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Tag: children

  • Coloradans can get updated COVID vaccines, but insurance might not cover the shots

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    Anyone 6 months and older who wants a COVID-19 shot in Colorado can now get one, but the vaccine will only be free for those with the right insurance — at least for now.

    Initially, pharmacies couldn’t administer the updated shots in Colorado unless a patient had a prescription. The state allows pharmacists to administer vaccines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory committee, but not other shots.

    Dr. Ned Calonge, chief medical officer for the state health department, responded by issuing a standing order — essentially, a prescription for every resident – allowing them to get vaccinated at retail pharmacies.

    But that order doesn’t guarantee insurance will cover the shots or that pharmacies will choose to stock them. Last year, fewer than half of people over 65 nationwide received an updated COVID-19 shot, with uptake dropping further in younger age groups, raising questions about whether health care providers will believe demand is high enough to justify buying the vaccine.

    “The standing order provides accessibility. It doesn’t necessarily provide availability,” Calonge said Tuesday.

    The Colorado Division of Insurance issued a draft rule last week that would require state-regulated plans to cover COVID-19 vaccines without out-of-pocket costs for people of any age, assuming the division passes it as written. Insurance cards from state-regulated plans typically have CO-DOI printed in the lower left corner.

    The state’s rule doesn’t apply to federally regulated plans, which account for about 30% of employer-sponsored insurance plans in Colorado, Calonge said. Typically, however, those plans try to offer competitive benefits, since they mostly serve large employers, he said.

    “My hope would be they would want to keep up with other insurers,” he said.

    This isn’t the first time that people on state-regulated plans have had benefits not guaranteed for people with federally regulated insurance.

    Colorado capped the cost of insulin and epinephrine shots to treat severe allergic reactions in state plans, but couldn’t require the same for plans the state doesn’t oversee. In those cases, it offered an “affordability program” requiring manufacturers to supply the medication at a lower cost for people who aren’t covered by the state caps, Medicare or Medicaid.

    At least two Colorado insurers surveyed by The Denver Post said all of their plans will cover COVID-19 vaccines, while others hedged.

    Select Health, which sells Medicare and individual marketplace plans in Colorado, said its plans currently cover COVID-19 vaccines without out-of-pocket costs for everyone. Kaiser Permanente Colorado said in a message to members that it will pay for the shot for anyone 6 months or older.

    Donna Lynne, CEO of Denver Health, said the health system’s insurance arm is waiting on clarification about when it should cover the vaccines. Denver Health Medical Plan offers multiple plan types, some state-regulated and some under federal rules, she said.

    “It’s less of a decision on our part than understanding what the health department and the insurance department are saying,” she said. “You can’t have one insurance company saying they are doing it and one saying they aren’t doing it.”

    Anthem said it considers immunizations “medically necessary” if the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians or the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee has recommended them, but didn’t specify whether it would charge out-of-pocket costs for medically necessary vaccines.

    If those bodies stated that certain people could get a particular vaccine — but not that they should — Anthem would decide about coverage “on an individual basis,” its website said. The other groups have recommended the shots for people over 18 or under 2, with the option for healthy children in between to get a booster if their parents wish.

    The state’s Medicaid program is still waiting for guidance from federal authorities about whose vaccines it can cover, according to the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, and Medicare isn’t yet paying for the shots.

    For most of the COVID-19 vaccines’ relatively brief existence, they were free and recommended for everyone 6 months and older. In 2024, the federal government stopped paying for them, which meant uninsured people no longer could be sure they could get the shot without paying.

    Almost all insurance plans still were required to pay for the shots, though, because the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended them.

    In previous years, the committee recommended updated shots within days of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approving them. In late August, the FDA approved the updated vaccines for people over 65 and those with one of about 30 conditions increasing their risk of severe disease, including asthma, obesity and diabetes.

    Doctors still could prescribe the vaccine “off-label” to healthy people, in the same way that they prescribe adult medications for children when an alternative specifically approved for kids isn’t available.

    This year, however, the committee won’t meet until Thursday, and may not recommend the shots when it does. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed all of the committee’s members earlier this year and replaced them with new appointees, most of whom oppose COVID-19 vaccines.

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    Meg Wingerter

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  • The whooping cough vaccine works, doctors say

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    Days after announcing a push to end Florida’s school vaccine mandates, state Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo questioned the whooping cough vaccine’s effectiveness.

    In a Sept. 7 interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Ladapo told host Jake Tapper that his department didn’t study how ending the vaccine requirements could affect children’s health or future outbreaks.

    “Absolutely not,” Ladapo responded, before referring to whooping cough vaccines. “That’s an example of a vaccine that is ineffective. The data show that it’s ineffective at preventing transmission.”

    Pertussis, or whooping cough, is a highly contagious bacterial infection that can cause uncontrollable coughing fits. Its common name comes from the sound of infected infants and children make when they try to catch their breath in between coughs.

    Like many vaccines, the DTaP vaccine — which stands for diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis — is not a perfect barrier, but it significantly lowers the risk of severe disease.

    The DTaP vaccine is 98% effective in children within a year of their last dose, and about 71% effective five years after the last dose, according to guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    “The core misunderstanding here is making perfect the enemy of the good,” said Dr. Christoph Diasio, a pediatrician at Sandhills Pediatrics in North Carolina. “We would love a 100% perfect magic shield against pertussis — the vaccine protection does wane, it’s not perfect — but that doesn’t mean that it is useless. It is much much better to get protection from the vaccine rather than to be totally vulnerable to a disease so terrible you can break ribs.”

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    The acellular pertussis vaccine used in the U.S. since the 1990s is less effective at preventing transmission than its whole-cell predecessor, studies have shown. But widespread vaccination — which school vaccine mandates are based on — reduces overall transmission by lowering the number of susceptible people. 

    “The whole-cell pertussis vaccine, while more effective, also caused more side effects because it had more antigens in it,” Dr. Jason Terk, a pediatrician at Cook Children’s Health Care System in Texas, said. “The 5 cents of truth in his statement relates to it being comparatively less effective than what we used to use.”

    Emily Oster, a health economist and founder of ParentData, said Ladapo’s statement about the vaccine’s effectiveness regarding transmission is “broadly” true, but noted that the rationale for school vaccination rules is that viruses have trouble getting a foothold when more people are vaccinated.

    “The vaccine is very protective against infection in individuals,” Oster wrote by email. “Yes, it is true that if someone DID get infected they might pass it along, but if the virus is constantly running into people with vaccination, it will die.”

    PolitiFact reached out to Florida’s health department about Ladapo’s comment but did not hear back by publication.

    How the vaccine works 

    Whooping cough can be extremely serious in babies and young children, causing vomiting, pneumonia, convulsions, apnea, brain damage or death. Infants can turn blue during coughing spells because of lack of oxygen. In teens and adults, the disease can cause weight loss, bladder control loss and passing out. Severe coughing can cause rib fractures.

    Doctors typically administer the combination DTaP vaccine in five doses to patients from infancy through early childhood to help build up immunity and ensure protection doesn’t fade. Different vaccines against the diseases are available for older children, adolescents and adults.

    Before pertussis vaccines became available in the 1940s, the condition was one of the more common childhood diseases in the U.S. Each year, as many as 200,000 children got sick and around 9,000 died, according to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.

    Once the vaccine came to market, case numbers decreased through the 1980s by more than 90% compared with the pre-vaccine era.

    A vaccine shift over safety 

    In the 1990s, the U.S. switched to an acellular vaccine, which contains fragments of a pathogen, because it had fewer side effects and still provided coverage. (Whole-cell versions contain the entire pathogen.)

    After pertussis cases began to increase gradually in the early 2000s, researchers looked into the cause and found that the acellular vaccine is not as protective as the previous whole-cell version, with some evidence that the immune response wanes more quickly. (As a result, an additional dose is now recommended around 11 and 12 years old.)

    There could be other factors that explain the uptick: The disease is more quickly detected and recognized, patients have greater access to laboratory diagnostics, and surveillance and health department reporting is stronger.

    Some studies have also shown families increasingly using school vaccination exemptions or declining routine vaccines.

    “The easier it is to get non-medical exemptions, the greater the number of unvaccinated children will be, increasing the likelihood of pertussis outbreaks in schools and communities,” Richard Gilligan, the former director of the Clinical Microbiology-Immunology Laboratories at the University of North Carolina Hospitals, wrote in a 2022 analysis. “School age students can bring this highly contagious organism home and infect non-boosted parents and unvaccinated siblings, especially infants.”

    Oster also referred to research that found states that offer personal belief exemptions, and more easily granted exemptions, were associated with increased whooping cough cases. In Florida, parents can exempt their children from vaccine mandates on medical or religious grounds.

    In his report, Gilligan also pointed to the emergence of new pertussis strains, which can result in vaccinated people becoming infected but remaining asymptomatic and able to transmit the disease.

    One 2022 paper that looked at different pertussis immunization practices around the world said that selecting which vaccine to use should be weighed against effectiveness, likelihood of adverse events, cost and pertussis surveillance in the community.

    “The vaccine lessens transmission, it doesn’t eliminate it, just like influenza, RSV, rotavirus vaccines — they lessen transmission,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “With SARS-CoV-2, (the virus that causes COVID-19), which is similar, if you lived in a highly vaccinated area, you were much less likely to get the disease even if you weren’t vaccinated.”

    Ultimately, health officials decided that the safety benefits of the acellular pertussis vaccine outweighed the more effective, more reactive whole-cell version. It still offered protection, they said, particularly in shared spaces like schools, when most children were vaccinated.

    “There have been no serious safety signals in the 30 years since the DTaP vaccination has been on the market,” Terk, the Texas pediatrician, said.

    In Florida, the school requirement for the DTaP vaccine for will stay put for now. The state health department told The Associated Press it submitted a rule change Sept. 3 to remove vaccine requirements for chickenpox, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib), and pneumococcal diseases for schoolchildren. That’s expected to go into effect around December 2025.

    Other vaccines, such as those for measles, polio and whooping cough will require legislative action to be removed. Florida lawmakers aren’t scheduled to meet again until January 2026.

    RELATED:  Every school vaccine mandate “drips” with “slavery.”

    RELATED: Do pediatricians recommend vaccines to make a profit? There’s not much money there. 

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  • Video games help students level up

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    HARLEM — Not too long ago, all professors Stan Altman and Brian Schwartz knew about video games was that students loved them. Today they’re using games to help kids develop skills for the real world.

    The duo works with the Harlem Gallery of Science, a nonprofit encouraging students to pursue career paths in science, technology, engineering and math, as well as to help them develop social and emotional skills.

    Altman and Schwartz were looking for ways to attract more students of color to STEM programs and wondered if video games, which were popular with their students, held some sort of key. They conducted a study and found an unexpected motivation. Altman noticed that “young people play games to develop skills and in fact, they develop exactly the skills that we in universities talk about young people needing for the 21st century.” The group set out to spread the word to other educators.

    HGS put together the traveling exhibition, Video Games: The Great Connector to demonstrate how kids use games to build connections in themselves, their communities and ultimately to their future. It uses video games, activities and art stations to illustrate concepts. The pop-up was a hit, attracting thousands of students, teachers and parents in its first several weeks. Now the exhibition is on tour at area schools.

    Project manager Matthew Lopez is proof the program works. An alum himself, he appreciates how games can help kids grow from a social perspective. He points to the drawing station: “You sit down, you draw a (video game) character that you like and talk about why you like them. But that has a lot of power to it. Especially for kids living in the South Bronx, in Harlem, in New York City in general, where we come from so many diverse backgrounds.”

    Lopez sees the connections forming in real-time when students “start drawing the characters that they see themselves as. Not only because they’re cool, but because, ‘Hey like, this person looks like me’ or ‘This person speaks the language I speak’ or ‘This person has shared experiences that I feel like I connect with very deeply.’”

    Schools or educations interested in hosting the exhibit can find more info at the Harlem Gallery of Science site.

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    CCG

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  • Behind steep decline of moms of young kids in workforce

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    For six years, Mackenzie Bruegge worked in medical billing. But with two young children at home, she says the math just didn’t add up. Her decision to quit reflects a national trend. Lana Zak reports.

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  • Meta reportedly suppressed research about how dangerous its VR headsets are for kids

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    Meta allegedly suppressed research that suggested kids were exposed to certain dangers when using its VR headsets, . Current and former employees have presented documents to Congress that describe incidents in which children were groomed by adult predators in VR, but allege that internal reports were edited to omit the worst of these offenses. Meta has denied these allegations.

    Two of these researchers claim they met with a German family in which a child younger than ten had been approached by strangers online while using a Meta VR headset. Some of these strangers allegedly sexually propositioned the child. When the employees issued the harrowing report, their boss allegedly ordered that the aforementioned claims be deleted. When the internal report was eventually published, it spoke of some parents being scared of this type of thing but didn’t mention the above incident.

    The trove of documents presented to Congress reportedly indicate guidance from Meta’s legal team instructing researchers to avoid collecting data about children using VR devices. The memo suggests this is “due to regulatory concerns,” likely referring to fallout from .

    The documents also include warnings from employees that children younger than 13 were bypassing age restrictions to use VR headsets. However, Meta has since lowered the minimum age .

    Meta spokeswoman Dani Lever told The Post that the documents were “stitched together to fit a predetermined and false narrative” and that the company doesn’t prohibit research about children under 13. “We stand by our research team’s excellent work and are dismayed by these mischaracterizations of the team’s efforts,” she said.

    The company didn’t confirm or deny the events regarding the family in Germany, but said that if the anecdote was deleted from the official record it was to ensure compliance with a US federal law governing the handling of children’s personal data or the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) from the EU.

    That one prohibits companies from collecting personal information without consent, but the researchers maintain they received consent from the child’s mother. They also say they received a signed contract from the mother at the start of the interview.

    A Senate Judiciary subcommittee is scheduled to discuss these allegations at a hearing later in the week. This particular subcommittee examines laws and regulations regarding online safety.

    It was Meta is opening up its Horizon Worlds VR hangout app to preteens, so long as they get parental approval. This led the Senate Judiciary Committee to pen a letter demanding information as to the presence of minors on the app and the company’s alleged failures to .

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    Lawrence Bonk

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  • Wildfire smoke, ozone causes air quality alert for Front Range, Denver metro

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    Hot, dry weather and wildfire smoke from out-of-state fires will contribute to lower air quality across the Front Range and Denver metro through Friday afternoon, Colorado public health officials said.

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    Katie Langford

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  • Moms’ careers and personal time are hit hard by school drop-off demands, a poll finds

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    CHICAGO — When Elizabeth Rivera’s phone would ring during the overnight shift, it was usually because the bus didn’t show up again and one of her three kids needed a ride to school.

    After leaving early from her job at a Houston-area Amazon warehouse several times, Rivera was devastated — but not surprised — when she was fired.

    “Right now, I’m kind of depressed about it,” said Rivera, 42. “I’m depressed because of the simple fact that it’s kind of hard to find a job, and there’s bills I have to pay. But at the same time, the kids have to go to school.”

    Rivera is far from the only parent forced to choose between their job and their kids’ education, according to a new poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and HopSkipDrive, a company that relies on artificial intelligence and a network of drivers using their own vehicles to help school districts address transportation challenges.

    Most parents drive their children to school, the survey found, and those responsibilities can have a major impact.

    About one-third of parents say taking their kids to school has caused them to miss work, according to the poll. Roughly 3 in 10 say they’ve been prevented from seeking or taking work opportunities. And 11% say school transportation has even caused them to lose a job.

    Mothers are especially likely to say school transportation needs have interfered with their jobs and opportunities.

    The impact falls disproportionately on lower-income families.

    Around 4 in 10 parents with a household income below $100,000 a year said they’ve missed work due to pick-up needs, compared with around 3 in 10 parents with a household income of $100,000 or more.

    Meredyth Saieed and her two children, ages 7 and 10, used to live in a homeless shelter in North Carolina. Saieed said the kids’ father has been incarcerated since May.

    Although the family qualified for government-paid transportation to school, Saieed said the kids would arrive far too early or leave too late under that system. So, she decided to drop them off and pick them up herself.

    She had been working double shifts as a bartender and server at a French restaurant in Wilmington but lost that job due to repeatedly missing the dinner rush for pickups.

    “Sometimes when you’ve got kids and you don’t have a village, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” said Saieed, 30. “As a mom, you just find a way around it.”

    The latest obstacle: a broken-down car. She couldn’t afford to repair it, so she sold it to a junk yard. She’s hoping this year the school will offer transportation that works better for her family.

    Although about half of parents living in rural areas and small towns say their kids still take a bus to school, that fell to about one-third of parents in urban areas.

    A separate AP-NORC/HopSkipDrive survey of school administrators found that nearly half said school bus driver shortages were a “major problem” in their district.

    Some school systems don’t offer bus service. In other cases, the available options don’t work for families.

    The community in Long Island, New York, where police Officer Dorothy Criscuolo’s two children attend school provides bus service, but she doesn’t want them riding it because they’ve been diagnosed as neurodivergent.

    “I can’t have my kids on a bus for 45 minutes, with all the screaming and yelling, and then expect them to be OK once they get to school, be regulated and learn,” said Criscuolo, 49. “I think it’s impossible.”

    So Criscuolo drops them off, and her wife picks them up. It doesn’t interfere much with their work, but it does get in the way of Criscuolo’s sleep. Because her typical shift is 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. and her children start at different times at different schools, it’s not uncommon for her to get only three hours of sleep a day during the school year.

    Mothers are most often the ones driving their children to and from school, with 68% saying they typically take on this task, compared with 57% of fathers.

    Most mothers, 55%, say they have missed work, have lost jobs or were kept from personal or professional opportunities because of school transportation needs, compared with 45% of dads.

    Syrina Franklin says she didn’t have a choice. The father of her two high school-age children is deceased, so she has to take them and a 5-year-old grandson to different schools on Chicago’s South Side.

    After she was late to work more than 10 times, she lost her job as a mail sorter at the post office and turned to driving for Uber and Instacart to make ends meet.

    “Most of the kids, they have people that help out with dropping them off and picking them up,” said Franklin, 41. “They have their father, a grandmother, somebody in the family helps.”

    When both parents are able to pitch in, school pickup and drop-off duties can be easier.

    Computer programmer Jonathan Heiner takes his three kids to school in Bellbrook, Ohio, and his wife picks them up.

    “We are definitely highly privileged because of the fact that I have a very flexible job and she’s a teacher, so she gets off when school gets out,” said Heiner, 45. “Not a lot of people have that.”

    Although the use of school buses has been declining for years across the U.S., many parents would like to see schools offer other options.

    Roughly 4 in 10 parents said getting their kids to school would be “much easier” or “somewhat easier” if there were more school bus routes, school-arranged transportation services or improved pedestrian and bike infrastructure near school. Around a third cited a desire for earlier or later start times, or centralized pick-up and drop-off locations for school buses.

    Joanna McFarland, the CEO and co-founder of HopSkipDrive, said districts need to reclaim the responsibility of making sure students have a ride to school.

    “I don’t think the way to solve this is to ask parents to look for innovative ideas,” McFarland said. “I think we really need to come up with innovative ideas systematically and institutionally.”

    In Houston, Rivera is waiting on a background check for another job. In the meantime, she’s found a new solution for her family’s school transportation needs.

    Her 25-year-old daughter, who still works at Amazon on a day shift, has moved back into the home and is handling drop-offs for her three younger siblings.

    “It’s going very well,” Rivera said.

    ___

    The AP-NORC poll of 838 U.S. adults who are parents of school-age children was conducted June 30-July 11, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.

    ___

    Sanders reported from Washington.

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  • The Baby Died. Whose Fault Is It?

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    Bi understood how far-fetched her allegations sounded. “If it were not for all the hard evidence, it’s too shocking to believe [Rebecca Smith] did what she did to kill my son,” Bi wrote on Facebook, using Smith’s real name. Perhaps a kind friend could have suggested to Bi that there were other explanations. Instead, Bi had a set of legal adversaries and a supportive echo chamber. On Facebook, GCs and IPs alike expressed sympathy for Bi’s tragic posts: Everyone knew bad surrogates existed, and based on Bi’s claims, it sounded like Smith was one. Aimee Eyvazzadeh, a Bay Area fertility doctor and influencer, called Smith “a criminal” and “a psycho.” Bi’s $1,275-an-hour lawyer, Elizabeth Sperling, wondered whether digging through social media posts might show Smith engaging in “strenuous activity” that could explain the death.

    Bi’s husband focused on stabilizing the family, a move he credits with saving their marriage. He blamed the hospital, not Smith, but told me that the litigation is “her grieving process.” He tried to stay out of the legal stuff so that Bi couldn’t blame him too.

    Smith had planned to go back to work shortly after giving birth. Instead, she couldn’t stop bleeding. Even though SAI had determined she hadn’t breached the contract, the escrow stopped paying, leaving Smith reliant on disability benefits as she faced an increasing pile of terrifying bills.

    When Smith was finally cleared to return to work, a month after Leon died, Bi emailed Smith’s HR department to ask about her health plan. Bi also reported Smith to a federal agency, claiming that Smith was committing fraud. The stress on Smith was already high: Her supervisor at work had found her crying on and off for a day.

    Smith hadn’t heard from Bi since her terse reply to the condolence email. Then, Bi texted her a screenshot of a Facebook post about another GC who’d had an abruption at almost 32 weeks—but that GC had called 911 and the baby had lived.

    Next, Bi iMessaged a photo of Leon’s corpse to Smith’s 7-year-old son’s iPad.

    In the months after Leon died, Bi:

    Called the FBI 12 times. Reported Smith, SAI, the hospital, and Clarity escrow to more than a dozen state and federal regulators and numerous professional organizations. Launched a new round of her $30 million venture fund, backed by Marc Andreessen and David Sacks, President Trump’s “AI and crypto czar,” on Leon’s due date. Posted Leon’s ChatGPT-written endorsement from heaven, offering his “eternal blessings” for her work. Created TikToks, Instagram Reels, Facebook posts, X threads, LinkedIn Updates, and a website for her advocacy. Posted links disclosing Smith’s full name, photo, address, employer, mortgage license number, and son’s first name to her website. Asked her husband, again and again, how it was possible that Smith had carried her son but felt “nothing” about his death.

    Baby Leon’s empty crib.

    Courtesy of Cindy Bi

    Bi has abandonment issues that she traces back to her twenties, when her father divorced her mom for the mistress who’d conceived his long-awaited son. She got on lithium for her bipolar disorder in early 2021 and began looking for surrogates as soon as she stopped feeling “sedated.” I spoke to the therapist Bi hired to consult with her and Valdeiglesias. She told me that, of the 792 intended parents she has evaluated for surrogacy or gamete donation in the last decade, she has declined to recommend only about a dozen. “I’m not gatekeeping,” she said. When it comes to serious mental illness, she added, it’s up to them to disclose. One of Bi’s fertility doctors, meanwhile, told me it’s not his place to scrutinize intended parents. He defers to the recommendation of the psychological interviewer.

    If an intended parent gets turned down, they can usually find another therapist, another clinic, another agency. But without anyone questioning her plans, Bi seemed betrayed by the challenges of third-party reproduction. “Surrogacy is supposed to be the safest route,” she wrote on Instagram. It wasn’t just Leon’s death that pushed Bi into her spiral of legal action and social media posts. It was the apparent lack of control of having her child inside another woman’s body—the most basic fact of surrogacy.

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    Emi Nietfeld

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  • Judge blocks deportation of Guatemalan migrant children as flights were ready to take

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    A federal judge on Sunday blocked the Trump administration from sending any unaccompanied migrant child to Guatemala unless they have a deportation order, just hours after lawyers alerted her of what they described as a hurried government effort to deport hundreds of children.

    U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle Sooknanan issued her order as the deportation effort was fully underway, with planes with migrant children on board ready to take off from Texas.

    Earlier Sunday, in the overnight hours, Sooknanan issued a temporary restraining order barring officials from sending a group of 10 migrant children between the ages of 10 and 17 to Guatemala, granting a request from attorneys who alleged the effort would skirt legal protections Congress established for these minors. She also scheduled a hearing in the afternoon to weigh the case’s next steps.

    But Sooknanan abruptly moved up the hearing earlier on Sunday, saying she had been alerted that some migrant children were already in the process of being deported.

    As that hearing got underway, Sooknanan announced she had just issued a broader temporary restraining order blocking any deportations of unaccompanied children from Guatemala and in U.S. custody who did not have a deportation order. She instructed Drew Ensign, the Justice Department representing the Trump administration, to quickly inform officials they had to halt their deportation plans.

    Ensign acknowledged deportation planes had been prepared to take off on Sunday, but said they were all “on the ground” and still on U.S. soil. He said he believed one plane had taken off earlier but had come back.

    At the request of Sooknanan, Ensign said he confirmed that the children on the planes would be deplaned and returned to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for caring for migrant minors who enter the U.S. without authorization and without their parents or legal guardians.

    HHS houses unaccompanied children in shelters or foster homes until they turn 18 or until they can be placed with a suitable sponsor in the U.S., who are often family members.

    Sooknanan conceded her temporary restraining order, which is set to last 14 days, is “extraordinary” but justified it on the grounds that the government had decided to “execute a plan to remove these children” in the “wee hours” of a holiday weekend.

    In their lawsuit, lawyers for the group of Guatemalan children said the Trump administration had launched an effort to deport more than 600 migrant minors to Guatemala without allowing them to request humanitarian protection, even though U.S. law protects them from speedy deportations. They alleged the children could face abuse, neglect or persecution if returned to Guatemala.

    Ensign, the Justice Department attorney, said the Trump administration was not trying to formally deport the Guatemalan children under U.S. immigration law, but instead repatriate them to Guatemala so they could reunite with relatives there. He said the Guatemalan government and the children’s relatives had requested the reunifications.

    But lawyers for the children disputed the government’s claims, citing one case in which they say a child’s parents did not request any repatriation. They also said a law known as the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act says unaccompanied migrant children who are not from Mexico must be allowed to see an immigration judge and apply for legal protections before any deportation effort. Some of the children facing return to Guatemala still have pending immigration cases, the attorneys said.

    Ensign said the government’s legal position is that it can “repatriate” these children, based on authority given to HHS to reunite “unaccompanied alien children with a parent abroad in appropriate cases.”

    Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the deportation plans.

    Neha Desai, an attorney at the California-based National Center for Youth Law who works with migrant minors, said the U.S. government was attempting to deport children with “already filed claims for legal relief based on the abuse and persecution that they experienced in their home country.”

    “This is both unlawful and profoundly inhumane,” Desai added.

    Most of the unaccompanied children who cross the U.S. southern border without legal permission hail from Central America and tend to be teenagers. Once in the U.S., many file applications for asylum or other immigration benefits to try to stay in the country legally, such as a visa for abused, abandoned or neglected youth.

    As part of its larger crackdown on illegal immigration, the Trump administration has sought to make drastic changes to how the U.S. processes unaccompanied children. It has made it harder for some relatives, including those in the country illegally, to sponsor unaccompanied children out of government custody and offered some teenagers the option to voluntary return to their native countries.

    The Trump administration has also directed agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies to conduct “welfare checks” on children released from HHS custody, a move it has said is in response to disputed claims that the Biden administration “lost” hundreds of thousands of migrant minors.

    There are currently roughly 2,000 migrant children in HHS care.

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  • How to talk to children about school shootings after 2 killed in Minnesota

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    Another school shooting has unfolded, this time in Minnesota, as a new school year gets underway in many towns and cities across the United States.

    Two children — an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old — were killed and 17 others, including 14 children, were hurt when a gunman opened fire through the windows of a church during a Mass service at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning, according to Minneapolis Police.

    Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the gunman was in his early 20s and armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. O’Hara told reporters at a press conference that police believe the shooter fired from all three weapons.

    The suspect died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said, adding that they are still investigating a possible motive behind the attack.

    Law enforcement officers set up barriers after a shooting at Annunciation Church, which is also home to a an elementary school, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 27, 2025.

    Ben Brewer/Reuters

    The Annunciation Catholic School mass shooting is the latest in an ever-growing list of school shootings that have taken place in the past decade, since the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that claimed the lives of 20 students and six educators.

    With each school shooting, the number of people affected by school shootings grows, as do the conversations parents and caregivers must have with kids about the reality of gun violence in the U.S.

    People gather at a vigil tonight at Lynnhurst Park after a shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School, Aug. 27, 2025, in Minneapolis.

    Bruce Kluckhohn/AP

    Read on to see six tips from experts on how to discuss school shootings with kids.

    1. Be proactive in talking with kids.

    Dr. Mona Potter, a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist, said that when a tragedy happens, parents should “avoid avoiding” when it comes to talking about it with their kids.

    “Rather than try to protect them, it’s really important to think about how do we prepare them for the world,” Potter told ABC News. “And that’s going to be different for the little ones, from the middle schoolers, from the high schoolers, but really being attuned to what your kids need, and making sure that you’re encouraging brave behaviors. Break it down into small steps and really encourage them to take on the world, and help them feel like you trust them and you know that they can do it.”

    Dr. Deborah Gilboa, a board-certified family physician and resilience expert, also said parents and caregivers should consider their child’s age and situation when deciding how to talk with them about events like school shootings.

    “The first thing to think about is how old is my kid, and are they gonna hear about [the school shooting] anyway,” Gilboa told “Good Morning America” in 2023, after six people were killed at The Covenant School in Nashville. “So if they’re going to hear about it anyway, or they’re over the age of 8, it’s an important conversation to know how to have with your child.”

    Gilboa said parents and caregivers can start the conversation with a question, like, “Have you heard about this?”

    The next step, according to Gilboa, is to thoughtfully listen to a child’s reply.

    “We really listen to their answer before we flood them with more information,” Gilboa said, adding that adults should refrain from telling kids how or how not to feel. “[Telling a child] ‘there’s nothing to be afraid of,’ doesn’t really help.”

    2. Be truthful about what happened.

    Dr. Melissa Brymer, director of terrorism and disaster programs at the UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, said parents and caregivers should be truthful with kids in an age-appropriate way.

    “For our young kids, they don’t need to have all the details,” Brymer told ABC News in 2022. “Many times they’re going to be worried about their safety, your safety as a parent or caregiver or their family members’ safety, so we want to reiterate what’s being done to help them right now.”

    Brymer said parents should be prepared for teenagers to want a “much more in-depth conversation.”

    “How do we talk about what this event has meant that might have impacted our value system?” Brymer said of a potential conversation starter with a teen. “Can you encourage your kids to think about is there a club or some type of activity that they can do within their schools to show and create change? In these times, many of us start to feel lonely. How do we reach out to those that might not have someone in their life?”

    3. Take care of yourself as a parent or caregiver.

    Gilboa said the “first step” a parent or caregiver should take before talking with a child is to make sure their own emotions are in check and that they feel supported too.

    “We can’t come to our kids and have the conversation if we’re a wreck,” Gilboa said. “Then, they’re going to feel like they need to take care of us.”

    Brymer also suggested parents and caregivers take a “pause” so they can be ready to talk to their kids.

    “Sometimes we don’t have the words right away,” Brymer said. “We might need to reach out to our own support systems and have those conversations, and then we can have them with our kids.”

    If a child’s stress levels or response to a mass shooting are hard to manage, experts say parents and caregivers shouldn’t hesitate to seek guidance from their pediatrician, a school counselor, social worker or other mental health experts. Parents should also seek out professional mental health help if they are struggling.

    4. Keep an eye out for changes in kids’ behaviors.

    Psychiatrist and author Dr. Janet Taylor said children may respond to disturbing news about mass shootings in different ways, and parents and caregivers should pay attention to see if their child’s behaviors change.

    Children may experience problems focusing, have difficulty sleeping or become more irritable, according to Taylor.

    “If you have younger children and they suddenly get more clingy or want to sleep in bed with you, pay attention to that and cuddle them as they need it,” Taylor told “GMA” in 2022, after 21 people were killed in a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. “Older kids may become more isolated or feel that they have to solve things by themselves.”

    Gilboa said parents and caregivers should also watch for kids who may develop a fear of going to school, who look for reasons to stay home and who withdraw from activities.

    “Ask them, ‘Hey, tell me more about what’s going on.’ Don’t just assume it’s because they have a test they don’t want to take or something like that,” Gilboa said. “And make sure that if you’re really worried about them, you’re reaching out to their doctor or to their guidance counselor, their school counselor to get a little bit of extra support for you and for them.”

    5. Remember to keep checking in with kids.

    Instead of discussing a school shooting only once, Robin Gurwitch, a licensed clinical psychologist and retired Duke University professor, said it’s crucial to continue the conversation over time.

    “A one-and-done conversation is not sufficient,” Gurwitch told ABC News in 2018, after 17 students and teachers were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. “Let your child or teenager know that ‘I really do care about you and I am open to having this discussion.’”

    Gurwitch added, “It is really important to check back in tomorrow, to check back in the next day, to find out, ‘What are your friends talking about related to this school shooting?’”

    6. Offer kids a chance to help.

    Gilboa said that helping kids focus on a sense of purpose after tragedy can help protect their mental health.

    She said parents and caregivers should ask a child if there is something that they can do together to help, or a way they can make a difference, either on the issue at hand or something else to make the world better.

    “That teaches kids that they matter, that their actions matter and they can have positive impact, and mattering improves their mental health,” Gilboa said. “If we have empathy for their feelings, ask them how they’re doing and involve them in making a difference, we’re giving them the best shot we can of having stronger mental health through some unbelievable stressors.”

    The National Child Traumatic Stress Network offers comprehensive resource guides for parents, caregivers and educators to support students. Click here for resources related to school shootings.

    If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call or text the national lifeline at 988. Even if you feel like it, you are not alone.

    Editor’s note: This report was originally published on March 28, 2023.

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    GMA

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  • Online age checks proliferating, but so are concerns they curtail internet freedom

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    Online age checks are on the rise in the U.S. and elsewhere, asking people for IDs or face scans to prove they are over 18 or 21 or even 13. To proponents, they’re a tool to keep children away from adult websites and other material that might be harmful to them.

    But opponents see a worrisome trend toward a less secure, less private and less free internet, where people can be denied access not just to pornography but news, health information and the ability to speak openly and anonymously.

    “I think that many of these laws come from a place of good intentions,” said Jennifer Huddleston, a senior technology policy fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “Certainly we all want to protect young people from harmful content before they’re ready to see it.”

    More than 20 states have passed some kind of age verification law, though many face legal challenges. While no such law exists on the federal level in the United States, the Supreme Court recently allowed a Mississippi age check law for social media to stand. In June, the court upheld a Texas law aimed at preventing minors from watching pornography online, ruling that adults don’t have a First Amendment right to access obscene speech without first proving their age.

    Elsewhere, the United Kingdom now requires users visiting websites that allow pornography to verify their age. Beyond adult sites, platforms like Reddit, X, Telegram and Bluesky have also committed to age checks. France and several other European Union countries also are testing a government sponsored verification app.

    And Australia has banned children under 16 from accessing social media.

    “Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in November. The platforms have a year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced.

    To critics, though, age check laws raise “significant privacy and speech concerns, not only for young people themselves, but also for all users of the internet,” Huddleston said. “Because the only way to make sure that we are age verifying anyone under the age of 18 is to also age verify everyone over the age 18. And that could have significant impacts on the speech and privacy rights of adults.”

    The state laws are a hodgepodge of requirements, but they generally fall into two camps. On one side are laws — as seen in Louisiana and Texas — that require websites comprised of more than 33% of adult content to verify users’ ages or face fines. Then there are laws — enacted in Wyoming or South Dakota — that seek to regulate sites that have any material that is considered obscene or otherwise harmful to minors.

    What’s considered harmful to minors can be subjective, and this is where experts believe such laws run afoul of the First Amendment. It means people may be required to verify their ages to access anything, from Netflix to a neighborhood blog.

    “In places like Australia and the U.K., there is already a split happening between the internet that people who are willing to identify themselves or go through age verification can see and the rest of the internet. And that’s historically a very dangerous place for us to end up,” said Jason Kelley, activism director at the nonprofit digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation.

    What’s behind the gates is determined by a “hundred different decision-makers,” Kelley said, from politicians to tech platforms to judges to individuals who have sued because they believe that a piece of content is dangerous.

    While many companies are complying, verifying users’ ages can prove a burden, especially for smaller platforms. On Friday, Bluesky said it will no longer be available in Mississippi because of its age verification requirements. While the social platform already does age verification in the U.K., it said Mississippi’s approach “would fundamentally change how users access Bluesky.”

    That’s because it requires every user to undergo an age check, not just those who want to access adult content. It would also require Bluesky to identify and track users that are children.

    “We think this law creates challenges that go beyond its child safety goals, and creates significant barriers that limit free speech and disproportionately harm smaller platforms,” the company said in a blog post.

    Some websites and social media companies, such as Instagram’s parent company Meta, have argued that age verification should be done by app store owners, such as Apple and Google, and not individual platforms. This would mean that app stores need to verify their users’ ages before they allow them to download apps. Unsurprisingly, Apple and Google disagree.

    “Billed as ‘simple’ by its backers, including Meta, this proposal fails to cover desktop computers or other devices that are commonly shared within families. It also could be ineffective against pre-installed apps,” Google said in a blog post.

    Nonetheless, a growing number of tech companies are implementing verification systems to comply with regulations or ward off criticism that they are not protecting children. This includes Google, which recently started testing a new age-verification system for YouTube that relies on AI to differentiate between adults and minors based on their watch histories.

    Instagram is testing a similar AI system to determine if kids are lying about their ages. Roblox, which was sued by the Louisiana attorney general on claims it doesn’t do enough to protect children from predators, requires users who want to access certain games rated for those over 17 to submit a photo ID and undergo a face scan for verification. Roblox has also recently begun requiring age verification for teens who want to chat more freely on platform.

    Face scans that promise to estimate a person’s age may address some of the concerns around IDs, but they can be unreliable. Can AI accurately tell, for instance, if someone is 17.5 or just turned 18?

    “Sometimes it’s less accurate for women or it’s less accurate for certain racial or ethnic groups or for certain physical characteristics that then may mean that those people have to go through additional privacy invasive screenings to prove that they are of a certain age,” Huddleston said.

    While IDs are a common way of verifying someone’s age, the method raises security concerns: What happens if companies don’t delete the uploaded files, for instance?

    Case in point: the recent data breaches at Tea, an app for women to anonymously warn each other about the men they date, speak to some of these concerns. The app requires women who sign up to upload an ID or undergo a scan to prove that they are women. Tea wasn’t supposed to keep the files but it did, and stored them in a way that allowed hackers to not only access the images, but also their private messages.

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  • Online age checks are proliferating, but so are concerns they curtail internet freedom

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    Online age checks are on the rise in the U.S. and elsewhere, asking people for IDs or face scans to prove they are over 18 or 21 or even 13. To proponents, they’re a tool to keep children away from adult websites and other material that might be harmful to them.

    But opponents see a worrisome trend toward a less secure, less private and less free internet, where people can be denied access not just to pornography but news, health information and the ability to speak openly and anonymously.

    “I think that many of these laws come from a place of good intentions,” said Jennifer Huddleston, a senior technology policy fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “Certainly we all want to protect young people from harmful content before they’re ready to see it.”

    More than 20 states have passed some kind of age verification law, though many face legal challenges. While no such law exists on the federal level in the United States, the Supreme Court recently allowed a Mississippi age check law for social media to stand. In June, the court upheld a Texas law aimed at preventing minors from watching pornography online, ruling that adults don’t have a First Amendment right to access obscene speech without first proving their age.

    Elsewhere, the United Kingdom now requires users visiting websites that allow pornography to verify their age. Beyond adult sites, platforms like Reddit, X, Telegram and Bluesky have also committed to age checks. France and several other European Union countries also are testing a government sponsored verification app.

    And Australia has banned children under 16 from accessing social media.

    “Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in November. The platforms have a year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced.

    To critics, though, age check laws raise “significant privacy and speech concerns, not only for young people themselves, but also for all users of the internet,” Huddleston said. “Because the only way to make sure that we are age verifying anyone under the age of 18 is to also age verify everyone over the age 18. And that could have significant impacts on the speech and privacy rights of adults.”

    The state laws are a hodgepodge of requirements, but they generally fall into two camps. On one side are laws — as seen in Louisiana and Texas — that require websites comprised of more than 33% of adult content to verify users’ ages or face fines. Then there are laws — enacted in Wyoming or South Dakota — that seek to regulate sites that have any material that is considered obscene or otherwise harmful to minors.

    What’s considered harmful to minors can be subjective, and this is where experts believe such laws run afoul of the First Amendment. It means people may be required to verify their ages to access anything, from Netflix to a neighborhood blog.

    “In places like Australia and the U.K., there is already a split happening between the internet that people who are willing to identify themselves or go through age verification can see and the rest of the internet. And that’s historically a very dangerous place for us to end up,” said Jason Kelley, activism director at the nonprofit digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation.

    What’s behind the gates is determined by a “hundred different decision-makers,” Kelley said, from politicians to tech platforms to judges to individuals who have sued because they believe that a piece of content is dangerous.

    While many companies are complying, verifying users’ ages can prove a burden, especially for smaller platforms. On Friday, Bluesky said it will no longer be available in Mississippi because of its age verification requirements. While the social platform already does age verification in the U.K., it said Mississippi’s approach “would fundamentally change how users access Bluesky.”

    That’s because it requires every user to undergo an age check, not just those who want to access adult content. It would also require Bluesky to identify and track users that are children.

    “We think this law creates challenges that go beyond its child safety goals, and creates significant barriers that limit free speech and disproportionately harm smaller platforms,” the company said in a blog post.

    Some websites and social media companies, such as Instagram’s parent company Meta, have argued that age verification should be done by app store owners, such as Apple and Google, and not individual platforms. This would mean that app stores need to verify their users’ ages before they allow them to download apps. Unsurprisingly, Apple and Google disagree.

    “Billed as ‘simple’ by its backers, including Meta, this proposal fails to cover desktop computers or other devices that are commonly shared within families. It also could be ineffective against pre-installed apps,” Google said in a blog post.

    Nonetheless, a growing number of tech companies are implementing verification systems to comply with regulations or ward off criticism that they are not protecting children. This includes Google, which recently started testing a new age-verification system for YouTube that relies on AI to differentiate between adults and minors based on their watch histories.

    Instagram is testing a similar AI system to determine if kids are lying about their ages. Roblox, which was sued by the Louisiana attorney general on claims it doesn’t do enough to protect children from predators, requires users who want to access certain games rated for those over 17 to submit a photo ID and undergo a face scan for verification. Roblox has also recently begun requiring age verification for teens who want to chat more freely on platform.

    Face scans that promise to estimate a person’s age may address some of the concerns around IDs, but they can be unreliable. Can AI accurately tell, for instance, if someone is 17.5 or just turned 18?

    “Sometimes it’s less accurate for women or it’s less accurate for certain racial or ethnic groups or for certain physical characteristics that then may mean that those people have to go through additional privacy invasive screenings to prove that they are of a certain age,” Huddleston said.

    While IDs are a common way of verifying someone’s age, the method raises security concerns: What happens if companies don’t delete the uploaded files, for instance?

    Case in point: the recent data breaches at Tea, an app for women to anonymously warn each other about the men they date, speak to some of these concerns. The app requires women who sign up to upload an ID or undergo a scan to prove that they are women. Tea wasn’t supposed to keep the files but it did, and stored them in a way that allowed hackers to not only access the images, but also their private messages.

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  • Should we take more kids from their homes or fewer?

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    Some parents abuse their kids.

    Child welfare workers are supposed to stop that to protect the kids.

    But bad things often happen while they watch.

    “Children have a right to safety,” says Tim Keller. “If home is a danger, we as a society have to step in and protect those children.”

    Keller, legal director of the Center for the Rights of Abused Children, is a libertarian.

    “It’s surprising to hear a libertarian argue that government should do more,” I tell him.

    “We don’t like the state involved in family life,” he replies in my new video, but “they’re leaving children in dangerous situations.”

    Lots of parents abuse kids, even when they are on Child Protective Services’ (CPS) radar.

    Maybe it happens because child welfare workers are told, “Whenever possible, keep families together.”

    That’s U.S. policy, and Keller says it wrecks lives.

    But Columbia Law School professor Josh Gupta-Kagan wants welfare workers to take fewer kids from their homes.

    “The horror stories go in all directions,” he says.

    In Massachusetts, after parents brought their young son to the hospital with a fever and X-rays revealed an old, healing rib fracture, child welfare workers took both him and his brother away from their home. They returned the boys after four weeks, but those were a traumatic four weeks.

    It happens because American law requires social workers, doctors, nurses, teachers, and other professionals to report anything suspicious. Those who don’t report may be fined or even jailed.

    Gupta-Kagan says this leads health care workers to report too many instances of possible abuse.

    “See something, say something. It’s surveillance, investigatory, and sometimes it leads to an unnecessary separation.” Those can be as traumatic as abuse.

    “About 37 percent of all children are going to be the subject of a CPS hotline call. Fifty-three percent of all African American children.…Where my clients live…the CPS agency is a constant presence.…Folks are scared of them.”

    “We certainly don’t want a situation where we’re going to say, ‘We’re not going to protect this child because he is African American,’” replies Keller. “But 2,000 children a year are dying in their homes, and most of those are known to Child Protective Services.”

    Gupta-Kagan disagrees: “I don’t think I’ve seen any evidence that removing more children from parents saves lives. Child fatality numbers, unfortunately, have remained stubborn.”

    In 2023, more than 100,000 kids were taken from their homes. Still, about 2,000 die from abuse or neglect.

    Child welfare workers are overwhelmed.

    “Millions of CPS hotline calls coming in,” says Gupta-Kagan. “If you want to find the needle in the haystack, we have to stop putting so much hay on the stack.”

    Texas recently changed the definition of “neglect” to say that kids must be in “immediate” danger of harm before a child can be taken.

    As a result, Texas now has far fewer children removed from their homes.

    Keller calls that a mistake. “By the time a child is in imminent harm, they’ve already suffered so much trauma.”

    Keller, who has been a foster parent himself, wants more kids taken from their biological parents and put in foster homes sooner.

    “That child only gets one childhood. We need to make sure that that child is in a safe, loving, permanent home as quickly as we can.”

    That’s a noble goal. It’s horrible when kids are abused.

    But some foster parents are abusive.

    This is one conflict where I have no idea who is right.

    Government is best when it governs least.

    But when children are abused, we want government to step in.

    What do you think?

    COPYRIGHT 2025 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC.

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    John Stossel

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  • Trump orders flags to half-staff after Minneapolis Catholic school shooting

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    Trump orders flags to half-staff after Minneapolis Catholic school shooting – CBS News










































    Watch CBS News



    President Trump has ordered flags on federal lands to be flown at half-staff to honor the victims of Wednesday’s shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school. CBS News White House reporter Aaron Navarro has more on the administration’s response.

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  • Detroit school urges judge to halt Chick-fil-A construction next door

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    Steve Neavling

    Demolition was temporarily halted in May on a building to make way for a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Detroit after crews failed to notify nearby residents and a school.

    A Detroit Montessori school is asking a Wayne County judge to immediately halt construction of a Chick-fil-A restaurant next door, arguing developers violated zoning laws and endangered children by building just feet from its playground.

    The Giving Tree Montessori, which serves 116 children from infancy through kindergarten, filed an emergency motion last week, accusing Verus Development Group (VDG) and Chick-fil-A of ignoring Detroit’s zoning ordinance and the conditions of a Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) order by expanding their project onto land designated as school use.

    The school contends that the 3,000-square-foot, drive-thru-only restaurant, which would operate feet from its playground, violates a city ordinance prohibiting fast food restaurants within 500 feet of a school.

    “Defendants are using and/or attempting to use the VDG Disputed Parcel as part of the property to construct a restaurant within 100 feet—mainly 6 feet away — from The Giving Tree in violation of City Code Section 50-12-131, prohibiting a fast-food restaurant within 500 feet of a school,” the motion states.

    Giving Tree Montessori sued VDG and Chick-fil-A in June, alleging the drive-thru project at 17761 Mack Avenue near the border of Grosse Pointe Park violates zoning laws, poses an immediate danger to children’s health and safety, and could force the school to close down.

    The school says it will have to eliminate this playground for infants and toddlers because it's too close to the Chick-fil-A site. - Steve Neavling

    Steve Neavling

    The school says it will have to eliminate this playground for infants and toddlers because it’s too close to the Chick-fil-A site.

    “The construction borders the school playground, exposing children to heavy machinery and construction activities on the opposite side of the fence,” school owner Renee Chown said in an affidavit filed with the motion. “The playground has had to be shrunken to shield everyone from flying debris and construction activities. A planned expansion of the playscape had to be stopped.”

    As a result of the construction, two families have already withdrawn their enrollment for the 2025-26 school year, and the Montessori was forced to cancel plans to build more space and outdoor areas for the children, Chown said.

    Chown said Detroit police were called on at least two occasions “because heavy and dangerous construction equipment has been placed dangerously close to students that are playing outside on the school playground.”

    She added, “Gaping holes have been left in material bordering the fence which are small enough to allow a child to easily slip through and into an active construction site.”

    The development has drawn opposition from parents, educators, and neighbors, including at public meetings where dozens spoke out against the plan. The city initially rejected the project in October 2023 over traffic concerns, but the Detroit Board of Zoning Appeals overturned that decision in March.

    City officials have argued the 500-foot restriction doesn’t apply because Giving Tree wasn’t officially recognized as a school under zoning rules until June 2024, two months after the zoning was approved. But the lawsuit says that’s a technicality meant to justify a decision that favors developers over children’s safety.

    Demolition began in May without notice or fencing, prompting the city to temporarily halt the work. A sign went up days later, reading, “Chick-fil-A Coming Soon.”

    Since then, construction has been ongoing.

    In an affidavit, former Detroit zoning manager and certified city planner Tonja Bolden Stapleton supported the school’s case, saying the city’s Buildings, Safety Engineering, and Environmental Department (BSEED) issued the permit “prematurely, in error” and should rescind it.

    Stapleton said the site plan failed to meet several requirements, including a drive-thru escape lane, loading zone, and landscape buffers. More significantly, she said, the project never received a variance for the 500-foot school spacing requirement.

    Giving Tree Montessori School serves 116 infants, toddlers, and kindergarteners. - Steve Neavling

    Steve Neavling

    Giving Tree Montessori School serves 116 infants, toddlers, and kindergarteners.

    “The site is less than 500 [feet] from The Giving Tree Montessori School,” Stapleton said. “This location restriction was never waived by the BZA.”

    The motion also argues that developers improperly expanded the project site after a boundary dispute was settled in April 2024, adding the disputed parcel without returning to the BZA for approval.

    “This materially expanded the project site beyond what the BZA considered and approved,” Stapleton said.

    She added, “Proceeding without BZA review violates both the express conditions of the Decision and Order and the procedural requirements of the zoning ordinance.”

    Chown said the lack of oversight and notice left families blindsided.

    In May, the city abruptly halted demolition on the Chick-fil-A after construction crews began tearing down a building on the site without notifying nearby residents, businesses, and the school.

    Developers said the restaurant will serve up to 1,700 cars a day and generate $10 million in annual sales.

    For families and small business owners in the East Side neighborhood, the project is a clash between wealthy developers and a corporate fast-food chain, and the people who live, work, and raise their children next door.

    Metro Times was unable to reach developers for comment.

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    Steve Neavling

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  • DIY Hopscotch Stepping Stones for the Garden

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    If you have a little one who loves to explore the garden, these hopscotch stepping stones are the perfect playful addition. They’re easy to make for your first foray into DIY concrete, so let me show you how to make your own!

    These hopscotch stepping stones aren’t the traditional children’s hopping game, nor are they typical for a garden pathway. I created these as part of the play garden design I have been developing since my son was born.

    The idea behind the play garden is to create a space that is engaging for children while being aesthetically pleasing for grown-ups. I plan to show off the pieces that I’m working on along the way, starting with these hopscotch stepping stones.

    Making numbered hopscotch stepping stones is fairly simple and can be done in one afternoon. Let me show you how!

    This post will cover…

    hopscotch pathway in the gardenhopscotch pathway in the garden
    I made the numbers out of small pebbles and stones.

    How to Make Hopscotch Stepping Stones

    Make sure to choose a sunny day to work on this project. Keep in mind that the concrete will require 24 hours to fully harden, so make sure to account for this time in your plans.

    Materials

    (Makes 10 stepping stones numbered 1-9 and a dragonfly)

    numbered stepping stones in the gardennumbered stepping stones in the garden
    Most of these materials you can easily get at your local hardware store.

    Make It!

    First of all, let’s talk safety. Concrete is toxic to skin and can be corrosive. No matter how ‘tough’ you are, just protect your hands with gloves. I know they aren’t fun to work with, but stay healthy, folks. Also, please use safety gear to protect your eyes and ears when using power tools. You only get four of them!

    Cut the concrete form into 10 2-inch-thick moulds by using a handsaw or a handheld circular saw. Use a sheet of paper wrapped around the tube as a guide and carefully cut the first ring off the tube. Cut it open by using a box cutter to slice through the ring’s width. Place the cut ring on the tube to use as a guide for all the remaining cuts.

    Tape the ring together and place it a fraction more than two inches from the end if you are using a handsaw, or place it where the guide runs if you are using a handheld circular saw.

    Concrete Stepping Stones How to Cut Cement FormsConcrete Stepping Stones How to Cut Cement Forms
    Here’s a better look at how to cut the concrete moulds.

    Now, plan how to make the numbers. There are a few ways of doing this:

    1. Lay out the stones first so you can simply transfer them to the concrete when ready, or
    2. Get a bunch of house numbers to use as a guide. You will make an imprint of the house number and use that to set the stones in place.
    How to make concrete stepping stones for the garden with numbers set in rocks How to make concrete stepping stones for the garden with numbers set in rocks
    You may be able to find these at the dollar store!

    Set the rings on a plastic drop cloth and mix the standard concrete according to the instructions on the package. Fill each of the moulds ¾-full of concrete and use the trowel to smooth it out. Take care to remove any air bubbles. This base layer gives the stepping stones strength.

    Mixing concrete in a wheelbarrow to make stepping stonesMixing concrete in a wheelbarrow to make stepping stones
    Follow the mixing instructions on the concrete package.

    Mix the topping or repair concrete and add it to the top of each stepping stone. This layer gives the stepping stones a smooth, refined top.

    adding stones to concrete for hopscotch stepping stonesadding stones to concrete for hopscotch stepping stones
    Save the top 1/4 of the mould for the topping/repair concrete for a smooth finish.

    Working quickly before the concrete hardens, it’s time to add the stones. If you have two people working together, one can be pouring concrete and smoothing while the other sets the stones in.

    We used house numbers as a guide, but you can freehand it, use a foam number, or even just draw an outline with a stick. Once you have your method, start adding stones one by one, fitting them like a puzzle until you get your 1-9 completed.

    How to make concrete stepping stones for the garden with numbers set in rocks (1)How to make concrete stepping stones for the garden with numbers set in rocks (1)
    Get creative! You can see how I also made a dragonfly stepping stone out of the pebbles.

    Gently push a bit of concrete around the stones with your fingertips just to set them in place. If any do fall out, you can always glue them back in. I’m happy to report that not one of our stones fell out! That surprised me in a very good way.

    A hopscotch garden pathway for childrenA hopscotch garden pathway for children
    Kiddo loves the hopscotch stepping stones!

    Cover the stepping stones with a plastic drop cloth and let them dry for 24 hours. The next day, remove the mould by cutting it and set the stones in an airy place for a week to cure before moving them to the garden or lawn.

    I set the hopscotch stepping stones through the garden surrounded by woolly thyme. I used 56 plants, so it should be a fuzzy, fragrant carpet surrounding the hopscotch in no time!

    More Ideas for a Play Garden

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    Stephanie Rose

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  • Israeli strikes kill 33 in Gaza as famine announcement raises pressure

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    Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 33 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, including people sheltering in tents or seeking scarce food, local hospitals said as a famine in Gaza’s largest city sparks new pressure on Israel over its 22-month offensive.Israel’s defense minister has warned that Gaza City could be destroyed in a new military operation perhaps just days away, even as famine spreads there.Aid groups have long warned that the war, sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, and months of Israeli restrictions on food and medical supplies entering Gaza are causing starvation.Israel has rejected the data-based famine declaration as “an outright lie.” Hamas recently agreed to the terms for a six-week ceasefire, but hopes for a ceasefire that could forestall the offensive are on hold as mediators await Israel’s next steps. Women and children struck and killed in tentsIsraeli strikes killed at least 17 people in southern Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to morgue records and health officials at Nasser Hospital. The officials said the strikes targeted tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis.“Awad, why did you leave me?” a small boy asked his brother’s plastic-wrapped body.Another grieving relative, Hekmat Foujo, pleaded for a truce.“We want to rest,” Foujo said through her tears. ‘’Have some mercy on us.”In northern Gaza, Israeli gunfire killed at least five aid-seekers near the Zikim crossing with Israel, where U.N. and other agencies’ truck convoys enter the territory, health officials at the Sheikh Radwan field hospital told the AP.Six people were killed in attacks elsewhere, according to hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.Israel’s military said it was not aware of a strike in Khan Younis at that location and was looking into the other incidents.Braving gunfire and crowds for foodMohamed Saada was among thousands of people who sought food from a delivery in the Zikim area on Saturday — and one of many who left empty-handed.“I came here to bring food for my children but couldn’t get anything, due to the huge numbers of people and the difficulty of the situation between the shootings and the trucks running over people,” he said.Some carried sacks of food like lentils and flour. Others carried the wounded, including on a wooden pallet. They navigated fetid puddles and the rubble of war as temperatures reached above 92 degrees Fahrenheit.Friday’s report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said Gaza City is gripped by famine that is likely to spread if fighting and restrictions on aid continue. It said nearly half a million people in Gaza — about one-fourth of the population — face catastrophic hunger.The rare pronouncement came after Israel imposed a 2 1/2-month total blockade on Gaza earlier this year, then resumed some access with a focus on a new U.S.-backed private aid supplier, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Over 1,000 people have been killed near GHF distribution sites.In response to global outrage over images of emaciated children, Israel has also allowed airdrops and a new influx of aid by land, but the U.N. and others say it’s still far from enough.AP journalists have seen chaos on roads leading to aid deliveries, and there have been almost daily reports of Israeli troops firing toward aid-seekers. Israel’s military says it fires warning shots if people approach troops or pose a threat.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office asserts it has allowed enough aid to enter during the war. It also accuses Hamas of starving the Israeli hostages it holds.An increase in Israeli airstrikes this monthWith ground troops already active in strategic areas, the military operation in Gaza City could start within days in an area that has hundreds of thousands of civilians.Aid group Doctors without Borders, or MSF, said its clinics around Gaza City are seeing high numbers of patients as people flee. Caroline Willemen, MSF project coordinator in the city, noted a marked increase in airstrikes since early August.“Those who have not moved are wondering what they should do,” she told the AP. “People want to stay; they have been displaced endlessly before, but they also know that at some point, it will become very dangerous to remain.”Israel’s military has said troops are operating on the outskirts of Gaza City and in the city’s Zeitoun neighborhood. Israel says Gaza City is still a Hamas stronghold, with a network of militant tunnels.Ceasefire efforts await Israel’s responseMany Israelis fear the assault on Gaza City could doom the 20 hostages who are believed to have survived captivity since 2023. A further 30 are thought to be dead. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested a week ago for a deal to end the war and bring everyone home.Netanyahu said Thursday he had instructed officials to begin immediate negotiations to release hostages and end the war on Israel’s terms. It was unclear if Israel would return to talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar after Hamas said earlier this week it accepted a new proposal from Arab mediators.Hamas has said it will release hostages in exchange for ending the war, but rejects disarming without the creation of a Palestinian state.U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with Hamas’ stance, suggesting the militant group is less interested in making deals with few hostages left alive.“I actually think (the hostages are) safer in many ways if you went in and you really went in fast and you did it,” Trump told reporters Friday.Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 62,622 Palestinians have been killed in the war, including missing people now confirmed dead by a special ministry judicial committee.The total number of malnutrition-related deaths rose by eight to 281, the ministry said.Israeli protest against far-right security ministerA small group of Israelis protested against the far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, as he walked to a synagogue in Kfar Malal, north of Tel Aviv. Videos showed the minister arguing with the protesters.“We don’t want him in our village. Our message is to bring back the hostages,” one of the protesters, Boaz Levinstein, told the AP.Ben-Gvir is a key partner in Netanyahu’s political coalition and a staunch opponent of reaching a deal with Hamas, which hostages’ families see as the only way to secure the release of loved ones. Magdy reported from Cairo. Sam Mednick in Jerusalem and Michelle Price in Washington contributed.

    KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip —

    Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 33 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, including people sheltering in tents or seeking scarce food, local hospitals said as a famine in Gaza’s largest city sparks new pressure on Israel over its 22-month offensive.

    Israel’s defense minister has warned that Gaza City could be destroyed in a new military operation perhaps just days away, even as famine spreads there.

    Aid groups have long warned that the war, sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, and months of Israeli restrictions on food and medical supplies entering Gaza are causing starvation.

    Israel has rejected the data-based famine declaration as “an outright lie.”

    Hamas recently agreed to the terms for a six-week ceasefire, but hopes for a ceasefire that could forestall the offensive are on hold as mediators await Israel’s next steps.

    Women and children struck and killed in tents

    Israeli strikes killed at least 17 people in southern Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to morgue records and health officials at Nasser Hospital. The officials said the strikes targeted tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis.

    “Awad, why did you leave me?” a small boy asked his brother’s plastic-wrapped body.

    Another grieving relative, Hekmat Foujo, pleaded for a truce.

    “We want to rest,” Foujo said through her tears. ‘’Have some mercy on us.”

    In northern Gaza, Israeli gunfire killed at least five aid-seekers near the Zikim crossing with Israel, where U.N. and other agencies’ truck convoys enter the territory, health officials at the Sheikh Radwan field hospital told the AP.

    Six people were killed in attacks elsewhere, according to hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.

    Israel’s military said it was not aware of a strike in Khan Younis at that location and was looking into the other incidents.

    Braving gunfire and crowds for food

    Mohamed Saada was among thousands of people who sought food from a delivery in the Zikim area on Saturday — and one of many who left empty-handed.

    “I came here to bring food for my children but couldn’t get anything, due to the huge numbers of people and the difficulty of the situation between the shootings and the trucks running over people,” he said.

    Some carried sacks of food like lentils and flour. Others carried the wounded, including on a wooden pallet. They navigated fetid puddles and the rubble of war as temperatures reached above 92 degrees Fahrenheit.

    Friday’s report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said Gaza City is gripped by famine that is likely to spread if fighting and restrictions on aid continue. It said nearly half a million people in Gaza — about one-fourth of the population — face catastrophic hunger.

    The rare pronouncement came after Israel imposed a 2 1/2-month total blockade on Gaza earlier this year, then resumed some access with a focus on a new U.S.-backed private aid supplier, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Over 1,000 people have been killed near GHF distribution sites.

    In response to global outrage over images of emaciated children, Israel has also allowed airdrops and a new influx of aid by land, but the U.N. and others say it’s still far from enough.

    AP journalists have seen chaos on roads leading to aid deliveries, and there have been almost daily reports of Israeli troops firing toward aid-seekers. Israel’s military says it fires warning shots if people approach troops or pose a threat.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office asserts it has allowed enough aid to enter during the war. It also accuses Hamas of starving the Israeli hostages it holds.

    An increase in Israeli airstrikes this month

    With ground troops already active in strategic areas, the military operation in Gaza City could start within days in an area that has hundreds of thousands of civilians.

    Aid group Doctors without Borders, or MSF, said its clinics around Gaza City are seeing high numbers of patients as people flee. Caroline Willemen, MSF project coordinator in the city, noted a marked increase in airstrikes since early August.

    “Those who have not moved are wondering what they should do,” she told the AP. “People want to stay; they have been displaced endlessly before, but they also know that at some point, it will become very dangerous to remain.”

    Israel’s military has said troops are operating on the outskirts of Gaza City and in the city’s Zeitoun neighborhood. Israel says Gaza City is still a Hamas stronghold, with a network of militant tunnels.

    Ceasefire efforts await Israel’s response

    Many Israelis fear the assault on Gaza City could doom the 20 hostages who are believed to have survived captivity since 2023. A further 30 are thought to be dead. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested a week ago for a deal to end the war and bring everyone home.

    Netanyahu said Thursday he had instructed officials to begin immediate negotiations to release hostages and end the war on Israel’s terms. It was unclear if Israel would return to talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar after Hamas said earlier this week it accepted a new proposal from Arab mediators.

    Hamas has said it will release hostages in exchange for ending the war, but rejects disarming without the creation of a Palestinian state.

    U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with Hamas’ stance, suggesting the militant group is less interested in making deals with few hostages left alive.

    “I actually think (the hostages are) safer in many ways if you went in and you really went in fast and you did it,” Trump told reporters Friday.

    Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 62,622 Palestinians have been killed in the war, including missing people now confirmed dead by a special ministry judicial committee.

    The total number of malnutrition-related deaths rose by eight to 281, the ministry said.

    Israeli protest against far-right security minister

    A small group of Israelis protested against the far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, as he walked to a synagogue in Kfar Malal, north of Tel Aviv. Videos showed the minister arguing with the protesters.

    “We don’t want him in our village. Our message is to bring back the hostages,” one of the protesters, Boaz Levinstein, told the AP.

    Ben-Gvir is a key partner in Netanyahu’s political coalition and a staunch opponent of reaching a deal with Hamas, which hostages’ families see as the only way to secure the release of loved ones.

    Magdy reported from Cairo. Sam Mednick in Jerusalem and Michelle Price in Washington contributed.

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  • Students face new cellphone restrictions in 17 states as school year begins

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    Jamel Bishop is seeing a big change in his classrooms as he begins his senior year at Doss High School in Louisville, Kentucky, where cellphones are now banned during instructional time.

    In previous years, students often weren’t paying attention and wasted class time by repeating questions, the teenager said. Now, teachers can provide “more one-on-one time for the students who actually need it.”

    Kentucky is one of 17 states and the District of Columbia starting this school year with new restrictions, bringing the total to 35 states with laws or rules limiting phones and other electronic devices in school. This change has come remarkably quickly: Florida became the first state to pass such a law in 2023.

    Both Democrats and Republicans have taken up the cause, reflecting a growing consensus that phones are bad for kids’ mental health and take their focus away from learning, even as some researchers say the issue is less clear-cut.

    “Anytime you have a bill that’s passed in California and Florida, you know you’re probably onto something that’s pretty popular,” Georgia state Rep. Scott Hilton, a Republican, told a forum on cellphone use last week in Atlanta.

    Phones are banned throughout the school day in 18 of the states and the District of Columbia, although Georgia and Florida impose such “bell-to-bell” bans only from kindergarten through eighth grade. Another seven states ban them during class time, but not between classes or during lunch. Still others, particularly those with traditions of local school control, mandate only a cellphone policy, believing districts will take the hint and sharply restrict phone access.

    Students see pros and cons

    For students, the rules add new school-day rituals, like putting phones in magnetic pouches or special lockers.

    Students have been locking up their phones during class at McNair High School in suburban Atlanta since last year. Audreanna Johnson, a junior, said “most of them did not want to turn in their phones” at first, because students would use them to gossip, texting “their other friends in other classes to see what’s the tea and what’s going on around the building.”

    That resentment is “starting to ease down” now, she said. “More students are willing to give up their phones and not get distracted.”

    But there are drawbacks — like not being able to listen to music when working independently in class. “I’m kind of 50-50 on the situation because me, I use headphones to do my schoolwork. I listen to music to help focus,” she said.

    Some parents want constant contact

    In a survey of 125 Georgia school districts by Emory University researchers, parental resistance was cited as the top obstacle to regulating student use of social and digital media.

    Johnson’s mother, Audrena Johnson, said she worries most about knowing her children are safe from violence at school. School messages about threats can be delayed and incomplete, she said, like when someone who wasn’t a McNair student got into a fight on school property, which she learned about when her daughter texted her during the school day.

    “My child having her phone is very important to me, because if something were to happen, I know instantly,” Johnson said.

    Many parents echo this — generally supporting restrictions but wanting a say in the policymaking and better communication, particularly about safety — and they have a real need to coordinate schedules with their children and to know about any problems their children may encounter, said Jason Allen, the national director of partnerships for the National Parents Union.

    “We just changed the cellphone policy, but aren’t meeting the parents’ needs in regards to safety and really training teachers to work with students on social emotional development,” Allen said.

    Research remains in an early stage

    Some researchers say it’s not yet clear what types of social media may cause harm, and whether restrictions have benefits, but teachers “love the policy,” according to Julie Gazmararian, a professor of public health at Emory University who does surveys and focus groups to research the effects of a phone ban in middle school grades in the Marietta school district near Atlanta.

    “They could focus more on teaching,” Gazmararian said. “There were just not the disruptions.”

    Another benefit: More positive interactions among students. “They were saying that kids are talking to each other in the hallways and in the cafeteria,” she said. “And in the classroom, there is a noticeably lower amount of discipline referrals.”

    Gazmararian is still compiling numbers on grades and discipline, and cautioned that her work may not be able to answer whether bullying has been reduced or mental health improved.

    Social media use clearly correlates with poor mental health, but research can’t yet prove it causes it, according to Munmun De Choudhury, a Georgia Tech professor who studies this issue.

    “We need to be able to quantify what types of social media use are causing harm, what types of social media use can be beneficial,” De Choudhury said.

    A few states reject rules

    Some state legislatures are bucking the momentum.

    Wyoming’s Senate in January rejected requiring districts to create some kind of a cellphone policy after opponents argued that teachers and parents need to be responsible.

    And in the Michigan House in July, a Republican-sponsored bill directing schools to ban phones bell-to-bell in grades K-8 and during high school instruction time was defeated in July after Democrats insisted on upholding local control. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, among multiple governors who made restricting phones in schools a priority this year, is still calling for a bill to come to her desk.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, and Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed.

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  • Students face new cellphone restrictions in 17 states as school year begins

    [ad_1]

    Jamel Bishop is seeing a big change in his classrooms as he begins his senior year at Doss High School in Louisville, Kentucky, where cellphones are now banned during instructional time.

    In previous years, students often weren’t paying attention and wasted class time by repeating questions, the teenager said. Now, teachers can provide “more one-on-one time for the students who actually need it.”

    Kentucky is one of 17 states and the District of Columbia starting this school year with new restrictions, bringing the total to 35 states with laws or rules limiting phones and other electronic devices in school. This change has come remarkably quickly: Florida became the first state to pass such a law in 2023.

    Both Democrats and Republicans have taken up the cause, reflecting a growing consensus that phones are bad for kids’ mental health and take their focus away from learning, even as some researchers say the issue is less clear-cut.

    “Anytime you have a bill that’s passed in California and Florida, you know you’re probably onto something that’s pretty popular,” Georgia state Rep. Scott Hilton, a Republican, told a forum on cellphone use last week in Atlanta.

    Phones are banned throughout the school day in 18 of the states and the District of Columbia, although Georgia and Florida impose such “bell-to-bell” bans only from kindergarten through eighth grade. Another seven states ban them during class time, but not between classes or during lunch. Still others, particularly those with traditions of local school control, mandate only a cellphone policy, believing districts will take the hint and sharply restrict phone access.

    For students, the rules add new school-day rituals, like putting phones in magnetic pouches or special lockers.

    Students have been locking up their phones during class at McNair High School in suburban Atlanta since last year. Audreanna Johnson, a junior, said “most of them did not want to turn in their phones” at first, because students would use them to gossip, texting “their other friends in other classes to see what’s the tea and what’s going on around the building.”

    That resentment is “starting to ease down” now, she said. “More students are willing to give up their phones and not get distracted.”

    But there are drawbacks — like not being able to listen to music when working independently in class. “I’m kind of 50-50 on the situation because me, I use headphones to do my schoolwork. I listen to music to help focus,” she said.

    In a survey of 125 Georgia school districts by Emory University researchers, parental resistance was cited as the top obstacle to regulating student use of social and digital media.

    Johnson’s mother, Audrena Johnson, said she worries most about knowing her children are safe from violence at school. School messages about threats can be delayed and incomplete, she said, like when someone who wasn’t a McNair student got into a fight on school property, which she learned about when her daughter texted her during the school day.

    “My child having her phone is very important to me, because if something were to happen, I know instantly,” Johnson said.

    Many parents echo this — generally supporting restrictions but wanting a say in the policymaking and better communication, particularly about safety — and they have a real need to coordinate schedules with their children and to know about any problems their children may encounter, said Jason Allen, the national director of partnerships for the National Parents Union.

    “We just changed the cell phone policy, but aren’t meeting the parents’ needs in regards to safety and really training teachers to work with students on social emotional development,” Allen said.

    Some researchers say it’s not yet clear what types of social media may cause harm, and whether restrictions have benefits, but teachers “love the policy,” according to Julie Gazmararian, a professor of public health at Emory University who does surveys and focus groups to research the effects of a phone ban in middle school grades in the Marietta school district near Atlanta.

    “They could focus more on teaching,” Gazmararian said. “There were just not the disruptions.”

    Another benefit: More positive interactions among students. “They were saying that kids are talking to each other in the hallways and in the cafeteria,” she said. “And in the classroom, there is a noticeably lower amount of discipline referrals.”

    Gazmararian is still compiling numbers on grades and discipline, and cautioned that her work may not be able to answer whether bullying has been reduced or mental health improved.

    Social media use clearly correlates with poor mental health, but research can’t yet prove it causes it, according to Munmun De Choudhury, a Georgia Tech professor who studies this issue.

    “We need to be able to quantify what types of social media use are causing harm, what types of social media use can be beneficial,” De Choudhury said.

    Some state legislatures are bucking the momentum.

    Wyoming’s Senate in January rejected requiring districts to create some kind of a cellphone policy after opponents argued that teachers and parents need to be responsible.

    And in the Michigan House in July, a Republican-sponsored bill directing schools to ban phones bell-to-bell in grades K-8 and during high school instruction time was defeated in July after Democrats insisted on upholding local control. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, among multiple governors who made restricting phones in schools a priority this year, is still calling for a bill to come to her desk.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, and Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed.

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  • Doctor explains a rare but serious condition associated with the flu

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    We all know that influenza is a common and serious viral infection, but it’s good to be reminded ahead of the upcoming flu season, which typically starts in October.Related video above: How the new at-home flu vaccine worksThere were an estimated 47 million to 82 million flu illnesses in the United States between October 2024 and May 2025, resulting in between 610,000 and 1.3 million hospitalizations, according to preliminary estimated ranges from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Most fatalities occur in older individuals, but children can also die from the flu. The CDC estimates that flu-related deaths in children have generally ranged from 37 to 199 deaths each flu season.Now, a new study in JAMA has examined a rare but severe complication that can occur in children who contract the flu. This complication, called acute necrotizing encephalopathy, or ANE, carries a mortality rate of 27% despite intensive care and treatment, according to the new research.I wanted to learn more about complications associated with the flu, specifically about ANE, what researchers learned about children with ANE, and how ANE can be prevented. And what should parents and families know ahead of the next flu season?To help with these questions, I spoke with CNN wellness expert Dr. Leana Wen. Wen is an emergency physician and clinical associate professor at George Washington University. She previously was Baltimore’s health commissioner.CNN: What are complications associated with the flu? Who is most at risk?Dr. Leana Wen: Most people who have the flu will recover without complications. They may go through days or even weeks having fever, runny nose, headache and fatigue, but these symptoms generally resolve without long-term consequences.Some people, though, experience complications that could result in severe illness or even death. These complications include pneumonia, sinus and ear infections, brain and neurological conditions, and the worsening of existing medical problems such as heart and kidney disease.People at higher risk for flu complications include people 65 years and older, children younger than 2 and pregnant women. In addition, there are a variety of chronic medical conditions that increase risk, including chronic lung disease, diabetes, heart disease, liver disorders, kidney dysfunction and any condition that makes you immunocompromised.CNN: What exactly is ANE, and how common is it?Wen: ANE is a rare but very serious condition that occurs as a result of influenza infection. It causes inflammation and swelling in the brain, and it can lead to seizures, impaired consciousness, coma, long-term brain damage and death.It’s not known precisely how common this condition is or whether the incidence has been changing in recent years. It can also occur after other viral illnesses, but it has been most closely associated with influenza, and most often in children.CNN: What did researchers in this study find out about children with ANE?Wen: They sought information from U.S. pediatric hospitals and public health agencies regarding cases of pediatric ANE treated between October 2023 and May 2025. In total, they included 41 children with influenza-related ANE.The median age of these children was 5, and about 3 out of 4 were previously healthy. Importantly, just 16% of those for whom vaccination history was available had received the flu vaccine that season.All these patients became very ill, and all developed encephalopathy, or altered brain function. Sixty-eight percent had seizures. Most had abnormalities in their platelet count, liver enzymes and spinal fluid composition.Most patients received a combination of therapies, including steroids and immunoglobulins. Out of 41 patients in the analysis, 11 died. The median period between symptom onset and death was just three days; most of the children who died had such severe brain swelling that the pressure forced the brain downward, crushing vital areas that control breathing and heart function. All but one of the children who died had not received the latest flu vaccine. Among the survivors included in the analysis, 63% had at least moderate disability.The first takeaway for me is that ANE, while rare, is extremely serious, with high morbidity and mortality. It can be deadly within a short period of time, which means prompt diagnosis and treatment are essential. Second, most children with ANE were previously healthy. Third, while some vaccinated children also became ill, most of those with ANE and nearly all of those who died had not received the flu vaccine that season.CNN: How can ANE be prevented?Wen: It is not known why most people who contract flu never develop ANE, but some do. It’s also not known whether there is anything that can be done once someone contracts the flu to prevent ANE.What is known is that getting the flu vaccine reduces the chance of contracting the flu and of becoming severely ill as a result. This JAMA study also suggests that vaccination reduces the likelihood of developing ANE and of dying from it. The article and an accompanying editorial emphasize the importance of everyone being up-to-date with the flu vaccine.CNN: What else should parents and families know ahead of the next flu season?Wen: Influenza is a common illness that can have serious complications, including in previously healthy individuals. Getting the flu vaccine is helpful both for reducing the chance of contracting the flu and for lowering the likelihood of developing complications. The CDC recommends the flu vaccine for virtually everyone 6 months and older. Parents should be sure that their children receive the flu vaccine in the fall and that they and others in the family are vaccinated, too.Of course, flu is not the only contagious respiratory illness that can spread in fall and winter months. It’s important for people who have fever and active respiratory symptoms to stay away from others, especially those most vulnerable to severe illness. Good hand hygiene can lower the risk of spreading contagious diseases, as can taking precautions like masking in indoor crowded settings.

    We all know that influenza is a common and serious viral infection, but it’s good to be reminded ahead of the upcoming flu season, which typically starts in October.

    Related video above: How the new at-home flu vaccine works

    There were an estimated 47 million to 82 million flu illnesses in the United States between October 2024 and May 2025, resulting in between 610,000 and 1.3 million hospitalizations, according to preliminary estimated ranges from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Most fatalities occur in older individuals, but children can also die from the flu. The CDC estimates that flu-related deaths in children have generally ranged from 37 to 199 deaths each flu season.

    Now, a new study in JAMA has examined a rare but severe complication that can occur in children who contract the flu. This complication, called acute necrotizing encephalopathy, or ANE, carries a mortality rate of 27% despite intensive care and treatment, according to the new research.

    I wanted to learn more about complications associated with the flu, specifically about ANE, what researchers learned about children with ANE, and how ANE can be prevented. And what should parents and families know ahead of the next flu season?

    To help with these questions, I spoke with CNN wellness expert Dr. Leana Wen. Wen is an emergency physician and clinical associate professor at George Washington University. She previously was Baltimore’s health commissioner.

    CNN: What are complications associated with the flu? Who is most at risk?

    Dr. Leana Wen: Most people who have the flu will recover without complications. They may go through days or even weeks having fever, runny nose, headache and fatigue, but these symptoms generally resolve without long-term consequences.

    Some people, though, experience complications that could result in severe illness or even death. These complications include pneumonia, sinus and ear infections, brain and neurological conditions, and the worsening of existing medical problems such as heart and kidney disease.

    People at higher risk for flu complications include people 65 years and older, children younger than 2 and pregnant women. In addition, there are a variety of chronic medical conditions that increase risk, including chronic lung disease, diabetes, heart disease, liver disorders, kidney dysfunction and any condition that makes you immunocompromised.

    CNN: What exactly is ANE, and how common is it?

    Wen: ANE is a rare but very serious condition that occurs as a result of influenza infection. It causes inflammation and swelling in the brain, and it can lead to seizures, impaired consciousness, coma, long-term brain damage and death.

    It’s not known precisely how common this condition is or whether the incidence has been changing in recent years. It can also occur after other viral illnesses, but it has been most closely associated with influenza, and most often in children.

    CNN: What did researchers in this study find out about children with ANE?

    Wen: They sought information from U.S. pediatric hospitals and public health agencies regarding cases of pediatric ANE treated between October 2023 and May 2025. In total, they included 41 children with influenza-related ANE.

    The median age of these children was 5, and about 3 out of 4 were previously healthy. Importantly, just 16% of those for whom vaccination history was available had received the flu vaccine that season.

    All these patients became very ill, and all developed encephalopathy, or altered brain function. Sixty-eight percent had seizures. Most had abnormalities in their platelet count, liver enzymes and spinal fluid composition.

    Most patients received a combination of therapies, including steroids and immunoglobulins. Out of 41 patients in the analysis, 11 died. The median period between symptom onset and death was just three days; most of the children who died had such severe brain swelling that the pressure forced the brain downward, crushing vital areas that control breathing and heart function.

    All but one of the children who died had not received the latest flu vaccine. Among the survivors included in the analysis, 63% had at least moderate disability.

    The first takeaway for me is that ANE, while rare, is extremely serious, with high morbidity and mortality. It can be deadly within a short period of time, which means prompt diagnosis and treatment are essential. Second, most children with ANE were previously healthy. Third, while some vaccinated children also became ill, most of those with ANE and nearly all of those who died had not received the flu vaccine that season.

    CNN: How can ANE be prevented?

    Wen: It is not known why most people who contract flu never develop ANE, but some do. It’s also not known whether there is anything that can be done once someone contracts the flu to prevent ANE.

    What is known is that getting the flu vaccine reduces the chance of contracting the flu and of becoming severely ill as a result. This JAMA study also suggests that vaccination reduces the likelihood of developing ANE and of dying from it. The article and an accompanying editorial emphasize the importance of everyone being up-to-date with the flu vaccine.

    CNN: What else should parents and families know ahead of the next flu season?

    Wen: Influenza is a common illness that can have serious complications, including in previously healthy individuals. Getting the flu vaccine is helpful both for reducing the chance of contracting the flu and for lowering the likelihood of developing complications. The CDC recommends the flu vaccine for virtually everyone 6 months and older. Parents should be sure that their children receive the flu vaccine in the fall and that they and others in the family are vaccinated, too.

    Of course, flu is not the only contagious respiratory illness that can spread in fall and winter months. It’s important for people who have fever and active respiratory symptoms to stay away from others, especially those most vulnerable to severe illness. Good hand hygiene can lower the risk of spreading contagious diseases, as can taking precautions like masking in indoor crowded settings.

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