Students in California’s Oakland Unified School District are demanding that better coronavirus safety measures be taken or they will “go on strike” and skip school until their demands are met.

The group of students issued a “district-wide petition” earlier this week demanding that OUSD either switch to distance learning or KN-95 or N-95 masks for all students, two weekly PCR and rapid tests for each person distributed on campus. and “More outdoor places to eat safely when it rains.”

Over 1,200 students have signed the petition, which gives the school until January 17 to meet their demands, or the students will “go on strike” and stay out of school from January 18 until their demands are met.

The students will then protest in front of the district office building from January 21st.

CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION ENTERS MAYOR LIGHTFOOT’S COVID-19 SAFETY PROPOSAL: “ONE-WOMAN KAMIKAZE”

A disinfection station is placed in Catherine Fletcher’s first-grade classroom on the first day of partial in-person instruction at Garfield Elementary School in Oakland, Calif. (Jessica Christian/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images).
((Jessica Christian/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images))

Around 52,000 OUSD schools attended in the 2020-2021 school year, according to the district.

According to the document, the petition is addressed to OUSD Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammel and school board members.

“With this letter we would like to inform you that OUSD students do not feel comfortable going to school in light of the rising cases of COVID-19. There are many concerns about safety measures and how we can protect ourselves from COVID-19, particularly the highly contagious Omicron variant. We must return to distance learning until cases start to go back up,” the petition reads. “To ensure a safe learning environment, we request you to give us KN95/N95 masks and weekly PCR tests. If these requirements are not met, we will go on strike by not going to school. We will strike until we get what we need, rest assured.”

In part, students claim in-person study is unsafe due to increased coronavirus cases, no access to N-95 masks, no weekly tests and classroom desks.

BIDEN TO SEND MILLIONS OF COVID-19 TESTS TO SCHOOLS TO FOSTER REOPENING

Students at Carl B. Munck Elementary School while California Gov. Gavin Newsom visits their classroom on Wednesday, August 11, 2021 in Oakland, Calif. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
((Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images))

OUSD communications director John Sasaki provided a statement to Fox News Digital, saying the district is “aware” of the petition and is working to honor most of the students’ demands.

“We share students’ concerns about the rise in Omicron cases of COVID-19. This concern is the reason why we have distributed KN-95 and N-95 masks to all employees. We have also ordered enough KN-95 masks for all students. They will be distributed to students as they are delivered. We have ordered deliveries for new covered dining areas to dozens of schools, including new tables and shade structures, in some cases since last summer and have significantly slowed down their delivery. Where deliveries have been made, our staff are already installing these structures in schools and this process will continue as we receive more deliveries,” the statement said.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

A teacher instructs her second graders before California Gov. Gavin Newsom visits the classroom at Carl B. Munck Elementary School in Oakland, Calif. on Wednesday, August 11, 2021 (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images).
((Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images))

In response to student concerns about coronavirus testing, the district said testing is available at ten hubs in the school district.

Sasaki also said the school district has received 200,000 KN-95 masks and is distributing them to individual schools.

He added that OUSD had been in contact with the students who created the petition and said discussions were continuing.

“We also run weekly pooled tests at primary schools and have bi-weekly drop-in tests for our secondary schools. We already meet or are in the process of meeting most of the demands mentioned in this petition. And we will continue to work to fulfill the rest in the coming weeks,” the statement continued.

The relocation of students within the district comes after teachers conducted a “sickout” on Jan. 7.

Students across the country are also demanding their school district implement better coronavirus safety policies.

A group of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) high school students are planning to go on strike Friday, demanding that the Chicago Public Schools issue coronavirus “assistance grants” to students and switch to a distance learning format for two weeks.

Fox News’ Audrey Conklin contributed to this report

The post California college students plan ‘strike’ except college meets their COVID calls for appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

CONCORD (KPIX) – After nearly 20 years, the United States officially left Afghanistan on Tuesday. But it leaves a nation in turmoil and thousands of refugees who are looking for new homes in America and for some in the Bay Area.

Over the weekend, volunteers met at the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Concord to start planning relief efforts for Afghan refugees. This includes food, shelter, interpreters, social services and assistance for families with children from infants to teenagers.

CONTINUE READING: Caldor Fire Update: Fire Grows to Nearly 200,000 Acres; Evacuations for Douglas County, NV. arranged

“They left the country with nothing but what they were wearing. So we plan to provide everything for them, ”said Sadique Popal, chairman of the board of the Islamic Center.

On Tuesday afternoon, local Afghans met with Congressman Mark DeSaulnier, who says the state is ready to do its part despite the cost of living in California.

“We have relocated more people from around the world who came here as refugees than in any other state,” said DeSaulnier. “And so we have a good infrastructure. Is it perfect No, but we’re getting better and better. “

But the Afghans also want the federal government to put international pressure on the Taliban to end their brutal oppression of the Afghan people, especially their women, which has made so much progress over the years.

CONTINUE READING: DA works with SFSU to improve university crime investigation

“They had an education to which they previously had no access. They had prestige that they had no access to before, ”said Popal. “That’s why – we’ve brought them this far, it hurts so much right now! It’s so sad to just leave them there. “

“It just feels like everything that has moved forward in the last 30 years has somehow crumbled,” said Henah Akbar, a young Afghan American who lives in Clayton. “People ask, why has the US been there for 20 years when the Taliban are still there? So it almost feels like a failure. “

But unlike when the Russians left, few Afghans wanted to see the Americans leave, according to Fazel Adiani.

“You have withdrawn a lot of problems,” he said. “They couldn’t bring peace, they couldn’t bring a solution, and they couldn’t decide what to do. But they left the country, left great unrest in the country. “

With the US going as it did, there is little military influence left, but DeSaulnier said the Taliban must be careful or risk isolation from the global community. But will the Taliban even care? Many Afghans believe that they are less interested in building a nation than simply demolishing it.

MORE NEWS: Oakland Police arrest 2 suspects, restore firearms

The organizers say the relief efforts in the Bay Area will encompass every aspect of life for Afghan refugees. For more information on the required requirements, visit noorislamicandculturalcommunitycenter.com.

The post CA Lawmaker Meets With East Bay Volunteers Serving to Afghan Refugees Discover Meals, Housing, Social Providers – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

150 years ago today – May 10, 1869 – “The Last Spike” was run on America’s first transcontinental railroad. That last spike was made of gold so anyone could tell it was important, but there was a lot more to be excited about.

What railways can do for you

Before the transcontinental railroad, the journey from the east to the west coast took many moons and cost at least $ 1,000 (this is almost $ 20,000 today). If you’ve traveled overland, bandits, bad weather, or unexpected hazards can land you in the mountains, and for various reasons – including Divine Anger – your group could fall over from thirst, hunger, or plague, leaving bones for strange rodents to gnaw on and to disperse. If you are on the water the trip would be long and you might get bored which is a burden.

After the nationwide railroad was completed in 1869, a trip from New York to San Francisco could be completed in a week for less than $ 100. You are free to spend the entire journey comfortably eating and sleeping, writing and reading love letters to your loved one instead of living harrowing stories of hardship and danger. Commerce benefited as well as passengers. (Think of all the freight!) Even fresh groceries could be transported on the railway line. At last the coasts were tied together.

If the transcontinental railroad was such a great idea, why didn’t they build one sooner?

First of all, the railway and steam locomotive had to be invented, which only happened in the 19th century. Then, when such a project was technically and logistically feasible, the states began their Great Schism that would lead to civil war; and various North-South debates about the fate of the West, the future of slavery and the railways paralyzed negotiations.

The great railroad race

The Civil War actually pushed the transcontinental railroad project forward, as it gave the Union the freedom to build whatever it wanted without worrying about the thoughts of the southern whiners. In 1862, Congress succeeded in forging the Pacific Railroad Act, which granted money and land for every mile of railroad that was built with the aim of an east-west link.

The two companies involved were Union Pacific and Central Pacific, which sped as many subsidized miles from Omaha and Sacramento respectively as they could build before the rails met. (It was a “race” because the total mileage is limited between two points, so an extra mile from Union meant one less to Central and vice versa.) The Union Pacific crews were comprised of Irish and German immigrants, civil war veterans, free black citizens and some Native Americans. The Central Pacific employed more than 10,000 Chinese employees willing to work for less money and in dangerous conditions – which was important to Central as they had to climb and storm their way through the sierras almost immediately after leaving Sacramento.

The tracks meet in Promontory, Utah

Congress made the stupid mistake of adopting a motivating rationality of the railroad companies, rather than just establishing greed, so that they did not dictate how, when, or where the rails had to meet. When the crews from Central and Union met in northern Utah, instead of immediately merging the lines, they began building miles of parallel classes, with each company hoping to get more miles and, with it, more reward money. With a kind of fatherly desperation, the Congress had to set a node; and they chose Promontory, Utah – a small tent town with railroad workers and prostitutes north of the Great Salt Lake.

Precious metals and fat railroad cats are good news

Since the rail meeting was such a significant (and publicized) national event, everyone felt it appropriate to celebrate with extravagant ceremonies. Of course, whenever possible, extravagance should involve precious metals, so four precious spikes were donated to adorn the final tie. There was an iron, silver, and gold tip from Arizona; a silver tip from Nevada; a gold tip from the San Francisco News Letter; and the crowning gold tip of David Hewes, a friend of Central Pacific magnate Leland Stanford (founder of Stanford University).

The Hewes Spike was the first to be made and it inspired the rest. When Hewes heard about the big event, he was initially disappointed with the lack of symbolic (and precious metal) items donated for the ceremony, so he got the ball rolling himself. In the end, Hewes had his own $ 400 worth of gold from his own treasure, which was poured into a point with each side engraved: two with names, one with dates, one with the motto “May God the unity of our land continue as the railroad unites the world’s two great oceans, “and the head with a simple statement:” The Last Spike. “

It wasn’t the last tip, in fact. The precious ceremonial spikes were carefully tapped into a ceremonial tie with a ceremonial silver hammer.

When the dignitaries (Central Pacific’s Stanford and Union Pacific’s Thomas Durant) tried real hammer blows to seal the deal, they both failed.

A spike was tied with telegraph wires so the whole nation could hear the hammer blows – something like a “live” broadcast, but with telegraph instead of television and no advertising – and the publicists made sure these were some good things. In addition to these taps, a one-word telegram was sent through the states: “Done”. And the nation rejoiced, coast to coast. But after all the pomp was done, the special spikes and sleeper were torn and some unknown railroaders drove normal iron spikes into a regular sleeper to complete the transcontinental railroad.

The judgment

“Never before in our history as a nation has there been an event that celebrated so warmly and with so little mental reticence,” reported the San Francisco News Letter. Most speakers shared this view. The problem was that the Chinese workers were rioting, other workers held Durant hostage in his palatial car while demanding unpaid wages, and of course that last telegraph only meant “Doom” to Native Americans, further compressed by the US were new belts and certainly had one or the other reservation.

All in all, it was a strange and powerful spectacle with the golden tip in the middle – a scene that could symbolize much more about eclectic America than these simple and straightforward ideals of industry and progress.

This post was originally published in 2009.

The post When East Meets West: The Final Spike of the Transcontinental Railroad appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.