Washington State Dept. of Health decides no COVID19 shot required for students

In a press release on April 13, 2022, the Washington State Department of Health announced that receiving the COVID 19 shot would not be a requirement for students to attend school. Parents have lobbied heavily against the requirement during  the last few weeks, contacting both the Health Department’s Technical Advisory Group, and the Board of Health itself. There have also been numerous demonstrations and rallies against requiring the COVID19 shot for students.

We thank the State Board of Health for this decision. We appreciate, even more, the action of involved parents who made their opinions known, and who also provided the health department officials with research, scientific information, and explanations of personal experiences with the COVID19 shots.

We stress, however, that we citizens who uphold parents’ rights are not done. Past experience shows that we cannot go back to complacency but must maintain our vigilance. The virus will return, or there will be some other catalyst. The state will prepare to take other actions encroaching upon parents’ rights, and citizens and parents must be ready to make their opinions known again.

Here is the announcement:

“Statement from the Washington State Department of Health

OLYMPIA – Today, the Washington State Board of Health (SBOH) voted not to include COVID-19 in the state’s immunization requirements for school entry at this time. As stated in today’s SBOH meeting, the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) supports the recommendation of the SBOH’s technical advisory group (TAG) and thanks the TAG for its thorough and methodical and transparent review of this matter over several months. During today’s SBOH discussion, it was made clear that both DOH and SBOH continue to support COVID-19 vaccines as being safe and effective, and particularly protective against severe illness, hospitalization, and death. Staying up to date with COVID-19 vaccine recommendations is the best way to protect community members against COVID-19. DOH continues to remind community members to help protect our schools, educators, and students by urging everyone to continue to do their part by getting vaccinated and boosted, if eligible. DOH reminds people to wear a mask if needed, stay home and get tested if they feel sick, and follow isolation recommendations if they test positive. COVID-19 is increasing in some communities, and we must still actively work to prevent its spread. This statement was originally attributed to the Secretary of Health, and it should be attributed to the Washington State Department of Health instead. The DOH website is your source for a healthy dose of information. Find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Sign up for the DOH blog, Public Health Connection.”

Government Nannies at Your Door

“We’re from the Government and we’re here to help you.”

Do those words give you a warm, fuzzy feeling? The sponsors of the “Welcome to Washington Baby Act” think so. “A welcome hug from the State of Washington,” is how one Legislative Aide described the bill. The bill in the House of Representatives is HB 1771 and the companion bill in the Senate is SB 5683. It would establish a universal home visiting program for families of newborns. There are many disturbing aspects to this bill.
Read more.

Learn about the data tracking, social emotional learning, the locker room agenda, and more.

Saturday, July 23, 2016

3:00-5:00

La Belle Vie Event Center

18507 E. Appleway Ave.

Spokane Valley, WA 99016

For more information, contact co-chairs

Cindy Marshall (509) 998-2126

Joyce Fiess (206) 715-7786

Under the federal education law, No Child Left Behind, at least 95% of the state’s students must take the state assessments. However, this year Washington state students in various parts of the state opted out in large numbers, resulting in only about 90% of the students taking the assessments. Exact numbers have not been released yet. This is an unexpected and unprecedented occurrence.  It is uncertain how the federal government will respond.  Read the KPBS article.

The Seattle School District has been uploading personal information to the data storage company ConnectEDU for the past three years. Now ConnectEDU is going bankrupt and the company is refusing to delete the personal data as stated in their contract with the Seattle School District. Read the article.

Increasing amounts of personal data are being collected on all public school students. The data collection is underway in government-funded preschools and even earlier. We encourage parents to be assertive about protecting the private information of their children. In this age of computers, this data can be stored indefinitely and can be hacked,  misused, shared, or sold. Please be vigilant.

It almost seems as if today’s definition of school data privacy is that school records are kept private from the parents. A Nevada father asked to see his four children’s school records and was told the fee would be $10,000!

In today’s computer-driven classrooms, an enormous amount of data can potentially be collected and stored indefinitely on computers. Through children’s responses on open-ended questions, a complete personality profile could potentially be compiled. We might trustingly hope that this would never happen, but just how do parents find out what information is being collected? Read the article.

The State Supreme Court, in the McCleary decision, reaffirmed that it was the “paramount duty” of the state to make “ample provision” for the education of all children…..(see Article IX, Washington State Constitution)

When the writers of this Article in Washington State’s Constitution wrote this, education consisted of “reading, writing, and arithmetic.” The writers would probably be surprised at what is considered “basic education” today. Their use of the words “ample provision” doesn’t necessarily mean ample payment, although the courts apparently think so.

Laurie Rogers also questions the word “ample” and provides many other good questions. Read her commentary.

These are good questions to ask your legislator at the next town hall meeting.

Have you ever been in a large meeting in which you felt manipulated into coming up with a decision you never wanted? You been the victim of the Delphi technique.

The political caucuses for 2012 are coming up. Here are some resolutions to submit at your respective caucus meetings.

This is CURE’s education platform. All political parties are welcome to use this platform or parts of the platform, to develop their party’s position on education.