[FoxNews] Programs are geared toward specific demographic groups, such as LGBTQ+ and BIPOC
The Department of Justice (DOJ) awarded over $100 million in grants to promote restorative justice and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) measures over the course of the Biden administration, according to a conservative watchdog.
Parents Defending Education (PDE) released the report on Thursday, which found that from 2021 to 2024, millions of dollars were spent on federal funding in 36 states and 946 K-12 school districts, serving over three million students to promote restorative justice practices, social emotional learning and DEI in the classroom with many projects aimed at improving school climates for specific demographic groups, such as LGBTQ+ and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color).
The DOJ's STOP School Violence Program provides grant money to nonprofits, school districts, and city and state governments in an effort "to increase school safety by implementing solutions that will improve school climate." But, PDE argues that the DOJ actually aims to replace exclusionary discipline with restorative practices and social emotional learning (SEL).
Social emotional learning is advertised as a way to teach students social skills in support of their mental health and emotional well-being, but it has been criticized as a way to implement controversial topics like Critical Race Theory and Gender Theory. As a result, it has become a point of contention among parents, teachers and politicians who advocate for a strong academic emphasis at school and against classroom discussions that they feel should be left up to parents' discretion at home.
PDE describes exclusionary discipline as a process that removes the disruptor from the classroom, allowing the rest of the class to continue learning. Restorative practices, in contrast, often disrupt class time for more students, as both the offender(s) and victim(s) in a conflict are brought together to discuss what happened and "repair harm," PDE states.
The report breaks down the grants into four categories: general, DEI, consulting/certification and hiring. For example, consultants hired by the DOJ aimed to "educate students or staff on [a] changing school climate" and promote concepts like critical race theory, critical gender theory and queer theory, according to PDE's analysis. Over $10 million was allocated to hiring new administrators for DEI roles like "restorative justice facilitators."
Outside organizations brought in to train students and staff on the proposed subject include CASEL, the International Institute for Restorative Practices, Second Step, and Courageous Conversations About Race.
"Words matter, and this report highlights how the Biden administration chose to deliberately hijack a school safety program to fund their pet programs," Nicole Neily, president and founder of PDE, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
"It’s hard to imagine that ‘school climate’ would ever be improved by the creation of racially-segregated programming or hiring teachers on the basis of skin color - if anything, these programs only lead to more animosity and tension between students."
Notable examples of grants rewarded include $2 million from the DOJ to "create safe learning environments where practices of anti-racism and anti-oppression are embedded" at the Minnesota Department of Education, $1,853,070 awarded to Bowling Green State University to develop student mental health curriculum in rural and high-poverty districts, which includes activities like "mindfulness meditation, yoga, and knitting circles," $1,785,773 for Penn State University to decrease cyberbullying in Central Pennsylvania K-12 schools, providing an opportunity "to meaningfully advance equity in violence prevention for communities historically underserved, marginalized, adversely affected by inequality, and disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and victimization (People of Color (POC), women, people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA+ community)."
Neily told Fox News Digital in her statement that the grant program is intended to "recognize, respond quickly to, and prevent acts of violence." This, she said, is why it’s "so infuriating that projects like knitting circles were given the green light."
Other examples include a collaborative program between Temple University and the School District of Philadelphia, allocating $1,688,668 in an attempt to prevent violence by teaching at-risk youth about "community policing, trauma informed conflict emphasizing racial/historical and intergenerational trauma, impacts of social media on conflict and conflict escalation and management, anti-bias education, restorative practices."
A million dollars was granted to Reach Out West End in Upland, California to fund a project to improve school safety in Jurupa Valley Unified School District with content "on LGBTQIA+ issues aligned with SB 857, mental/behavioral health, substance use prevention and/or conflict mediation." Another $1,000,000 was given to Ocean County in New Jersey to "reduce the acceptability of teasing, oppression, and all forms of violence."
Nearly $1 million was awarded to Milwaukee Public School’s board of directors to "promote racial equity" through activities like "racial equity seminars" and student-led focus groups "to dismantle institutionalized barriers and promote inclusive school climates," the DOJ announcement of the grant reads.
Virginia's suit against the Biden Administration (together w. 5 other states) has resulted in suspension of illegal Title IX rule across the country. This is the 1st clear nationwide injunction against a re-write of decades-old civil rights… pic.twitter.com/nUr1DiJ4N4
[IsraelTimes] Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) announced on Tuesday that he is reintroducing the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, a measure aimed at preventing trans-identified males from competing in women’s sports.
[ZeroHedge] The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general this week confirmed it is auditing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) over concerns that its employees avoided homes that displayed signs supporting then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in the aftermath of several hurricanes.
In a letter dated Jan. 6, the office told Reps. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and Scott Perry (R-Pa.) that an audit of the disaster relief agency was initiated on Dec. 17, 2024, to “determine how well FEMA followed its policies and procedures when addressing safety concerns and determining community trends that impact disaster survivor assistance in response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton.”
Two months ago, a now-terminated FEMA employee, Marn’i Washington, allegedly told a FEMA team in Florida to bypass homes that display Trump signs. After reports surfaced that FEMA workers were told to avoid those homes, FEMA Director Deanne Criswell announced that the employee, Washington, was fired.
“I want to be clear to all of my employees and the American people, this type of behavior and action will not be tolerated at FEMA, and we will hold people accountable if they violate these standards of conduct,” Criswell said in a statement at the time.
But Washington later said in several media interviews that the policy was systemic and that she was being scapegoated. FEMA officials “were already avoiding these homes, based on community trends, from hostile political encounters,” she told Fox News at the time, adding that the policy had “nothing to do with the campaign sign, it just so happened to be a part of the community trend.”
“Firstly, I’m being framed,” she told NewsNation in mid-November 2024.
“There’s no violation of the Hatch Act. I was simply following orders.”
On Dec. 3, 2024, Graves and Perry, two lawmakers who sit on the House Transportation Committee, called for an investigation into the claims made by Washington and other reports “of the deliberate avoidance of homes with Trump campaign or political signs” during FEMA’s response to the two hurricanes.
“The actions taken by FEMA supervisors in directing employees to avoid homes that displayed Trump campaign signs or flags are disturbing and raise serious questions about the culture and political bias that permeates FEMA leadership,” they wrote, adding that the committee is also concerned about whether the practice was “more widespread than reported” and could have harmed hurricane victims.
In November 2024, Criswell testified before a House subcommittee and said that not providing aid to people due to political beliefs is “completely at odds with FEMA’s mission,” stressing that the incident wasn’t part of a broader FEMA trend.
FEMA had faced criticism late last year after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Criswell suggested the relief agency would run out of funding needed to last the remainder of the 2024 hurricane season.
The announcement from Mayorkas did not sit well with certain Republicans. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and others highlighted two FEMA announcements last year allocating more than $1 billion to offset the costs of illegal immigrants who were flooding U.S. cities, which GOP officials said should instead have been provided to communities reeling from the hurricanes.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Los Angeles' water boss who makes $750,000 a year couldn't quite explain why fire hydrants have run dry during the disastrous wildfires in a bumbling video.
During a press conference Wednesday, Janisse Quiñones, the newly appointed chief executive officer and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said all water storage tanks in the Pacific Palisades area 'went dry' as flames continue to rage on.
If she’s newly appointed, she isn’t responsible for how it got that way, but she got left holding the bag anyway.
At least seven people have been killed and almost 180,000 forced to leave their homes amid the most destructive blaze in the county's history.
Quiñones, who previously worked for PG&E prior to being appointed in May,
May is not recent. So she is responsible.
said the third water tank ran out at about 3am local time Wednesday, after the first tank ran out around 4.45pm, and the second at approximately 8.30pm - each at about 1,000,000 gallons each.
'Those tanks help with the pressure on the fire hydrants in the hills of Palisades, and because we were pushing so much water in our trunk line, and so much water was being used before it can get to the tanks - we were not able to fill the tanks fast enough,' she explained.
'So the consumption of water was faster than we can provide water in our trunk line,' she continued, adding that there is water in the truck line, but it 'cannot get up the hill because we cannot fill the tanks fast enough.'
After someone asked her for the number of hydrants that cannot get water because of these issues, Quiñones started to stumble on her words.
'We, um, we were trying to keep water at all altitudes on the Palisades, and I think about three in the morning, that's when - uh - the hydrants went dry above the Brentwood area.'
#4
Given, LA is next to Ocean.
Why hasn't it already installed piping to use seawater instead of mainly using fresh/ treated Colorado River water to fight fires?
#7
Hydrants are just valves that tap into the existing potable water system. A full seawater system would require separate piping everywhere. You could design a system that could be connected and isolated for emergency use with seawater and/or untreated water use. Setting that up would require a lot of planning, technical competence and political will that isn’t available in the location of the disaster. It is not an alteration that can’t be done on the fly. Spending money on a firefighting project in LA could only happen if 90% of the money could be syphoned off through corruption. Look for that to be proposed by Newsom in the aftermath.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/10/2025 8:17 Comments ||
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#8
If you ever wonder why CAL is so hosed?
There are Media reports indicating LA Mayor is or was in Africa when the LA area fires were in full bloom.
#10
There's an antisemitic conspiracy theory about how a single family bought up all the water bearing land in LA. It's bullshit, like all antisemitic conspiracy theories.
#13
Re #7: There are lots of good reasons NOT to use sea water for firefighting. Sea water is corrosive, so pipes and fittings would need to be hardened against it. Also, spreading salt water around the ground can contaminate it.
Ships can use seawater for firefighting because the firefighting pipes are separate.
#20
#1, Skidmark, who authorized Biden to tell the truth? Maybe he thought the need to cut off power was a good excuse for having no water for the fire hydrants but it's not. Those power lines should have been buried over a hundred years ago. If you have to cut off electricity when Santa Ana winds blow, then you will not have electricity at a time when it is absolutely critical that you do. Newsom knows that and did nothing about it so he must bear responsibility for this tragedy.
California is a big, highly complex enterprise. You can't just sit back, sip wine, put Dipity-Do in your hair and run for president if you want to avoid major disasters. You can't just put it on auto-pilot. If you're not paying attention, things like fire hydrants running dry during a fire will happen. It's like talking on a cell phone while driving a car. You need to be serious, responsible, realistic and pro-active. Newsom isn't.
Newsom has prioritized all the wrong things during his time in office. He's working to keep Trump from deporting illegal aliens. He's making sure illegal aliens are registered to vote and getting health care at the taxpayers' expense. He squanders billions of dollars on housing for hobos and high speed rail. But he will not bury power lines. There is no forest management. There are no fire breaks or green belts to minimize the impact of fires when they start, which they always will. He won't spend a dime to thin the brush in the canyons where the fires start. He will not incarcerate the hobos who camp in that brush and start fires to cook their beans.
Instead of doing an honest day's work, he'd rather blame climate change for all the problems that result from his incompetence and lack of integrity.
He pays attention to all the wrong things like being woke, hip, good looking and DEI. Meanwhile the state is going to hell.
Trump is right. Newsom should resign in disgrace.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/10/2025 13:56 Comments ||
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#21
Scooper planes were dropping seawater
Cool planes! Once the wind died down, the air assets could go to work.
But how can you drop a thousand gallons of chloride and microplastics without filing an Environmental Impact Statement? It may be a life or death situation, but we cannot have our bureaucrats sitting around with nothing to do.
In other news, I don't have a link, but I saw a report that Oregon had sent firefighters and equipment to help out, but the Cali Dept. of Transportation was holding up the show by insisting the trucks be inspected before they would let them into the state.
[LegalInsurrection] Failed VP candidate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) announced his endorsement for anti-gun David Hogg for Democratic National Committee vice president.
“David Hogg represents exactly the kind of bold, dynamic, and courageous leadership our party needs right now,” Walz wrote on X. “He has a unique ability to connect with the American people and to speak to the strengths of our party.”
Hogg told ABC News three weeks ago he intended to run:
“I think this role is a great way of, for one, bringing newer voices into the Democratic Party,” Hogg told ABC News. “I just want to be one of several of those voices to help represent young people and also, more than anything, make sure that we’re standing up to the consulting class that increasingly the Democratic Party is representing instead of the working class.”
The DNC offers four opportunities to serve in a vice chair capacity — three general vice chairperson roles and one vice chairperson for civic engagement and voter participation.At 24, Hogg is considerably younger than the declared candidates for DNC chair, notable after Vice President Kamala Harris’ pitched herself as a “new generation of leadership” during her presidential bid.
Hogg used the shooting to gain a national platform to fight against guns.
The left propped up Hogg, splashing him all over the place.
Remember when Harvard accepted Hogg? Yeah, he had a decent SAT score but nowhere near to others accepted into the school.
Hogg even tried to launch a pillow war against MyPillow’s Mike Lindell. He quickly abandoned it once it came to light that, well, it’s not that easy to just DO SOMETHING.
The left tried to cancel Fox News host Laura Ingraham because she said he whined after many California colleges rejected him.
Well, as Kemberlee pointed out, Hogg spent months (and still does!) using derogatory terms to describe us who enjoy guns and support the 2nd Amendment.
#1
“David Hogg represents exactly the kind of bold, dynamic, and courageous leadership our party needs right now,” Walz wrote on X. “He has a unique ability to connect with the American people and to speak to the strengths of our party.”
Totally agree. Proceed.
I just want to be one of several of those voices to help represent young people
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
