California Now Requires Whooping Cough Vaccines

More crazy news from crazy California: We're now going to require kids to be vaccinated against whooping cough before allowing them to come to school and infect their peers and teachers. That this wasn't already law is probably news to many. The question is: Will the middle class mommies who erroneously believe that vaccines give their babies autism and other horrible diseases choose to quit work and home school their kids?

This from SF K Files blog:

California teens need to be up to date on their whooping cough shots before starting classes next fall in order to be in compliance with a new law.

The statute requires all middle and high school students to be vaccinated against the highly infectious disease, also known as pertussis, prior to the school year that starts in the fall of 2011.
State public health medical officer Dr. Eileen Yamada says students in public and private schools will need to show proof of a TDAP booster shot before starting school.

"They really will need documentation to get into school, so it's very important to plan ahead, make appointments now, and keep student immunization record in a safe place," said Yamada.
Parents should scrutinize medical records to make sure their children got the TDAP vaccine, which covers pertussis, and not just the TD vaccine.

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Bad Week For School Boards—Bad Year for Most Everyone

In her blog, SF School Board Member, Rachel Norton, refers to the attack on the Panama City, Florida, school board, as an act of desperation and hopelessness, typical of how people are feeling today. “At almost every Board meeting, people come before us who are feeling very angry, desperate and hopeless—I am not sure we are fully prepared for what could happen if one of them were armed.

I find it interesting and refreshing that a school board member would take this stance, when other politicians and the media are portraying the gunman, Clay Duke, as a lunatic or terrorist, and crying out for greater security and secrecy and more heavy-handed policing. Here is a politician acknowledging her vulnerability without screaming for protection. Further, instead of simply writing Duke off as a wing nut, she implies that his anguish was justified, even if his actions were not.

According to Duke’s wife, he was a “gentle giant who was pushed over the edge by the economy and her job loss.” (Before opening fire on the school board, he had chastised them for firing his wife.) He was also reportedly bipolar, and a conspiracy nut, which may explain both the insanity of attacking a school board and the rambling and sometimes incoherent nature of his suicide note (see below). Nevertheless, it is clear from his testament that he was fed up with the growing consolidation of wealth and power by the rich, and the austerity they have imposed on the rest of us.

“Some people (the government sponsored media) will say I was evil, a monster (V). . . no . . . I was just born poor in a country where the Wealthy manipulate, use, abuse, and economically enslave 95% of the population. Rich Republicans, Rich Democrats. . . same-same. . . rich. . . they take turns fleecing us. . . our few dollars. . . pyramiding the wealth for themselves. The 95%. . . the us, in US of A, are the neo slaves of the Global South. Our Masters, the Wealthy, do, as they like to us. . .”

More Angry Men Expected At Future Board Meetings

Norton was prescient in her post. “I fear what we saw in Panama City. . . is just the tip of the iceberg. Last night school officials in Mt. Diablo Unified [across the bay from San Francisco] contemplated the desperate steps of closing up to seven schools, and the district is asking its employees for millions of dollars in wage and benefit concessions.”

Statewide, Norton estimates that education cuts for the 2011-2012 year could reach $500-750 per student. For SFUSD, alone, that could translate to an additional $20-35 million in cuts, on top of the $113 million they lost this year. That should anger plenty of parents and teachers.

Norton is not necessarily predicting more acts of violence, but she is suggesting that people are getting fed up. When people get angry enough, things can turn destructive and sometimes violent. Consider the numerous recent protests in France, England, Greece, Spain and Ireland.

People are getting fed up with the continuing bailouts of CEOs, investors and bankers and tax cuts for the rich, while the rest of us get squeezed with increasing job, pay and benefits cuts, increasing taxes, losses of social services and general social abandonment. People are particularly fed up with education cuts.

Hopefully folks will organize and fight back through direct action, rather than going “school board.”

SF Superintendent and Board Complicit in Embezzlement Scheme?

Artwork Borrowed from Fred Klonsky's Blo

S.F. school officials, including Superintendent Carlos Garcia, received warnings that senior administrators in charge of after school programs might be mishandling millions of dollars in district money. The warnings started as early as five years ago, calling into question whether the scandal could have been averted, as well as the possibility that the superintendent and school board were complicit.

Former Deputy Superintendent, Trish Bascom, had been in charge of the Student Support Services Department, and is the main suspect in the scandal. Her department was responsible for contracting with Community Based Organizations (CBOs) that provide after school support for students and had an annual budget of $20 million. She is accused of diverting money earmarked for CBOs to her cronies. For example, money that had been allocated to the YMCA was reallocated to a front group, Bay Area Community Resources, which made thousands of dollars in payments to S.F. Unified administrators. The San Francisco District Attorney has opened a criminal investigation.

Deputy Superintendent Richard Carranza said that the district acted immediately upon hearing of the allegations. However, executives of several CBOs that contract with the district say they had complained for years about never receiving federal and state money they were owed by the district and that they were suspicious of corruption in Bascom’s department. Bascom’s attorney, Stuart Hanlon, holds Superintendent Garcia and the school board responsible for giving Bascom too much autonomy and looking the other way because they liked Bascom’s ability to secure grants and fund her programs without dipping into the general fund.

Garcia and School Board have tried to deflect blame entirely on Bascom and her accomplices. However, Bascom should have been investigated five years ago, when rumors of her corruption first surfaced. In times of economic hardship, administrators should look first at their own bloated bureaucracies for corruption, mismanagement and waste, before slashing programs and firing teachers. Ultimately, the boss (in this case, the superintendent and board) is responsible for everything that happens in an organization and they were clearly asleep at the wheel.

Corrupt Admin Rips Off SFUSD

A group of San Francisco Unified School District administrators, including an associate superintendent, ripped off the district by redirecting tens of thousands of dollars from community organizations into their own pockets. The administrators were part of the Department of Student Support Services, which works with community organizations to provide students with health education, drug abuse counseling and violence prevention. This is no small matter, as the district currently faces a $113 million deficit.

Associate Superintendent, Trish Bascom, is the former head of Student Support Services, and a key suspect in the investigation. For years she controlled the department’s $20 million budget. Bascom was replaced this year by Kevin Truitt, former principal of Mission High School. Truitt had a reputation at Mission of being transparent with budget matters. With all eyes on his new department, everyone will be expecting more transparency.