Category: Children and Families
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Loudoun’s School Board Special Election
by James C. Sherlock The people of Loudoun County have spoken — just barely. They elected Tiffany L. Polifko to the School Board. Ms. Polifko is a conservative with 20 years experience as a public and private school special education teacher. She currently serves as a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst working with children on the autism…
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From Children-as-Chattel to Pick-Your-Pronoun
by Jim McCarthy Pronouns have now entered the cross hairs of the culture wars, particularly in the discourse about parents’ rights in schooling. Sometimes one longs for the good old days of yesteryear, nostalgic for their simplicity, generally free from microanalytic contention over the spoken and written word. While media is often faulted for contributing…
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Physicians, Hospitals and Gender Dysphoria in Minors- Fundamental Disputes
By James C. Sherlock What about the doctors in this controversy? What about hospital and state oversight? What do laws and regulations require and on what are they silent? We’ll look. The dispute among physicians on the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors is primarily an ethical one. They agree on the diagnosis and some…
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“Puberty Blockers Are Wonderful” – UVa Children’s Hospital
by James C. Sherlock How do people communicate? Generally by words and visuals and, in person, with body language. The art and science of marketing and sales is one of the bulwarks of any economy — and any political system. My article on the hard selling of hormone treatments — puberty blockers and cross-gender use…
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Slick Selling of Child Gender Transitions at UVa Children’s Hospital
by James C. Sherlock The University of Virginia Children’s Hospital offers a Madison Avenue-quality sales pitch for child gender transition. As written and smoothly delivered, it deflects any reservation parents may have in supporting such transitions by telling them they have been misled or are being selfish or both. It helps parents decide by blaming…
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The Social Emotional Learning Establishment Seeks Progressive Reordering of Society
by James C. Sherlock Social emotional learning is based on a good idea. The underlying concept is to train adults (teachers and staff) in child psychology with a goal of shaping learning environments that optimize development of children to societal standards of behavior. To teach them how to act. The rub: who decides on the target…
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Virginia Missing Children: 400
Each year, more than a half million children go missing in the United States. In Virginia, 2,500 children have been reported missing (presumably this year) and 400 are actively missing, according to a press release touting a National Child ID partnership to be announced today by Attorney General Jason Miyares and Virginia Tech football coaching…
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Parents’ Rights Are On The Virginia Ballot. Again.
by Kerry Dougherty Good news. Virginia’s Democrats have taken the bait. So far at least four liberal school districts in the commonwealth have declared that they will defy Virginia’s Department of Education model policies on parental rights that were unveiled late last week. You know, policies that contain “radical” ideas such as these: “Parents have…
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Virginia Model Policies on Protecting Students Show Differences in Constitutional Focus and Interpretation
by James C. Sherlock There is lots of interest, and not a little headline hyperbole, concerning the change in Virginia’s model policies designed to assure all children appropriate treatment at school. Two different world views are apparent in the titles: the Northam administration’s Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools (Northam…
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The Death of Common Sense and the Child-Care Shortage
by James A. Bacon Simone Martinez began searching for child care four months into her pregnancy. When her baby Zelaina was born, she still hadn’t found a provider, Cardinal News tells us. “I was debating quitting my job even though we really can’t afford it,” she said. Hundreds of families are on waiting lists in…
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Hormone Treatment of Transgender Adolescents in Virginia – New Concerns
by James C. Sherlock We have discussed at length the controversial policies of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). It is time to consider the impact of Great Britain’s ongoing National Health Service Review of its transgender support to children and young people. It offers new concerns about clinical challenges in the diagnosis and treatment…
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Medical Gender Transition in Children – American Academy of Pediatrics Headquarters vs. the World
by James C. Sherlock Who cares for transgender kids the most and is looking out for their best interests? The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) headquarters leadership; or Dissenting AAP members and the medical societies of some of the leading nations in the science of medicine? A reasonable and important question, since Virginia and the…
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Progressives in Virginia In Position to Overrule Parental Objections to Invasive Child Gender Dysphoria Treatment
by James C. Sherlock The Virginian-Pilot, in an editorial, bemoaned Governor Youngkin’s endorsement of a policy that would require schools to tell parents about their kids’ transexual identity expressions at school. It’s as though the potential consequences of such a policy have never crossed his mind. The sure consequences of opposing that policy were not…
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American Kids Are Flabby. It Isn’t Because Of Climate Change.
by Kerry Dougherty Just when you thought the world’s climate clowns couldn’t get any zanier there’s this: Yep, these loons are now blaming America’s flabby, sedentary and out-of-shape children on global warming.
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Parental Rights Trump Kids’ Rights to Privacy
by Kerry Dougherty In their relentless quest to slam Governor Glenn Youngkin, Virginia’s rabid lefties are now apoplectic because he believes parents ought to be notified if their troubled son is dressing as a girl at school and changing his name and pronouns. How dare Youngkin say parents are entitled to know such things about…