Anchorage school children do not need to wear masks on the playground, according to a notification sent to some parents on Tuesday. Some schools, such as Chugiak Elementary School, have not yet informed parents or students of the new policy, according to parents who learned of the policy from other parents of students attending other schools in the district.
Gladys Wood Elementary School sent a notice to its parent community on Tuesday: “Effective immediately, all students and staff are allowed to slip theirs masks down when outside. Students and staff are still expected to wear their masks when in line or when standing closer than six feet before school, after school, or during recess.”
The CDC has updated its recommendations to say that when outside in uncrowded settings, people no longer need to wear face masks.
In a letter to the University of Alaska community today, University of Alaska Interim President Pat Pitney named former Gov. Sean Parnell as chancellor of of Anchorage campus. Parnell, governor from 2009 to 2014, will take the helm on June 12.
“I believe Sean to be uniquely positioned to lead UAA in providing the programs that support Anchorage and Alaska’s workforce needs and economic growth, including innovative research to drive the state forward,” Pitney said in her letter. Pitney noted Parnell’s long commitment to education.
“Governor Sean sponsored and implemented the Alaska Performance Scholarship program and worked with the Alaska Legislature to establish a $400 million endowment to fund the program as well as needs-based grants to create higher education and job training opportunities in Alaska,” Pitney wrote.
Parnell has many years of service as Alaska’s governor, lieutenant governor, and as a state senator and representative. He was also deputy director of the Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas, and has been working as an attorney in private practice since 2014, focusing on business law.
The most recent chancellor of UA was Cathy Sandeen, who announced her resignation in October to take an academic position in California.
Just .16 percent votes separate Forrest Dunbar from Dave Bronson in the race for Anchorage mayor, with 72,000 ballots counted. As of now, Dunbar leads by 114 votes.
The ballots counted so far did not include those vote-in-person ballots from Tuesday, or any of the ballots that were placed into drop boxes today. Those ballots will lean conservative, as many conservative voters vote on the last day.
The election will go into a recount if the difference is less than one half percent.
The election of Anchorage mayor ended with the Bronson campaign having enough volunteers to make over 10,000 calls in the final hours of Tuesday, with 100 volunteers to spare for a sign-waving war with the Dunbar campaign on the corner of Minnesota and Northern Lights Blvd.
The Anchorage Division of Elections will count about 48,000 votes after polls close at 8 pm. Analysts say as many as 95,000 votes will be cast in the runoff between Dave Bronson and Forrest Dunbar.
If Bronson leads Tuesday night, the likelihood of him winning is good. But if the Election Office shuts down early in the evening, like it did on April 6, Anchorage may have to wait several days to know for sure who the next mayor will be.
The sign-waving war Tuesday afternoon featured loud dance music from the Bronson corner, and what felt like momentum. The Dunbar campaign had a dancing bear. At one point, a Bronson supporter challenged the bear to a dance-off in the traffic median, to Taylor Swift’s “Shake it off,” to the amusement of drivers.
Back at the Bronson headquarters, callers were reminding thousands of tardy voters to get their ballots in and reported they got dozens of people to vote before the 8 pm cutoff. The Bronson campaign had 150 volunteers on Election Day.
Check back later with Must Read Alaska for results.
The lesson for teachers today is to be oh-so careful if you tread into a discussion of race and policing. You might get cancelled.
Connie Gardner has spent the last two weeks thinking back on her 32-year career as a teacher. Never once has she been called “racist.” But the Fairbanks special education teacher was put on leave on April 28 after a parent of one of her students recorded and posted online part of the class discussion and comments Gardner made relevant to the classic novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Gardner said she had rarely seen her special ed students so engaged as they were on April 28. The students are not usually talkative, and some have difficulty speaking, reading, and writing. Due to the short timeframe available this spring, her students didn’t actually get to read the classic book by Harper Lee, but instead watched the 1962 movie starring Gregory Peck.
The students discussing the theme of the book wandered into matters of today’s current events, with race, policing, and controversies very much on their minds as they thought about whether America is more or less racist than in the Jim Crow era depicted in “Mockingbird.”
What happened next during the discussion was a rude awakening for all high school teachers. The students were leading the discussion to areas they had heard about in the news — George Floyd, the man killed during an arrest by a Minneapolis police officer, who has since been convicted of murder. As high school teachers often do, when discussing literature and history, Gardner allowed the class discussion to go into areas the students were leading it.
As part of that discussion, Gardner spoke about behavior and how to stay out of trouble. She was making the point that schools have dress codes for a reason, and that Lathrop High School does not allow “sag pants” at school because they are associated with gangs, and that the world does judge people by how they present themselves, therefore, pull your pants up.
Her point was that although judging people by their appearance may be wrong, it’s also part of the world we live in.
Also, if the police arrest you, comply with their orders, she said. That’s what she would do, she said. If George Floyd had complied with police orders, he never would have been put in a knee-to-neck restraint. He would have lived, she said.
Sagging pants, a style worn by some youth and associated with gang culture. Source: Wikimedia.
In the abbreviated class calendar of 2021, “I didn’t have a whole semester to build trust with my students, and had to work extra hard to get them to trust me. I made a promise to them that I would answer their questions and not treat them like little kids. They could ask me anything, and I would answer them honestly,” Gardner told Must Read Alaska. “They trust me and know I will try as hard as I can,” in classes that are this year a combination of in-person and Zoom calls.
For Gardner, discussion of Jim Crow from the 1950s and America’s current social conditions is a relevant comparison for literature.
“This exact piece of literature is to make you think about the injustice and how far we have come and how far we have to go,” Gardner said.
“Now I’m being told it is not up for discussion,” she said.
About 30 minutes into the lesson is when a parent started videotaping the lesson. The parent said that because Gardner is white, she cannot express an opinion about race in America. At the end of the day, Gardner was put on leave by Principal Carly Sween, who agreed that Gardner had been racially insensitive.
Gardner in January had notified the district she would be retiring after the end of this school year. She believes that rather than justice at the close of her three-decade career, the principal is just going to run out the clock on her, thus denying Gardner the ability to restore her reputation, which she says has been damaged by the worldwide coverage that occurred when the parent posted the video to YouTube.
Gardner has since seen stories about her classroom lesson from as far away as India and Great Britain.
The high school English teacher says there’s a lesson for teachers: Be very afraid.
If you’re teaching literature, you won’t want to stray off the exact text, and even then, do so with care. If you’re teaching by Zoom, a parent might record you and turn you into the principal. And you don’t dare make comparisons to today’s social conditions. In fact, you might not even want to teach “To Kill a Mockingbird,” but move to another “suggested” work of American literature.
In other words, the class dialogue of years past, where students and teachers debate and discuss, are now hazardous to a high school teacher’s career.
The last day of school is May 20, but there doesn’t appear to be justice in the works for Gardner, nor help from the ACLU. No organization has stepped up to defend her First Amendment rights or academic freedom.
The video of a portion of the class discussion has been viewed over 55,000 times on YouTube, and Gardner says that if she ever wants to go back into teaching or even substitute teach, she has been irreparably harmed by what has happened to her.
She’s hoping she’ll be restored to her classroom in the next few days, because she does want to have her name cleared, but meanwhile, she is interviewing with Greg Kelly on NewsMax on Tuesday, May 11, about how Critical Race Theory and Cancel Culture ended her teaching career in Fairbanks.
Citing serious concerns about the safety and well-being of children and the harm social media poses to young people, Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor has joined a coalition of 44 attorneys general urging Facebook to abandon its plans to launch a version of the popular photo-sharing Instagram program for children under the age of 13.
“As Attorney General, I have an interest in protecting the youngest citizens in our state, and Facebook’s plan to create a platform where kids under the age of 13 are encouraged to share content online is contrary to that interest,” Taylor said. “Children under thirteen are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation, manipulation, abuse and bullying on social media platforms. Nothing is more important than protecting the welfare of Alaskan children.”
Instagram is owned by Facebook, and currently prohibits anyone under 13 from creating an account.
In a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, the coalition contends that social media can be detrimental to children for a myriad of reasons and that Facebook has historically failed to protect the welfare of children on its platforms. In their letter, the attorneys general express various concerns over Facebook’s proposal, including research that social media can be harmful to the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of children; rapidly worsening concerns about cyberbullying on Instagram; use of the platform by predators to target children; Facebook’s checkered record in protecting the welfare of children on its platforms; and children’s lack of capacity to navigate the complexities of what they encounter online, including advertising, inappropriate content and relationships with strangers.
At a Congressional hearing in March, Zuckerberg dismissed the idea that social media is harmful to children, despite strong data and research that has shown a link between young people’s use of social media and an increase in mental distress, self-injurious behavior, and suicidality. Instagram has been frequently flagged for increasing suicidal ideation, depression, and body image concerns in children.
Additionally, the attorneys general argue, young children are not equipped to handle the many challenges that come with having an Instagram account, including that they often lack a developed understanding of privacy. The risk that predators may use the proposed platform to exploit children online and cloak their identities using the anonymity of the Internet runs counter to the Department of Law’s ongoing efforts to combat sexual abuse. One report found an increase of 200 percent in recorded instances in the use of Instagram to target and abuse children over a six-month period in 2018. In 2020 alone, Facebook and Instagram reported 20 million child sexual abuse images.
Cyberbullying is also a major concern, and a 2017 survey found that 42 percent of young Instagram users had experienced cyberbullying on the platform, the highest percentage of any platform measured. In Alaska, according to the Youth Risk Behavioral Study, 23% of students were bullied on school property and 19% of students were bullied electronically.
Attorneys general also cast doubt on Facebook’s ability to protect children on their proposed Instagram platform and comply with relevant privacy laws such as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). They point out that the company has a record of failing to protect the safety and privacy of children. For instance, Facebook’s Messenger Kids app contained a glitch that allowed children to circumvent restrictions and join group chats with strangers.
The letter is joined by the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
The attorneys general letter to Facebook can be found here.
The Food and Drug Administration today announced that the Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine can be safely given to youth 12 to 15 years old.
Pfizer is also studying now whether the company’s vaccine can be safely given to children from 6 months to 11 years old, with a conclusion expected later this summer.
The news, which was leaked to the New York Times in advance, is the subject of an FDA press conference Monday on the topic of immunizing children against Covid-19 before the school year resumes in the fall.
Last week, the Anchorage School District superintendent announced that no parent who has not been immunized could take part in field trips or similar activities. The announcement about young children being put on the vaccination list is likely to drive a wedge between pro-vaccine Alaskans and those with hesitancy over the shot, which became available in December. The news of including young children in the vaccination program may alarm some parents.
According to the Times, approval is not yet certain. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention committee on Covid-19 policy will meet shortly to make recommendations on whether 12-15-year-olds should get the shot.
The Alaska Policy Forum has analyzed how much Alaskans are making on unemployment insurance benefits and has discovered the reason why businesses can’t get people to apply for jobs: Alaskans can earn the equivalent of nearly $33 per hour just by staying home.
To continue distributing a Covid-19 bonus for unemployment will exacerbate the problem, the conservative think tank said.
The APF analysis shows:
Currently, the average single-parent family with two children in Alaska could earn $3,657 each month in cash or cash-equivalent government benefits—equal to more than $43,000 per year.
After factoring in non-cash welfare programs like Medicaid benefits, these Alaskans could earn up to $5,711 per month, or more than $68,000 per year. That’s the equivalent of receiving nearly $33 per hour to not work, APF calculated.
Unemployment bonuses discourage a return to work, with even the current $300 weekly bonus paying low-wage Alaska workers, on average, 11 percent more than they would be earning while working. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office determined that the previous congressional UI bonus created a situation where five in every six unemployed claimants would receive more by remaining unemployed than they would by returning to work, reducing total employment.
According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, when compared to the national average, Alaska has a higher taxable wage base as well as greater program duration and dependency. Alaska is also one of just 13 states that already has a dependent benefit provision, further underscoring the generosity of Alaska’s UI system.
More unemployed Alaskans are receiving unemployment insurance than any peer western state. Unsurprisingly, continuing unemployment claims in Alaska are still 70 percent higher than they were prior to the pandemic.
Since Covid-19 policies were implemented, Alaska’s UI trust fund balance has declined by more than 40 percent. At the same time, Alaska has the third-highest average employer tax, per covered employee, and the fifth-highest average UI tax rate as a percent of total wages.
The Anchorage group has advised state lawmakers that Alaska “should reject calls to create a new state-level UI benefit that will cost businesses, strain the state’s UI trust fund, increase dependency, and discourage a return to work.”
Nearly 63,000 ballot envelopes had been logged in at the Anchorage Election Office as of Friday night. Another 30,000 or more are expected to be cast before the end of the mayoral runoff between Dave Bronson and Forrest Dunbar.
Votes must be received no later than 8 pm on Tuesday.
Anchorage has moved to a mail-in election method, but drop boxes and voting in person is still possible. If the April 6 election is any indication, many Anchorage residents still prefer to vote in person.
Lines were long at the Loussac Library on April 6, one of three places that allows in-person voting. People said they prefer the Loussac over City Hall because of the terrible conditions in downtown Anchorage and lack of free parking downtown. But City Hall also had shorter lines on April 6 than the Loussac. People can also vote at Eagle River Town Center.
People reported they preferred voting in person for security reasons, and lack of trust with the mail-in, drop-box system.
Voting by mail has downsides: If for some reason your ballot has a stray mark or the signature isn’t being approved, you have very little time to “cure” your ballot. You will need to be in a position to check your mail for a ballot rejection letter and then be prepared to go down to the Election Center at Ship Creek to “cure” your ballot. If you are traveling, you’re out of luck and your ballot may not count if you forgot to sign it, or if your signature doesn’t match, for instance.
This isn’t a theoretical problem and can make the difference in the election: 1,440 voters in the April 6 election submitted ballots with errors and were not able to get them fixed in time. That race came down to a Bronson over Dunbar victory of 1,241 votes.
South Anchorage High School – 13400 Elmore Road: Location Picture
Spenard Community Recreation Center – 2020 West 48th Avenue: Location Picture
UAA Alaska Airlines Center – 3550 Providence Drive: Location Picture
West Anchorage High School – 1700 Hillcrest Drive: Location Picture
Vote in PersonLocations:
City Hall 632 West 6th Avenue, Room #155 Weekdays, May 5 – 10, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Eagle River Town Center 12001 Business Boulevard, Community Room #170 (same building as the library) Weekdays, May 5 – 10, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. Election Day, May 11, 7 a.m. – 8 p.m. Only Chugiak-Eagle River ballots will be available at this location.
Loussac Library3600 Denali Street, First Floor, Assembly Chambers Weekdays, May 5 – 10, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. Election Day, May 11, 7 a.m. – 8 p.m.
