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Mourning Mateo: Family Creates Fund at A Home Within to Support Foster Youth • Parents United Attorney Alleges Bullying of Unvacci- nated Students, By Jondi Gumz
Mourning Mateo
Family Creates Fund at A Home Within to Support Foster Youth
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The A Home Within community is mourning the loss of Mateo Deihl.
He was a former foster youth who took his own life during his freshman year at Scotts Valley High School.
He was well-known for his compassion for others, a willingness to step for those in need and an amazing sense of humor.
Mateo’s family has created this fund in his honor, asking that donations be made to A Home Within. Mateo’s memorial fund will help support pro bono mental health services for other children who have experienced foster care.
Donations can be made at https://secure.givelively. org/donate/a-home-within/mateo-s-memorial-fund
A Home Within got its start in 1994 when a small group of psychotherapists created an organization to heal the wounds of complex trauma and ambiguous loss for current and former foster youth by providing individual, open-ended, relationship-based psychotherapy free of charge through local networks of volunteer clinicians.
The organization incorporated as the nonprofit A Home Within in 2001. It has grown to 20 chapters across 11 states serving more than 500 young people currently or previously in foster care.
The vision is for all children who experience foster care receive essential support, ensuring that as they transition from foster care, regardless of which stage of life they are in, they have the inner tools they need to thrive.
For foster youth who often watch people move in and out of their lives, this model creates an anchor of support.
Reed Connell, who has a master’s in social work from UC Berkeley with a concentration in management, is the executive director.
Grace Manger, who has a master’s in social work from Portland State Universiy is national program director
Research consultant Saralyn Ruff is the director of the Foster Care Research Group, a lab examining best practices supporting the wellbeing of current and former foster youth. n
To sign up for the newsletter, see: https://www.ahomewithin.org/history-vision-mission/ •••
Editor’s note: More than 200 people attended a memorial for 15-year-old Mateo Deihl at Roaring Camp. His mom, Regina Deihl, posted that Mateo, who was Latino, faced comments about his race and was bullied, situation not adequately addressed by Scotts Valley Unified School District. Schools Superintendent Tanya Krause has invited parents to participate in a listening session with Inclusion Counts, an organization the district contracted with in November. When many asked for an alternative date, two more listening sessions via Zoom were scheduled on Feb. 24 and March 3. According to the district post, these sessions are “part of a large effort to internally assess and determine concrete steps in moving forward with our DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) work at our schools.” One mom posted on Facebook, “My family thinks of Mateo and your family every day and are still wearing the bracelet as an ongoing reminder of the kindness he radiated and the important change that needs to happen.”
Parents United Attorney Alleges Bullying of Unvaccinated Students
By Jondi Gumz
Alawyer representing Santa Cruz County Parents United contends healthy children whose parents decided against the Covid-19 vaccine face bullying and discrimination by teachers and calls on all schools in Santa Cruz County to cease violations of the law, or expect a lawsuit.
In a seven-page letter Feb. 19 to Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Faris Sabbah, Carmel attorney Tracy Henderson alleged a kindergartner was refused in-person instruction because the parents chose not to vaccinate, or as she put it, “chose not to enter a 5-year-old into a medical trial” and a 2-year-old was dis-enrolled because the parents did not wear masks in their car during pick-up and drop-off. “Coaches are passing around lists of the un-injected to embarrass students,” she added. “… several children have been forced to miss school for upwards of 10-28 days for allegedly coming into contact with someone who tested ‘positive.’”
The demand came three days after the California Department of Public Health lifted the indoor mask mandate, seeing Covid hospitalization from the highly contagious and less deadly Omicron variant plummet. Hospitalizations in Santa Cruz County are down from 43 to 22, including three in intensive care, according to a state dashboard, which updates daily.
All 10 school superintendents in Santa Cruz County have responded in unison to the pandemic, which has claimed the lives of 84,928 Californians including 254 Santa Cruz County residents in the past two years.
Omicron, which causes cold-like symptoms, was identified locally on Dec. 16 and is suspected in 29 deaths, while 225 deaths can be attributed to the initial coronavirus and then the Delta variant. Two-thirds of the local deaths were people 75 or older, and 79% to 81% had pre-existing conditions.
Henderson contends the state Department of Public Health has not added “the Covid injection” to the list of 10 required school immunizations. She contends the Covid shot available is not the FDA-approved Pfizer Comirnaty, but the Pfizer BioNTech product, which has only emergency use authorization for ages 12-15, and thus cannot be mandated for those children. She contends the Pfizer BioNTech product, until licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, remains investigational and that federal law explicitly prohibits a child from being enrolled in a clinical trial of an investigational product without parents’ express consent.
She alleged the vaccine mandate for parents watching their children’s activities violates the Unruh Act, prohibiting discrimination against someone based on a medical condition — such as vaccination status — and noted civil penalties of $25,000.
She urged school districts to use the Covid funds they received to modify building ventilation systems “instead of causing mental suffering and learning loss.”
Sabbah responded on Feb. 25, saying the County Office of Education “has been and will continue to follow the requirements and guidance from the California Department of Public Health, the California Department of Education and local health authorities. When the requirements and guidance change, we will review those changes and make any appropriate adjustments.”
He added, “We are not in agreement with many of your statements and analysis regarding the requirements.” And he pointed Henderson to the standard form used to file a claim: http:// sccoe.link/GovCode910
According to Henderson, members of Santa Cruz County Parents United have children at Monte Vista Christian School, Twin Lakes Christian School, Santa Cruz City Schools, and Pajaro Valley Unified School District.
Mask Guidelines
On Feb. 25, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed mask guidelines for 63% of counties, based on new cases and hospital admissions.
Santa Cruz County rates medium, yellow on the map, so most people need not mask. The CDC said people with symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with Covid-19 should wear a mask. Those at high risk for severe illness should talk to their healthcare provider about whether you need to wear a mask.
Counties with a high level of Covid-19 (such as Monterey) are red on the map so everyone is expected to wear a mask indoors. Other counties (such as San Mateo) have so few cases, they are green, no restrictions.
California hospitalizations, which topped 15,000 at the peak in January, have dropped below 4,000, and the test positivity rate, 23% in January, has fallen to 2.6%.
On Feb. 16, Santa Cruz County and Bay Area counties followed Gov. Gavin Newsom in lifting the indoor mask mandate.
Starting March 12, the state said, masks will not be required at schools and child care facilities but they will be strongly recommended.
A mask mandate still applies to public transit, hospitals and clinics, jails and prisons, homeless shelters and long-term care facilities.
Hospital Sale Approved
In the past six weeks, 15 Santa Cruz County residents with significant underlying conditions died of Covid. Eleven were 75 or older.
Active cases have declined dramatically from more than 10,000 in Jan. to 1,869 as of Feb. 28.
