Cheers & Jeers
Dan Wagner, culinary instructor at Greene County Career and Technology Center, was recently named the 2022 Pennsylvania ProStart Educator of Excellence.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Ava Gialames, a seventh-grader at Charleroi Area Middle/High School, braces for the pinch of her COVID-19 vaccine shot in this file photo from November 2021. Gialames鈥檚 mother, Christine, who teaches at Charleroi, signed her daughters up for the free clinic after speaking with the family pediatrician, who said the children鈥檚 vaccines are safe.
Cheers: Dan Wagner, culinary arts instructor at Greene County Career and Technology Center, was recently named the 2022 Pennsylvania ProStart Educator of Excellence. The award recognizes educators who demonstrate excellence in the classroom and passion, commitment and creativity in all aspects of the ProStart program to help their students make the most of the opportunities that ProStart offers. This is just the latest of many accolades, honors and awards that Wagner has received in the years he has been employed as CTC culinary arts instructor. FWe congratulate Wagner for his many years of dedication and commitment to serving as an exemplary leader for his students.
Jeers: An overwhelming majority of Americans disapprove of efforts to ban books from schools, according to a poll last month by CBS News and the marketing research company YouGov. More than 80% oppose removing books that criticize U.S. history, depict slavery, discuss race or contain political ideas the respondents disagree with. That鈥檚 the good news. The bad news, though, is that attempts to ban books continue seemingly unimpeded. Greensburg鈥檚 Tribune-Review reported earlier this week that the Franklin Regional School District is 鈥減ausing鈥� the teaching of 鈥淧ersepolis,鈥� a highly regarded graphic novel about a 10-year-old girl growing up amid the Iranian Revolution, after parents raised concerns. What is there to be concerned about? The parent of one freshman at the school made this point in the Tribune-Review: 鈥淭he purpose of public education is to expose our kids to a variety of perspectives, to think critically about what they hear and form their own opinions and defend them. Our students are up to the task.鈥�
Jeers: Numbers of COVID-19 infections and deaths are declining, but the coronavirus isn鈥檛 entirely through with us. The number of daily deaths across the United States still reaches about 2,000 per day, and we are getting close to 1 million deaths overall across the country since the start of the pandemic two years ago. Also, it is the third leading cause of death in America, behind heart disease and cancer. Yet Florida Surgeon General Joseph Lapado said Monday that his state will recommend that healthy children not receive COVID-19 vaccines. This flies in the face of recommendations by pediatricians and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It also flies in the face of common sense 鈥� healthy children can still be infected with COVID-19, and pass the disease along to friends or family. Recommending that healthy children not get their COVID-19 shots seems to be a surefire way to put their good health at serious risk.
Cheers: The U.S. Senate unanimously approved a measure earlier this week that would make lynching a federal hate crime. Believe it or not, it took 100 years 鈥� a full century 鈥� for it to finally become law. For decades it was stymied by Southern senators who believed that such a bill would contravene states鈥� rights. Almost 5,000 Americans were lynched from the 1880s to the 1960s in the United States, with the majority of the victims being Black. U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader, explained, 鈥淲hile this will not erase the horrific injustices to which tens of thousands of African Americans have been subjected to over the generations 鈥� nor fully heal the terror inflicted on countless others 鈥� it is an important step forward as we continue the work of confronting our nation鈥檚 past in pursuit of a brighter and more just future.鈥�