By Colin Walsh and Roberta Millstein

The Davis Enterprise recently published an “Our View” editorial column arguing that newspapers play an essential role during this COVID-19 emergency.  They encouraged people to write to reporters you appreciate and thank them.  We decided we should take action too.

We agree that the Davis Enterprise plays an essential role in our community now, and for many, years in the past as well (it is our community’s oldest business, founded in 1897).  But it needs our support to continue to do so in the future.  In this article, we make the case for why you should subscribe to the Davis Enterprise  if you are not already. Details are at the end of the article.

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Davis’s first attempt at online democracy has significant, “Kinks”

By Colin Walsh

Last night’s City Council was a hot mess. For the first time the council attempted to hold an interactive online meeting using the Zoom video conference platform, but the meeting was attended by several Zoomers intent on disrupting the meeting. Mayor Brett Lee repeatedly referred to the difficulties faced by the Council and the staff as “kinks,” which may have been more on point than he realized.

Meeting attendees included the profane “Haywood Jablomi,” “aids,” and “Test Test” to name a few of the obvious fake names trolls chose while disrupting the City Council meeting.

The New York Times reported about this rising phenomenon on March 20^th, stating that as Zoom’s “user base rapidly expands, the video conference app Zoom is seeing a rise in trolling and graphic content.” The Times noted that trolls “are jumping into public Zoom calls and using the platform’s screen-sharing feature to project graphic content on unwitting conference participants, forcing hosts to shut down their events.”

In Davis last night, this feature was used to project hard-core pornography on the shared screen in the middle of the council meeting and an annotation feature was used to repeatedly scrawl racist messages, including the n-word, on the shared screen. In one case, an offensive picture of former President Obama was displayed.  There is no doubt that these words and images made many members of the community feel threatened and unwelcome.

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Schools to stay closed indefinitely

By Colin Walsh

On March 20, 2020 the Davis School District announced that they, "expect DJUSD schools to remain closed after Spring Break and for an undetermined amount of time." You can find the announcement here.

The District is working to address the ongoing education at a time when kids can not physically attend school.  they are "focused on the development of an equitable, accessible, and innovative solution to serve all of our students’ academic growth and social-emotional needs through a Distance Learning model."

The District announced, "the launch of our first Phase One of continued learning with a new Learning@Home website for students and families with links to educational websites and our core curriculum that can be accessed voluntarily. These resources are not designed to replace or replicate classroom instruction; they were compiled to build a habit for learning at home, keep students engaged and curious in learning, and provide DJUSD with time to design a thoughtful Distance Learning plan for all District teachers and students, which will launch on April 13, 2020." 

The district is also making efforts to provide computers and internet connection to students who do not have access at home. "If you have a computer that your child can use at home, please provide that access. Our Instructional Technology team has a plan in place to provide Chromebooks and Internet Access to students who lack these resources." 

The District is providing 3 options for students that do not have computers:

Option #1

Fill out the Chromebook Loaner Request Form. Within 24 hours a DJUSD representative will contact you or you can pick up your Chromebook between March 23-27. See pick up locations and hours below. 

Option #2

Call the DJUSD Instructional Technology Department at (530) 757-5300 x117. Leave a voicemail with your full name, student's full name, and a contact phone number or email. Within 24 hours a DJUSD representative will contact you or you can pick up your Chromebook between March 23-27. See pick up locations and hours below. 

Option #3

Show up to the pick up location during the hours below, fill out our Chromebook information and agreement form and be on your way. Please bring your child’s DJUSD Student ID #.

Pick up locations will be at Harper, Montgomery and Patwin. more details can be found here.

The District is also making arrangements for students who do not have at home internet access. They request families of students in need of internet access call, "DJUSD’s Instructional Technology Department at (530) 757-5300 x117 and leave a voicemail with your name and contact information. A DJUSD representative will contact you within 24 hours." 

The District also urges anyone who knows of a student that needs a computer or internet access to also call and inform the district. 

DJUSD will als be providing tech support for DJUSD Chromebooks, just call  Instructional Technology Department at (530) 757-5300 x117.

The District announcement includes no information for specialized instruction for students with Individualized Education Plans (IEP) but does promise that, "DJUSD is committed to providing appropriate resources and strategies focused on making distance learning both engaging and accessible for all English Learners and students with disabilities. Our teachers will receive professional development on designing distance learning and instruction with all learners’ needs in mind (Universal Design for Learning)."

Being a bit of an information addict, I subscribe to several newspapers/journals and read lots others in the library or online.  One paper I do subscribe to is the Washington Post which has added quite a few reporters in the last couple of years.  They do a particularly good job of following health and public health issues.

So, I read this article which came out about 4 p.m. (Pacific Time) yesterday about the national CV death toll ………with some great interest:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/us-coronavirus-death-toll-reaches-100/2020/03/17/f8d770c2-67a8-11ea-b313-df458622c2cc_story.html

The Washington Post folks do a daily count which they keep updated and just sent me an email answer to this question:  "Have there been any confirmed deaths of CHILDREN from CV?"

Their answer:  NO.

So, no deaths to children…. which further reinforces the likelihood that they are "the perfect transmitters"…… they get the bug, they carry the bug, they feel no symptoms or few, they don't die from it and therefore are fully available to then transmit the bug…. increasingly to their grandparents and other caregivers who are taking care of them now that school is out.

Dispersing them from school, especially in the absence of test data, may have been a less than optimal choice (being nice here).  

Again, these are challenging times especially with the lack of testing data and I am confident everyone is acting with the best interest of the kids and families in mind.  

It is just my opinion that maybe that decision should be re-visited…..

John Troidl

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