Texas
Conservative backlash pushes Texas social studies curriculum review to 2025
The State Board of Training narrowly voted Friday to delay updating the state’s social research curriculum till 2025 after going through strain from conservatives over proposed modifications.
Earlier this week, board members stated they might push again the social research evaluate after hours of public remark.The board voted 8-7 Friday to delay the social research overhaul.
“We’ve got time now to listen to totally different concepts,” stated board member Will Hickman, who voted in favor of the delay.
Board member Marisa B. Perez-Diaz stated not transferring ahead with the updates is a “failure” for the board.
Whereas it delay adjusting the state’s social research curriculum — like including programs that concentrate on Asian American and Native American research and studying in regards to the homosexual satisfaction motion — the board did take steps to vary the years Texans college students will study in regards to the state’s historical past.
At present, Texas college students study in regards to the state’s historical past in fourth and seventh grades. Board members had been contemplating eliminating that timetable to have college students in grades six by eight study each U.S. and Texas historical past.
As an alternative, the board voted 10-4 in favor of utilizing Hickman’s proposed order of educating Texas historical past to fifth and eighth graders.
“I heard from quite a lot of public academics, educators, dad and mom that they need two devoted years of Texas,” Hickman stated. “And their concern is, if we put Texas along with U.S., Texas will get watered down or ignored.”
Texas Training Company officers stated that the unique proposal would have expanded the attain of Texas historical past, making it a requirement in additional grade ranges. However extra conservative members of the general public argued that the dearth of devoted years devoted solely to Texas historical past would dilute the instruction.
State Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, stated Texas and U.S historical past have to have devoted college years as they’re an important historical past college students will study.
Board members who voted to delay the vote stated they didn’t just like the proposed order during which college students can be taught Texas historical past regardless that the board initially accepted the order months in the past.
Work teams, made up of educators, dad and mom and trade specialists chosen by the state board and the TEA, spent the final yr crafting these new proposals. The following step would’ve been for the state board to amend the suggestions and undertake them by the top of the yr.
On Monday, the Texas Freedom Caucus, a gaggle of Republican lawmakers within the state Home, wrote a letter to the schooling board threatening legislative intervention if no “substantial modifications” had been made to the proposal.
“In a surprising reversal of the spirit during which the Legislature handed a number of reforms meant to guard kids final session, the proposed modifications require educators to, amongst different issues, violate Texas legal guidelines by, for instance, educating topics related to vital race principle,” the letter said.
Different proposed updates included educating second graders about Juneteenth — a commeration of June 19, 1865, when enslaved individuals in Galveston acquired the information they had been free — with a e book that describes George Floyd’s homicide by a Minneapolis police officer as “brutal” and “race-driven” and the way the incident spurred nationwide consideration to the vacation. The LGBTQ satisfaction motion would have been taught in eighth grade along with the civil rights and girls’s liberation actions.
Members of the general public who supported the updates stated they’re wanted to make historical past instruction extra complete and inclusive. State lawmakers and oldsters who opposed the modifications argued that they’re an try to usher in vital race principle — the college-level discourse that examines the affect of systematic racism — into secondary schooling. Vital race principle isn’t taught in Texas’ public elementary and secondary faculties.
Delaying the method might permit extra conservative candidates who’re in opposition to so-called vital race principle to be elected to the State Board of Training earlier than the requirements are revisited. A number of Texas Republicans in opposition to vital race principle received primaries this spring and can be on the poll for the State Board of Training normal election in November.
The State Board of Training’s 15-member board opinions the Texas Important Data and Expertise for social research about each decade. The curriculum units the requirements for the way the state’s 5.5 million public college college students of all grades study the topic.
The talk over this yr’s proposed modifications has grown heated, particularly relating to how America’s historical past of racism must be taught and what books youngsters ought to give you the option entry on campuses. Final yr, state lawmakers handed a legislation to restrict how America’s historical past of slavery and racism is taught in faculties.
Senate Invoice 3 bars academics from claiming that the arrival of slavery in America represents the true founding of the USA. As an alternative, academics should inform college students that slavery was a “deviation” from American ideas. College students can’t be required to find out about The New York Occasions’ Pulitzer Prize-winning “1619 Venture,” which the Occasions describes as placing “the results of slavery and the contributions of black People on the very middle of our nationwide narrative.”
Disclosure: The New York Occasions has been a monetary supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no function within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full listing of them right here.
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Texas
Texas woman credits program for her sobriety after fentanyl overdose
![Texas woman credits program for her sobriety after fentanyl overdose](https://images.foxtv.com/c107833-mcdn.mp.lura.live/expiretime=2082787200/be7357ebdc0b830f2affc2e746d49675c57b3e549c74afce5f77f47cd212a599/iupl/D0C/10A/1280/720/D0C10AFB9032D571F5BB5ED5C16263C0.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Woman credits program for sobriety
In April 2023, a Hays County woman survived a fentanyl overdose. She was in the throes of an addiction that nearly killed her. Today, she credits a program called Neighborhood Defender Service for her sobriety.
HAYS COUNTY, Texas – In April 2023, a Hays County woman survived a fentanyl overdose. She was in the throes of an addiction that nearly killed her. Today, she credits a program called Neighborhood Defender Service for her sobriety.
Meaghan Callahan said April 26, 2023, is the day that changed her life forever.
“I don’t remember anything except for waking up to the first responders around me and I really had no idea what had happened,” Callahan said.
Callahan had overdosed on fentanyl. EMS administered four doses of Narcan and saved her life.
“When I came to, and I really just got my senses about me, in that jail cell, I was grateful to even be in a jail cell, it gave me a new lease on life,” Callahan said.
Accidental drug overdoses in Travis County
The Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office released its 2023 annual report revealing 279 people died from a fentanyl overdose.
Callahan was in jail and charged with multiple felonies for possession. Police said marijuana was in plain view, and they also found several other types of drugs. Two kids, both under the age of five, were just feet away and were being taken care of by a roommate.
“Children do not deserve to be wrapped up in that world,” Callahan said.
Callahan said she had relapsed. She is a recovering alcoholic and blamed herself, at the time, for trying to get sober alone.
“Even though it was self-medicating, I was trying to treat my alcoholism with the studies that have been done by microdosing ketamine and mushrooms and I felt like that would help me as well as the CBD and cannabis that was found, I thought that that would help me with my postpartum depression to be honest,” Callahan said.
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It almost cost her her life.
“You can’t really fix yourself; you’ve got to go outside yourself to the community and the professionals to get help,” Callahan said.
Callahan was given that opportunity. She was represented by an attorney with the Neighborhood Defender Service, specifically for Hays County.
“We try to help the client instead of just trying to help the case,” Neighborhood Defender Service Texas Meenu Walters said.
Fentanyl deaths growing in Travis Co.: report
The number of fentanyl-related deaths continues to grow in Travis County, according to the 2023 Medical Examiner’s Report.
NDS staff have been handling about 25 percent of all Hays County cases since 2023. Walters said they use a holistic, team-based model of defense, which includes not only lawyers, but social workers, client advocates, and investigators.
“Something that we can try to work on is building out and identifying community-based options for people so that if we can get in and get people the help that they need outside the system, maybe the system is not what they rely on for help,” Walters said.
“I had a whole team around me to really help me just get better,” Callahan said.
A judge gave her a second chance. All of Callahan’s charges were dropped. She’s now in recovery and wants to help others.
“I want to give hope to the people out there that are in active addiction or love people that know there is a solution and there’s a huge team of us waiting to help,” Callahan said.
She encourages people to ask for help because she said a wonderful life is on the other side.
Texas
Texas man dies while hiking to Phantom Ranch on Grand Canyon River Trail
![Texas man dies while hiking to Phantom Ranch on Grand Canyon River Trail](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/06/27/PPHX/74239707007-635666860803347185-point-sublime.jpg?auto=webp&crop=1799,1012,x0,y187&format=pjpg&width=1200)
Going hiking? Three tips to stay safe on the trail
If you’re planning on going hiking, it’s important to keep some tips in mind before hitting the trails.
A Texas man died while hiking the Grand Canyon’s River Trail on Saturday, National Park Service officials said.
Park officials received a report of a semiconscious hiker on the River Trail halfway between Silver Bridge and Black Bridge near Phantom Ranch around 7 p.m. Saturday. The hiker, identified as 69-year-old Scott Sims from Austin, Texas, became unresponsive shortly after.
Bystanders attempted CPR before three park service paramedics from Phantom Ranch responded to the scene and took over. CPR attempts were unsuccessful.
Sims was hiking to Phantom Ranch for an overnight stay, park officials said.
The Coconino County Medical Examiner and the National Park Service were investigating the incident.
Texas
A Letter to Texas and Oklahoma: Goodbye and Good Luck
![A Letter to Texas and Oklahoma: Goodbye and Good Luck](https://www.heartlandcollegesports.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/USATSI_15049254.jpg)
Monday, July 1, 2024, is going to end up being a day to remember in Big 12 history. It is the day that Texas and Oklahoma are officially out of the Big 12 and into the SEC. Is it the biggest day in Big 12 history? Only time will tell.
While Monday is a huge day for everyone involved, I can’t help but go back to Big 12 media days three years ago. Former Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby cracked a joke about being glad he didn’t have to answer realignment questions and said that everything was fine within the conference.
Less than two weeks after that statement, the news heard around the world broke. Texas and Oklahoma were heading to the SEC after the 2024 season. Of course, we all knew that they would get out earlier, and they did. Instead of having to wait another four years, they got out in three after forking up millions of dollars.
I may not be a true Big 12 historian, but I am not stupid enough to realize what these two schools have done for the conference. Like it or not, Oklahoma and Texas have combined for 18 Big 12 titles in the last 25 years. Fourteen of those titles have come from the Sooners, while the Longhorns have had four. They have brought name recognition to the conference along with a pair of national titles and countless title game appearances.
The success they have had here (especially Oklahoma) has been off the charts. The Sooners had a run of six Big 12 titles in a row before the streak ended in 2021. And as someone who has covered the conference since 2016, I have seen plenty of championships won by Oklahoma. In fact, I have covered just two conference championship games that haven’t featured either Oklahoma or Texas since the game was brought back in 2017.
Both schools have had their fair share of superstars over the years. Jason White, Sam Bradford, Baker Mayfield, and Kyler Murray all won Heisman trophies while playing in the Big 12, while Texas has had a few close calls between Vince Young and Colt McCoy. I could go on and on about all the greats that have suited up for these two since the conference came together in 1996, but that would take up too much time here.
Whether or not you will be shedding a tear or jumping for joy is up to you, but there is no doubt in my mind that the conference will not be the same without these two schools. The SEC is saying that it’s a new era, and you know what? It’s also a new era in the Big 12, too.
We are bringing in four new schools and have brought in a total of eight new schools in the last couple of years. Without Texas or Oklahoma leaving, I am not sure if that would have happened, but I am glad it did. Am I going to miss that first Saturday in October at the Cotton Bowl? Sure, but I am also excited to see what the future holds in the Big 12 because it is going to be the most exciting football conference in America from top to bottom. So goodbye, Texas and Oklahoma.
Maybe we will meet again, but until then, enjoy the SEC. Sometimes, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
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