Cheers & Jeers
Cheer: The primary stumbling block to schools reopening for instruction are justifiable concerns teachers have about the dangers reopening would pose to their own health, since COVID-19 is still raging. The day when full-time, in-person classroom instruction returns to Pennsylvania moved closer this week, thanks to the announcement that teachers and school personnel will soon be eligible to receive the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Once young people can return to school safely, it will boost learning outcomes, help with their socialization, and be a relief to parents who, in many cases, have had to juggle their own work responsibilities with managing the distance learning of their children.
Jeer: Reporters who cover the White House have had to take COVID-19 tests every day in order to keep the president, his staff and family safe. The White House had been footing the bill for the tests, but now the cost is being shifted to news organizations. The tests cost $170 each, and exceptions have only been carved out for pool reporters who travel with the president and attend daily briefings. The White House says that the costs of administering so many tests have become prohibitive, but what about the costs to news organizations that are already dealing with strained budgets? The White House Correspondents’ Association has protested that charging news organizations for the tests “sets up a means test for White House coverage.” Unfortunately, they’re right.
Jeer: No, Dr. Seuss is not being “canceled,” despite what some of the headlines of recent days have said. “The Cat in the Hat,” “Green Eggs and Ham” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” aren’t going anywhere. But Dr. Seuss Enterprises has opted to withdraw six of the author’s children’s books from circulation due to imagery that we now might consider racist or trafficking in stereotypes. The company has the right to do what it wants with the properties it owns, but we hate to see those books disappear. Rather than declaring the books would no longer be published, a more constructive approach would have been placing disclaimers on them, alerting parents and teachers to the potentially offensive content, and using that as a jumping off point for lessons on race, prejudice, and how what is acceptable has changed over the decades.
Cheers: Bentworth’s Chris Vargo, Frazier’s Rune Lawrence and Mount Pleasant’s Dayton Pitzer won gold medals at the PIAA Class AA Southwest Regional held last Saturday. Cheers also to Beth-Center’s Kyle McCollum for taking the bronze medal, and Damon Michaels, Beth-Center’s Tyler Berish and Mount Pleasant’s Noah Gnibus and Jamison Poklembo for finishing fourth. Mount Pleasant’s Ian Fasano placed fifth. All the wrestlers advanced to the PIAA Class AA Super Regional.
Cheers: Belle Vernon’s Cole Weightman and Waynesburg Central’s Cole Homet, Wyatt Henson and Luca Augustine took gold medals at the WPIAL Class AAA Individual Wrestling Championships/PIAA Class AAA Southwest Regional last Saturday. Waynesburg’s Rocco Welsh and Mac Church won silver medals, and Connellsville’s Chad Ozias and Jared Keslar and Waynesburg’s Joseph Simon and Colton Stoneking all finished third. All the wrestlers advanced to the PIAA Class AAA Super Regional.