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Showing posts with label students. Show all posts
Showing posts with label students. Show all posts

Thursday, October 14, 2021

The Data Are (STILL!) Clear: STOP Quarantining Healthy Kids!

Thankfully, more and more right-minded Americans are standing up against foolish and useless Wuhan Virus mask mandates across the U.S. Here’s another great example, this time from the Fulton County, GA—one of the largest and most liberal school districts in Georgia—school district:

As encouraging as it is to see this, too many Americans are still ignoring the foolish and unnecessary “contact tracing” and subsequent quarantining of healthy students across the U.S. Tragically, millions of U.S. students have missed significant in-person schooling because of the ignorant quarantining policies across numerous U.S. school districts. A recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that 23 percent of U.S. parents reported that their children had been sent home from school as a result of Wuhan Virus quarantining policies.

There are approximately 56 million k-12 students in U.S. public and private schools. Thus, the number of students forced to quarantine is almost certainly well into the millions. In most of these cases, the students are not sick. They have merely been deemed to have been “in close contact” with “COVID-positive” person.

Additionally, the “COVID-positive” individual is often not sick. They have merely been the victim of a positive Wuhan Virus test result. This is especially the case with k-12 students. Even if otherwise healthy k-12 students are sick, often their symptoms are quite minor and they are back to normal within a few days.

As I, and many others like-minded, have frequently pointed out these past 18 months: when it comes to young, healthy individuals, the data have long made clear that the Wuhan Virus presents virtually zero danger. Recently, it was reported that Los Angeles County—home to the second largest school district in the U.S.—health officials announced that school districts now have the option to change their close-contact quarantine policies. This is because,

In total, nearly 2% of all staff and students countywide have been identified as a close contact of a case since the school year began. Data to date indicates that very few of the identified close contacts have subsequently tested positive, according to [public health Director Barbara] Ferrer.

As of last week, among the almost 30,000 people that ended up quarantined, 63 tested positive. [Emphasis mine.]

“This amounts to what we call a secondary attack rate of 0.2%,” Ferrer said, calling the figure “extraordinarily low.”

Of course, given that we’re talking about Los Angeles County, even this modified policy is filled ignorant, anti-science nonsense. (For example, students in “modified quarantine” need to “continue to always wear a mask indoors, outdoors and on the school bus, except for when they’re eating and drinking.”) However, it is telling that one of the most liberal places in the U.S. would publicly (and finally) admit what is really happening with kids and COVID, and subsequently change its Wuhan Virus quarantine policy.

All contact tracing and quarantining of healthy students in all U.S. schools should end immediately. The data demands it.

(See this post at American Thinker.)

Copyright 2021, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com

Sunday, March 18, 2018

To My—and All Other—Students: A Lesson on the Modern Left

As a teacher of public school (17 years), private school (7.5 years), and homeschool (11 years), I have a truly unique perspective on education. I’ve experienced k-12 education from just about every angle imaginable. I’ve taught at day schools and evening schools, and I’ve privately tutored many students. I’ve taught on sprawling 200+ acre campuses in buildings costing hundreds of millions of dollars, and I’ve taught in trailers that would barely keep out a strong gust of wind.

Likewise, I’ve experienced students from almost every background imaginable. I’ve taught students who were homeless and those whose parents who could afford $25,000+ tuition for a year of high school. I’ve taught students who’ve never traveled more than 100 miles from their northeast Georgia homes and those who traveled hundreds and even thousands of miles—from Mexico, Guatemala, China, Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, Nigeria, Egypt, and so on—to sit in my classroom. Safe to say, I’ve just about seen it all in k-12 education.

In my quarter-century of teaching mathematics, there’s almost nothing in education that I can say all teachers, students, administrators, parents, and politicians agree upon, save this: we want our schools to be safe. One of the great tragedies of our time has been the wanton slaughter of helpless students, faculty, and staff in what could—and should—be one of the safest places in the world. Sadly, as we are in the shadows of another horrific school slaughter, most of what we are hearing would do virtually nothing to make our schools safer.

As about 100 of the 1700+ students at my high school walked out in protest on March 14 (for a moment I thought it was merely an over-zealous Pi-Day party), I mentioned to a colleague that the whole episode was little more than a ploy to elect more democrats. I found out a short while later that others thought exactly the same.

As most of us watching well knew, several reports have revealed that the student walkouts across the U.S. last Wednesday were far from “organic.” Sadly, liberal organizations across the U.S. have seized on the wicked act that took place at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL in order to push the agenda of the modern left. Note that what we are currently witnessing with the left’s co-opting of American k-12 students is about much more than mere “gun control.”

As they push, prod, propagandize, and otherwise take advantage of youthful students across the U.S., taking guns out of the hands of law abiding Americans is only part of the end game for the American left. Make no mistake about it, young folks, though you are often hailed as our nation’s “greatest resource,” your safety is far from the primary concern when it comes to the American left.

If the left is so concerned with your safety, why for decades have they ignored or lied about science and sound morality and refused to stand up for the most innocent and defenseless among us? For all of your lives you have been deceived about the humanity of the unborn. Can you recall in your science classes where the humanity of the unborn has been a point of emphasis? If you took any form of sex education in a government school, did they tell you that once sperm fertilizes egg, the life of a human being is at stake?

When it comes to violence in our culture, abortion is something that must be honestly discussed. No one should be surprised that a nation which has killed over 50 million of its children in the womb is a violent nation in other ways as well. As Mother Teresa taught us,
I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child—a direct killing of the innocent child—murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?
If today’s left is so concerned with your safety, why have they waged a decades-long war on the oldest, most foundational institution in the history of humanity? As is the case with life in the womb, all of your lives you have been lied to about family and marriage. Tragically, many—if not most—of you are daily experiencing the dismal consequences of these lies. Because of divorce and out-of-wedlock births, through no fault of their own, tens of millions of American school children today are growing up in a home without a mother or a father. It was not supposed to be this way! You deserve better!

As has been pointed out ad-nauseam, children who grow up in broken homes are much more likely to suffer a whole host of negative outcomes. One of the most common traits of the worst murderers in the history of the United States is a broken home. What’s more, American students are FAR more likely to suffer—even to the point of death—from violence and abuse in a broken home than they are from gun violence anywhere. Again, one of the most dangerous places for a child in America is at home with his mother and her live-in boyfriend. Many of you know this all too well.

If modern liberals are so concerned with your safety, why do they continue to lie about the dangers of a hedonistic, promiscuous sexual lifestyle? One of the most shocking statistics of the modern era is that 110 million Americans—over one-third of our population—are now saddled with a sexually transmitted disease. Tragically, many of you know this first hand.

Sexual promiscuity is killing far more Americans than are guns, but you almost never hear such from those who operate from a liberal worldview. What’s more, recent studies have shown—as if we needed more studies to reveal what sound morality has always taught—that teenagers who engage in risky sexual behaviors—especially homosexuality—are much more likely to put their health and lives in danger (along with the health and lives of others) than are those who are choosing to follow the moral precepts of their Creator.

Finally, if liberals are so concerned for your safety, why do they continue to lie about the presence of guns and the frequency of gun violence? The data on guns and violence is clear: some of the safest places in America are littered with guns, while some of the most dangerous places in America have the lowest rates of gun ownership and our strictest gun-control laws.

In addition to these dangerous lies, in order to push their godless, big-government agenda, today’s left—led by Hollywood, the establishment media, the Democrat Party, and yes, most of modern academia—has misled you about the role of good government, the value and purpose of education, the importance of hard work, the state of the earth’s climate, and even what it means to be a male and a female. Thus, for the sake of your spiritual, mental, and physical health, for the rest of your life I encourage you to “walk out” on the modern left. Don’t cast your vote for them, don’t purchase their entertainment, don’t engage their news and information, don’t heed their teaching, and most of all, don’t live out their lies.

(See this piece at American Thinker.)

Copyright 2018, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Recent Study Reveals Significant Health Disparities for Homosexual Teens

A recent (and first of its kind) study verifies again what many Christians have long warned about the homosexual lifestyle. Published in August of 2016 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the study—Sexual Identity, Sex of Sexual Contacts, and Health Related Behaviors Among Students in Grades 9-12—looked at a wide variety of risky behaviors among U.S. high school students.

The study monitored six categories of “priority health-related behaviors among youth and young adults: 1.) behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence; 2.) tobacco use; 3.) alcohol and other drug use; 4.) sexual behaviors related to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections; 5.) unhealthy dietary behaviors; 6.) physical inactivity.”

The study used two questions to measure a student’s sexual status: “Which of the following best describes you?” The response options were, “heterosexual (straight),” “gay or lesbian,” “bisexual,” and “not sure.” The sexual activity of students surveyed was determined by asking: “During your life, with whom have you had sexual contact?” The response options were, “I have never had sexual contact,” “females,” “males,” and “females and males.” In analyzing the results, researchers grouped students who identified as “gay or lesbian” and “bisexual” into the same group (which I will describe here as: “teenagers (or students) engaging in homosexual activity”).

In almost every instance, the risky behavior measured—especially behaviors that are often linked to a moral decision—was much more prevalent among teenagers engaging in homosexual activity. In addition, and unsurprisingly, those students with the healthiest outcomes were those who refrained from sexual activity. In most of the risky behaviors measured, the outcomes are not even close.

For example, students engaging in homosexual activity were about three times more likely to feel “sad or hopeless” than students who had no sexual contact. In addition, students engaging in homosexual activity were nearly four times more likely to have seriously considered attempting suicide than students who had no sexual contact, and they were six-and-a-half times more likely to have actually attempted suicide.

Comparing the same two groups (students engaging in homosexual activity vs. students with no sexual contact), students engaging in homosexual activity were:
  • Eight times more likely to smoke
  • 47 times more likely to smoke frequently (20 or more cigarettes in the month prior to the survey)
  • Nearly 3 times as likely to have tried alcohol prior to age 13
  • Three-and-a-half times as likely to be currently using alcohol
  • More than 11 times as likely to binge drink (10 or more drinks in a row)
  • Nearly six times as likely to be currently using marijuana
  • More than 16 times as likely ever to have used hallucinogenic drugs 
  • More than 18 times as likely ever to have used cocaine 
  • 30 times as likely ever to have used heroin
  • And 23 times as likely ever to have used methamphetamines 
Likewise, compared to students who had no sexual contact, sexually active heterosexual students were:
  • Five times more likely to smoke
  • Nearly 17 times more likely to smoke frequently (20 or more cigarettes in the month prior to the survey)
  • Nearly twice as likely to have tried alcohol prior to age 13
  • Three times as likely to be currently using alcohol
  • More than nine times as likely to binge drink (10 or more drinks in a row)
  • More than four times as likely to be currently using marijuana
  • Nearly nine times as likely ever to have used hallucinogenic drugs 
  • Nine times as likely ever to have used cocaine 
  • More than seven times as likely ever to have used heroin
  • And seven times as likely ever to have used methamphetamines
In other words, the teenagers least likely to put their health and lives in danger (along with the health and lives of others) by engaging in risky behaviors are those who are choosing to follow the moral precepts of their Creator.

None of this should come as a surprise. As I implied at the beginning of this piece, the unhealthy and unsafe behaviors of those who have decided to go their own way sexually is well documented. Of course, it’s not the homosexuality or the fornication itself that leads to other immoral behavior, but the rebellious spirit that lies at the root of such behavior. As Dr. Jeffrey Satinover puts it, “[O]nce people begin to ‘walk on the wild side,’ they have effectively broken one of societies strongest taboos. Other taboos then fall away easily and rapidly.” This is especially true of men who engage in homosexual behavior.

Satinover notes in his seminal book, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth, homosexuality often (if not always) leads to:
  • A 25- to 30-year decrease in life expectancy.
  • Chronic, potentially fatal, liver disease—infectious hepatitis, which increases the risk of liver cancer.
  • Inevitably fatal immune disease including associated cancers.
  • Frequently fatal rectal cancer.
  • Multiple bowel and other infectious diseases.
  • A much higher than usual incidence of suicide.
Men having sex with men (MSM) account for the vast majority (over 75 percent in 2014) of all cases of syphilis. According to the CDC in 2014, MSM were much more likely to contract virtually every sexually transmitted disease (STD) known, including syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea.

The CDC reported last year that rates for sexually transmitted diseases have reached record highs in the U.S. In a news release, Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, declared, “We have reached a decisive moment for the nation.” According to the report, those at greatest risk for STDs in the U.S. are young people ages 15-24, and homosexual men.

The CDC also reports that though they are only about 2 percent of the population, men engaging in homosexual behavior make up 55 percent of all people living with HIV in the U.S. In 2014, homosexual men made up more than two-thirds of all new HIV diagnoses in the United States.

Again, none of this is new information. For as long as there have been organizations willing and able to measure such data, or wherever common sense and sound morality reign, it has been well understood that those engaging in sexually immoral behavior—especially homosexuality—are much less healthy than the general population. Or, as Dr. Satinover put it, “The correlation between male homosexuality and disease has been recognized for at least two thousand years.” Of course, what is relatively new is the desire to ignore or deceive when it comes to one of the most significant health risks a culture could face.

In the name of “sexual freedom,” instead of talking about these behaviors in terms of the real problems that they are (and teaching people to avoid such behaviors), decades of liberal rot has led to meaningless and ineffective campaigns of “awareness, education, and tolerance.” Even the CDC itself—whose stated mission is to protect Americans from “health, safety, and security threats”—will say nothing to discourage homosexual behavior. All the while, as the science reveals again, American kids are suffering and dying.

(See this column at American Thinker.)

Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the brand new book The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com