to keep this right.
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Eligible PA families to see relief after COVID-19 disrupted school meal programs. Feeding America estimates that 1.3 million people in Pennsylvania, including 380,000 children, struggle with food insecurity.
Bucks County’s Democratic Party needs new leadership. See who is stepping up to the plate.
Pennsylvania’s GOP school voucher bill advances, which would rob public schools to pay private businesses, while providing no accountability for taxpayers.
Do you want a distraction from the politics for a few days, at least until Tuesday? Here are some things to do this weekend in Bucks County.
Finally, a few articles that I read this week from Beyond the Bubble:
Safe supply is the future
From drug users in Vancouver to opium poppy growers in Mexico, activists across borders say safe and legal drugs will save lives.
https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/safe-supply-is-the-future
Unbearable harassment: The fashion industry and widespread abuse of female garment workers in Indian factories
“Verbal, physical, and sexual harassment exists in every garment factory – not just this one. It existed before COVID, it exists during COVID, and it will exist after COVID,” said Smita, garment worker at a factory in Tamil Nadu which produced for ASDA, C&A, Carrefour, JD Sports and Tesco.
https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/from-us/briefings/unbearable-harassment
Indigenous Community Confronts a Colombian Paper Giant
“Afro-Colombians, Indigenous peoples, and peasants have the right to access the land.”
https://nacla.org/news/photo-essays/12764/essay
Thanks for reading and please forward to friends and neighbors!