To speak.
INDEX Opinion Events COVID Update Sports
No. 1
Vol. 3
1 2 3 4
August 19, 2021
Another pandemic The Extraordinary
Session on Act 1002 Blanton Matthews Staff Reporter
Photo by Lance Brownfield
A bust of Donald W. Reynolds was adorned with a cloth mask on the first day of class in the Reynolds Sciene Center at Henderson.
Lance Brownfield Editor-in-Chief
It was about 9:50 a.m. Monday morning, the first day of classes for the semester at Henderson. My first class was about to begin in Reynolds Science Center. As I entered the hallway to look for room 120, I heard a professor accosting two students saying that masks are to “protect others.” It occured to me at that moment that no mask can protect from overreactions. I brushed it off as just another example of someone going way over the top. Yelling at someone for not wearing a mask won’t save anyone’s lives, but I’m not going to make a scene in response to someone else’s argument. When we see someone being berated in the public square over the wearing of masks, we often look the other way. It’s like a mother spanking her child in the supermarket. We keep our heads down, don’t make eye contact, try not to speak as we pass and tell ourselves that it’s none of our
business, just so we can make our comments to the people in our circle later. The children of the COVID generation have suffered greatly at the hands of lockdowns and virtual learning. Children and teen suicides have risen dramatically across the country since the pandemic began. The message all around them for the past almost two years is that you can’t visit family, you should stay away from your friends, we’re all helpless and we’re all doomed. Yet, there has been no program created during the pandemic for our children’s mental health or the very real circumstances they deal with during lockdowns. My call to the responsible adults of today is to not sacrifice our children on the altar of COVID-19. The church of Fauci and Pope Biden won’t be able to fix the problems we’re creating today once the pandemic is over. I don’t like the precedent that has been set for treating our fellow
man and the youths of the COVID era. We need to pay more attention to what’s happening around us. It’s harder than it has ever been to notice the telling signs of abuse because kids are staying home for weeks at a time and abusers are getting used to using them as punching bags. Going virtual can be a prison sentence to students around the nation as school and other public spaces can sometimes be a child’s only relief from mistreatment. Even with the Delta variant, we need to consider long and hard if going virtual once more will do more damage than good. In 2019 Arkansas had a rate of 12 children per 1,000 of reported abuse and neglect, which is higher than the national average of 8.9. That’s about 1%. There is not enough data for 2020 or 2021. If you know someone under the age of 18 that is being abuse or neglected, call the Arkansas Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4825964.
Mayberry said in an interview “Too many legislators voted for the original bill [1002] that I was not going to get them to budge,” but that she felt we needed “guardrails” in place to protect children under 12 who are not yet eligible for any of the vaccines for SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19. The limited scope of the bill was also in part because of the limited scope of the Governor’s call to enter an extraordinary session. Since Hutchinson only opened the special session to make an exception to act 1002 for districts to make policy for schools that held children under 12, the bill could not have allowed for exceptions for all schools. The Governor’s limited scope and lack of foresight not to sign 1002 in the first place, along with the overwhelming initial support for 1002 therefore made the attempt to allow local freedom an uphill battle. Mayberry, who was not present for but said she would have voted against 1002, said “I really didn’t like the bill, I was concerned that we cannot
When Governor Asa Hutchinson called for a special session of the state legislature in hopes of amending Act 1002, which barred mandates of face coverings in the state of Arkansas, Representative Julie Mayberry (R-32) thought she was introducing “common sense” legislation to give some local control back to school districts. Such sense, it seems, was not common enough to gain the votes needed to pass. House bill 1003 would have amended Act 1002 to allow school districts to enact 60-day temporary mask policies if their area had cases of COVID-19 numbering at least 50 per 10,000 residents. 50 cases is where the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement classifies a district as a COVID “red zone”. Mayberry held a committee meeting shortly before the session exploring a change to a shorter time allowance to 21 days from 60 if the bill could expand another way to include “orange zones” of 30 cases.
predict the future, if COVID has taught us anything.” Mayberry also said that she had been receiving hundreds of emails both for and against allowing local mask policy options, but said that more people in her district were for allowing local control, whereas messages with the blanket anti-mask position were mass emails to all legislators which could have come from anywhere. These messages could indicate astroturfing, the generation of a loud messaging campaign that seems to be grassroots organizing but is actually a small group of people who are outside the affected region. Still, the majority of the legislature did not want to allow anyone to enact mask policies, and were it not for Judge Tim Fox of the Pulaski County Circuit Court, Act 1002 would have survived unscathed. “I felt alone in a very large room,” said Mayberry. The Governor’s office ignored attempts by The Oracle Community Edition to reach out.
Photo courtesy of HSU Youtube channel
In lieu of an in-person Pine Tree Speech this year, Henderson instead screened a previously recorded recitation of the famous speech at 7 p.m. Monday. The speech is a tradition that marks the beginning of the academic year.
The Oracle Editor-in-Chief Kaela McKim and Oracle Community Edition Editor-inChief Lance Brownfield pose with adviser Steve Listopad at the organization fair Monday in Henderson's Garrison ball room.
Photo by Juliann Reaper
Henderson students enjoy watermelon at the Watermelon Fest / Karaoke Competition Monday night. Info from Weather.com
FRI - Aug 20 partly cloudy
SAT - Aug 21 partly cloudy
SUN - Aug 22 mostly sunny
MON - Aug 23 sunny
TUE - Aug 24 mostly sunny
WED - Aug 25 mostly sunny
THU - Aug 26 mostly sunny
92o 74
93o 73
95o 72
99o 73
100o 72
99o 72
95o 71
Precipitation: 24% Wind: SW 9 mph Humidity: 79%
Precipitation: 21% Wind: SW 7 mph Humidity: 73%
Precipitation: 10% Wind: SW 7 mph Humidity: 67%
Precipitation: 5% Wind: WSW 6 mph Humidity: 60%
Precipitation: 13% Wind: WSW 5 mph Humidity: 58%
Precipitation: 5% Wind: NE 5 mph Humidity: 58%
Precipitation: 10% Wind: ENE 5 mph Humidty: 63%
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