In the long history and deep annals of Philadelphia’s Northeast High School — the NFL has come calling before. Previous graduates Charles Wray and Brent Grimes both attended the school and went on to play in the NFL. Not far away — Northeast High School closed in 2010 was home to Bucko Kilroy — who will go into the Eagles Hall of Fame this November.
Now Northeast High School can claim to be the home of high school success for yet another rising star.
Texas A&M Football was #6 in the country and cornerback Tyreek Chapell are now inside that number after marquee wins this weekend against beating the Mississippi St. yesterday and previously beating Notre Dame and the Fighting Irish in South Bend two weeks ago to propel the program to #5 in the country and a perfect 5–0 for the Aggies Program in 2025.
Designated as a (consensus) three-star recruit by major media outlets (247 Sports, Rivals and ESPN) — Chapell allowed a mere two completions against him out of 41 attempts as a junior at Northeast High School in 2019. As a Sophomore — Chapell was top-ten in the SEC in pass breakups.
Now Chapell is looking to carry his dominant coverage that started at Northeast High School to the College Football Playoff — and possibly — to the NFL.
Should a college professor be able to share information about gender identity in a children’s literature class? Can an elementary school teacher offer an “unpopular opinion” about the Charlie Kirk murder on her personal Facebook page? Not without consequences, and not as long as Republican leaders are micromanaging public institutions, free speech advocates say.
Four people lost their jobs at Texas A&M University this month after a student objected to a discussion about a book involving a nonbinary child, falsely claiming such a conversation is not allowed under the Trump administration. The student took a recording of her classroom exchange with the professor to the university president, and a Republican lawmaker made it his mission to publicize the situation and rally support for the ouster of the A&M officials involved.
The termination of professor Melissa McCoul; the demotions of College of Arts and Sciences Dean Mark Zoran and English Department Head Emily Johansen; and the subsequent resignation of University President Mark Welsh III prompted a firestorm of controversy and debate about government overreach into higher education institutions.
Academics across the country have strong opinions on these topics, but many professors, including those at Houston universities, are uncomfortable talking about them publicly.
The incident in McCoul’s Texas A&M classroom was publicized by Texas Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, and had members of the public calling for the professor’s firing, tagging Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican lawmakers.
🚨CAUGHT ON TAPE: TEXAS A&M STUDENT KICKED OUT OF CLASS AFTER OBJECTING TO TRANSGENDER INDOCTRINATION… and A&M President defends “LGBTQ Studies.”
Harrison did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
Days after McCoul lost her job, conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk was murdered on the Utah Valley University campus, and as people weighed in on social media, a campaign was launched to get people fired from their jobs who spoke in a negative way about Kirk, who was an ally of President Donald Trump.
Governor Abbott called for the expulsion of a student at Texas State University who allegedly mocked Kirk’s death at a memorial. “Hey Texas State. This conduct is not accepted at our schools. Expel this student immediately. Mocking assassinations must have consequences,” Abbott wrote on X. The student was expelled later that day.
Texas Education Agency officials reported earlier this month that 280 complaints have been filed against teachers who commented on Kirk’s death on social media. While some of the posts were no-doubt inflammatory, suggesting that Kirk “got what he deserved,” others pointed out that they thought Kirk was a racist and posted clips that they presumably believed illustrated their point.
Randal Scamardo, a Texas A&M graduate who works as an assistant professor of Spanish at Lees-McRae College in North Carolina, said the situation at his alma mater is troubling. It appears that while it’s acceptable to laud Republican and Christian ideology in all public classrooms, differing opinions are shut down, he said.
“Since governments are expected to provide public education, it’s easier for them to create something that looks like education but is more akin to indoctrination,” Scamardo said. “People interested in doing that should be kept far away from the content of public education.”
Ironically, the indoctrination argument goes both ways. Harrison has argued that rogue educators must be fired for indoctrinating students into a “woke” ideology that includes Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practices and gender identity.
University of Houston lecturer Nancy Sims said on the Houston Matters radio show earlier this month that she devotes the first 15 minutes of her Women in Politics class to discussing the issues of the day, such as something President Trump said, action taken by the Legislature, or “any kind of policy that’s affecting women’s lives.”
“I think it’s very challenging to teach situations in the real world when the Legislature is trying to put parameters around you to not allow that,” Sims said on the radio show. “How can you discuss women’s rights without discussing the role of gender identity in women’s rights? You’re trying to put parameters on us that don’t allow us to discuss reality in the world that students will face when they leave campus.”
“It’s had a chilling effect on all public universities,” Sims told the Houston Press, declining to comment further.
Details are still unfolding in McCoul’s case, but accusations have been made that the topic of gender identity wasn’t relevant to a discussion on children’s literature.
According to reports, McCoul’s students were reading a novel called Jude Saves the World, featuring a 12-year-old protagonist who comes out as nonbinary. The professor shared a graphic of a “gender unicorn” to teach the differences between gender identity and sexuality.
According to the video released by Rep. Harrison, the student who later complained to the administration said, “I just have a question, because I’m not entirely sure this is legal to be teaching. Because, according to our President, there’s only two genders and he said that he would be freezing agencies’ funding programs that promote gender ideology. This also very much goes against, not only myself, but a lot of people’s religious beliefs.”
McCoul told the student she had the right to leave the class when concerns about the topic were raised.
No state or federal law prohibits instruction on race, gender, or sexual orientation in Texas universities, nor is there a university policy. An executive order issued by Trump in January states that U.S. government policy is to recognize two sexes and that federal funds could not be used to promote gender identity. However, legal experts have said that the order doesn’t prohibit a professor from teaching lessons on the topic.
McCoul’s children’s literature class, held over the summer, was canceled after the incident but the professor was back in the classroom teaching in the fall. She was not officially reprimanded for the incident until the video surfaced.
McCoul’s notice of termination, according to her attorney Amanda Reichek, “alleges that she was instructed on numerous occasions to change the course content to align with the catalog description and the course description that was originally submitted and approved, yet failed to do so.”
“However, Professor McCoul’s course content was entirely consistent with the catalog and course description, and she was never instructed to change her course content in any way, shape, or form,” Reichek said in an emailed statement. “In fact, Dr. McCoul taught this course and others like it for many years, successfully and without challenge. Instead, Dr. McCoul was fired in violation of her constitutional and contractual rights, and the academic freedom that was once the hallmark of Texas higher education.”
The professor appealed her termination and is “exploring further legal action,” Reichek said.
A tenured faculty member sent an anonymous letter last week to the student body at Texas A&M, noting that, for the second time in two years, a university president has stepped down “under public criticism from Texas political leaders and social media actors – accompanied by the resignation or removal of academic administrators and, in this most recent case, the firing of a faculty member in what appears to be a response to political pressure.”
M. Katherine Banks was the university president prior to Welsh. She retired in the wake of a controversy over the hiring of a Black female to lead A&M’s revitalized journalism program but received backlash from conservative groups that alleged a DEI hire.
“This follows years in which faculty have been lampooned in partisan media and by state officials as ‘woke’ activists, supposedly more concerned with ideology than with research and education,” the anonymous faculty member wrote. “We come to work knowing that serving your interests carries the risk of public ridicule, doxing, and, now it appears, loss of one’s job.”
“What makes this moment even more distressing is that outside agitators are trying to pit students against faculty, encouraging you to use the classroom as their weapon. I feel a long way from my first day standing in front of a classroom of Aggies, when students lined up to say howdy and introduce themselves. Now I wonder if they are recording.”
Texas A&M junior Ian Curtis, a journalism major and editor-in-chief of the student newspaper The Battalion, said last week that his peers were not particularly outraged about McCoul’s firing, but they were concerned that President Welsh was seemingly forced to resign amid the controversy.
Texas A&M University President Mark Welsh III, pictured with his wife Betty, resigned last week amid a controversy over a professor teaching gender identity in a children’s literature class.
Screenshot
The retired U.S. Air Force four-star general exited campus on September 19 with his wife Betty as students displayed signs that read, “American Hero & Our Hero. The Student Government Association rounded up dozens of current and former student leaders to sign a letter of support for Welsh and students protested for academic freedom.
“The professor situation, that gets into the politics of the day,” Curtis said. “People’s opinions are really divided on that on campus, but there was a lot of popular support for President Welsh. There’s an interesting dynamic here. It’s all the same scandal so it all gets thrown into one, but I think, among the student body, there’s a lot of support for Welsh because of everything he did for the university, which isn’t always the same as the reaction to the firing of the professor.”
Following the Course Description
The course description in McCoul’s publicly listed syllabus for the “Literature for Children” course states that the class will “tease out the boundaries of children’s literature,” including what counts as children’s literature and what differentiates writing for children from writing for adults, the Texas Tribune reported.
The syllabus lists Jude Saves the World as a course text and describes it as a children’s book by Ronnie Riley about a “nonbinary, bisexual 12-year-old who uses they/them pronouns.”
“Some of the material in this class might be controversial, and it is likely differing opinions will emerge,” the syllabus states. “You are certainly not required to agree with me (or your peers), or to adhere to any particular viewpoints. However, I do insist upon respectful, courteous dialogue, especially in matters where emotions run high.”
So it appears the students knew — or at least were provided information — on what the class would entail when they signed up for it.
Scamardo, the North Carolina professor, who earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. at the Universidad de Cadiz in Spain, said in general, course catalog descriptions are supposed to be four lines or less.
“We’re trying to make the courses look interesting,” he said. “We want students to register for these courses, and these descriptions have to be used semester after semester without having to be constantly altered. That is not very easy to do, but you also have a syllabus that gives more in-depth information. The students are supposed to read the syllabus at the beginning of the semester, when they still have time to drop the class and get their money back if they don’t like what they see planned out for the next 17 weeks.”
The professor added that students need to “lighten up, learn as much as they can, and go with the flow a little bit,” particularly when taking a political science course or a class that covers current events.
“Trust your college professors; they are the experts,” he said. “Take away what you like and disregard the rest. Keep the culture wars out of the classroom. You’re there to learn, not fight.”
Rice University political science professor Mark Jones said recently on the Houston Matters radio program that the course catalog references general topics but “it’s a rubric that you fill in throughout the course.”
“Especially in something like politics, you often are filling it in as the course evolves because you often try to use examples that come from current-day politics,” he said. “If you’re talking about democracy or elections, you’re probably not going to bring in some type of political philosophy that has nothing to do with politics, but it’s tough to say from the start exactly what you’re going to be covering in a course, especially for topics that are ever-changing, like politics.”
State Officials Also Get Involved in Secondary Education
As the so-called scandal at Texas A&M got a lot of attention this month, it became clear that secondary education classrooms are not immune to the watchful eye of the state government.
The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature passed a bill earlier this year requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in all public K-12 classrooms as long as the posters are donated. Two lawsuits have been filed to challenge the legislation and courts have ruled that such a measure is unconstitutional.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton celebrated a legal victory against Austin ISD on September 15, prohibiting the district from teaching critical race theory.
“Critical race theory is anti-American propaganda and in no world will I allow the woke indoctrination of Texas children,” Paxton said in an emailed statement. “While this order is an important step forward, I want to make clear to any school district considering any breach of this law: we will be watching.”
And in the Facebook post heard ‘round Texas, Abilene ISD Superintendent John Kuhn lamented that the “burden is heavy” for administrators in public education.
“Yesterday I spent hours at an update listening to the impacts on teachers and admins at public schools of bill after bill passed by our lege,” he wrote. “Did you know that one bill says teachers are going to be required to catalogue every book in their classrooms? Kindergarten teachers have hundreds of tiny books. With what time? When? Did you know that another bill says nurses can’t provide any health care whatsoever and counselors can’t provide any emotional support whatsoever without a written permission slip from parents?”
“Legislators have been convinced by political groups who hate public schools that everyone inside them are wicked, evil people,” Kuhn added.
Kuhn went on to say that Abilene teachers were referred to as “demons” by social media commenters who objected to the teaching of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close in an honors English class. The book is about a child who lost his father in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and it contains a few curse words, Kuhn said.
“My teachers aren’t demons,” Kuhn wrote. “They may have made a mistake in assigning this book to 15-year-olds rather than 17-year olds and for that there are people online saying they need to be fired. Today, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is likely temporarily coming off our library shelves while we review our book challenge policies. Read the book. It’ll make you cry.”
He went on to say that “we can’t win in public ed anymore” and he was thinking about retiring when he is eligible in January.
“I’m sick of politicians playing divisive politics and leaving local public servants to clean up the mess,” Kuhn wrote. “Public schools are apolitical entities with the job of teaching kids to think critically and become awesome humans. We aren’t perfect. We have missteps because we are human organizations. But don’t call my teachers DEMONS while you cuss in the comments.”
“There is a political movement to pull the teeth of local officials at schools and on city councils and county commissioners courts so that all we have is centralized state leadership. So local yokels like yours truly have to be continually demonized and legislated into submission.”
Academic Freedom
The controversy at A&M has prompted free speech advocates to question whether McCoul’s firing not only was unfounded but endangers academic freedom in Texas.
Lindsie Rank, director of campus rights advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said public institutions can’t fire employees for exercising their First Amendment rights. Such occurrences are likely to prompt some educators to seek employment in other states, Rank said in a published report.
A recent survey conducted by the American Association of University Professors and the Texas Faculty Association found that 25 percent of Texas professors have applied for out-of-state jobs in the last two years. Over 60 percent said they would not recommend that colleagues or graduate students seek positions in the state. The chief complaint among those surveyed was the political climate.
Texas A&M’s College Station campus is home to more than 76,000 students.
Screenshot
Caro Achar, engagement coordinator for free speech at the ACLU of Texas, said free speech is the “cornerstone of our — and any — democracy, and it must apply to all Texans regardless of the viewpoints they express.”
“All public colleges and universities have a constitutional obligation to protect academic freedom on their campuses,” she said. “For decades, the Supreme Court has emphasized the importance of public universities maintaining learning environments where students and faculty are free to learn and explore new ideas. The censorship of certain topics and viewpoints destroys these environments and threatens the very foundation of our democracy.”
Curtis, the A&M junior, said he didn’t think students are concerned about what they can talk about in class, but they are concerned about the political overreach that’s preventing universities from handling their business internally.
“I’ve been in classes where professors have had to say, ‘This is a class where we discuss current events.’ I think it’s a fear, maybe a nervousness or anxiety, that extends to the students sometimes, but a lot of us … we’ve still got to pass our exams. Maybe the severity of what’s going on hasn’t hit the student body yet,” he said.
“I think the resignation of Welsh really put that into perspective for a lot of people,” he added. “It was like, this political thing that I wasn’t paying attention to extended to someone I’ve met. I shook his hand and he came to my awards events. That really shocked a lot of people into caring and looking into the situation.”
Senate Bill 17, requiring state universities to dismantle DEI offices and cease various programs, activities, and trainings that were traditionally conducted by them, became effective in January 2024. That got students’ attention because it affected some of their clubs and extracurricular activities, Curtis said.
Texas A&M is a diverse institution with more than 70,000 people at the main campus, but the perception, based on the visual displayed on televised football games, is a majority-white, conservative campus with a military-style Corps of Cadets and male “yell leaders” instead of cheerleaders, said Curtis, who grew up in College Station.
Texas A&M University is known for its Corps of Cadets and military traditions. The institution began accepting women in 1963.
Screenshot
“There’s a community for everyone; there are representative bodies for queer students, every ethnic group or international student,” he said. “The campus and the school itself is a community and there’s something for everyone here.”
Former A&M President Welsh at first said he wouldn’t fire McCoul but then reversed course and did so, saying at the time, “This isn’t about academic freedom; it’s about academic responsibility.”
But some students believe that academic freedom is under attack, Curtis said, pointing to a reportThe Battalion did earlier this year on the conservative influence that far-right publication Texas Scorecard has on A&M’s policies and personnel discussions.
“Virtually every article they publish is not fully factual, sometimes not even close to factual,” Welsh is quoted saying in the article. “They have never printed a retraction when we provided them with the facts.”
And yet members of the A&M Board of Regents repeatedly pointed to published reports in the Scorecard to justify policy-making decisions, according to The Battalion.
Curtis said students are aware of the political pressure on university administrators but they typically don’t get involved until it affects their daily lives. He said he didn’t think anything would change among students other than reacting to changes at the institutional level.
“I think you’re going to see a shift in how other people conduct themselves more than how students conduct themselves,” he said. “I think there will be a domino effect from that. I think the issue is that you have people on social media seeing one moment out of context, and it being shared by a politician, and then you have people in Austin with their eyes on it. You have university systems that feel like they need to make changes based on that.”
“It’s reactionary. An uneducated opinion is being shared and it’s leading to all this change,” he added. “I think that frustrates a lot of students.”
Should a college professor be able to share information about gender identity in a children’s literature class? Can an elementary school teacher offer an “unpopular opinion” about the Charlie Kirk murder on her personal Facebook page? Not without consequences, and not as long as Republican leaders are micromanaging public institutions, free speech advocates say.
Four people lost their jobs at Texas A&M University this month after a student objected to a discussion about a book involving a nonbinary child, falsely claiming such a conversation is not allowed under the Trump administration. The student took a recording of her classroom exchange with the professor to the university president, and a Republican lawmaker made it his mission to publicize the situation and rally support for the ouster of the A&M officials involved.
The termination of professor Melissa McCoul; the demotions of College of Arts and Sciences Dean Mark Zoran and English Department Head Emily Johansen; and the subsequent resignation of University President Mark Welsh III prompted a firestorm of controversy and debate about government overreach into higher education institutions.
Academics across the country have strong opinions on these topics, but many professors, including those at Houston universities, are uncomfortable talking about them publicly.
The incident in McCoul’s Texas A&M classroom was publicized by Texas Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, and had members of the public calling for the professor’s firing, tagging Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican lawmakers.
🚨CAUGHT ON TAPE: TEXAS A&M STUDENT KICKED OUT OF CLASS AFTER OBJECTING TO TRANSGENDER INDOCTRINATION… and A&M President defends “LGBTQ Studies.”
Harrison did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
Days after McCoul lost her job, conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk was murdered on the Utah Valley University campus, and as people weighed in on social media, a campaign was launched to get people fired from their jobs who spoke in a negative way about Kirk, who was an ally of President Donald Trump.
Governor Abbott called for the expulsion of a student at Texas State University who allegedly mocked Kirk’s death at a memorial. “Hey Texas State. This conduct is not accepted at our schools. Expel this student immediately. Mocking assassinations must have consequences,” Abbott wrote on X. The student was expelled later that day.
Texas Education Agency officials reported earlier this month that 280 complaints have been filed against teachers who commented on Kirk’s death on social media. While some of the posts were no-doubt inflammatory, suggesting that Kirk “got what he deserved,” others pointed out that they thought Kirk was a racist and posted clips that they presumably believed illustrated their point.
Randal Scamardo, a Texas A&M graduate who works as an assistant professor of Spanish at Lees-McRae College in North Carolina, said the situation at his alma mater is troubling. It appears that while it’s acceptable to laud Republican and Christian ideology in all public classrooms, differing opinions are shut down, he said.
“Since governments are expected to provide public education, it’s easier for them to create something that looks like education but is more akin to indoctrination,” Scamardo said. “People interested in doing that should be kept far away from the content of public education.”
Ironically, the indoctrination argument goes both ways. Harrison has argued that rogue educators must be fired for indoctrinating students into a “woke” ideology that includes Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practices and gender identity.
University of Houston lecturer Nancy Sims said on the Houston Matters radio showearlier this month that she devotes the first 15 minutes of her Women in Politics class to discussing the issues of the day, such as something President Trump said, action taken by the Legislature, or “any kind of policy that’s affecting women’s lives.”
“I think it’s very challenging to teach situations in the real world when the Legislature is trying to put parameters around you to not allow that,” Sims said on the radio show. “How can you discuss women’s rights without discussing the role of gender identity in women’s rights? You’re trying to put parameters on us that don’t allow us to discuss reality in the world that students will face when they leave campus.”
“It’s had a chilling effect on all public universities,” Sims told the Houston Press, declining to comment further.
Details are still unfolding in McCoul’s case, but accusations have been made that the topic of gender identity wasn’t relevant to a discussion on children’s literature.
According to reports, McCoul’s students were reading a novel called Jude Saves the World, featuring a 12-year-old protagonist who comes out as nonbinary. The professor shared a graphic of a “gender unicorn” to teach the differences between gender identity and sexuality.
According to the video released by Rep. Harrison, the student who later complained to the administration said, “I just have a question, because I’m not entirely sure this is legal to be teaching. Because, according to our President, there’s only two genders and he said that he would be freezing agencies’ funding programs that promote gender ideology. This also very much goes against, not only myself, but a lot of people’s religious beliefs.”
McCoul told the student she had the right to leave the class when concerns about the topic were raised.
No state or federal law prohibits instruction on race, gender, or sexual orientation in Texas universities, nor is there a university policy. An executive order issued by Trump in January states that U.S. government policy is to recognize two sexes and that federal funds could not be used to promote gender identity. However, legal experts have said that the order doesn’t prohibit a professor from teaching lessons on the topic.
McCoul’s children’s literature class, held over the summer, was canceled after the incident but the professor was back in the classroom teaching in the fall. She was not officially reprimanded for the incident until the video surfaced.
McCoul’s notice of termination, according to her attorney Amanda Reichek, “alleges that she was instructed on numerous occasions to change the course content to align with the catalog description and the course description that was originally submitted and approved, yet failed to do so.”
“However, Professor McCoul’s course content was entirely consistent with the catalog and course description, and she was never instructed to change her course content in any way, shape, or form,” Reichek said in an emailed statement. “In fact, Dr. McCoul taught this course and others like it for many years, successfully and without challenge. Instead, Dr. McCoul was fired in violation of her constitutional and contractual rights, and the academic freedom that was once the hallmark of Texas higher education.”
The professor appealed her termination and is “exploring further legal action,” Reichek said.
A tenured faculty member sent an anonymous letter last week to the student body at Texas A&M, noting that, for the second time in two years, a university president has stepped down “under public criticism from Texas political leaders and social media actors – accompanied by the resignation or removal of academic administrators and, in this most recent case, the firing of a faculty member in what appears to be a response to political pressure.”
M. Katherine Banks was the university president prior to Welsh. She retired in the wake of a controversy over the hiring of a Black female to lead A&M’s revitalized journalism program but received backlash from conservative groups that alleged a DEI hire.
“This follows years in which faculty have been lampooned in partisan media and by state officials as ‘woke’ activists, supposedly more concerned with ideology than with research and education,” the anonymous faculty member wrote. “We come to work knowing that serving your interests carries the risk of public ridicule, doxing, and, now it appears, loss of one’s job.”
“What makes this moment even more distressing is that outside agitators are trying to pit students against faculty, encouraging you to use the classroom as their weapon. I feel a long way from my first day standing in front of a classroom of Aggies, when students lined up to say howdy and introduce themselves. Now I wonder if they are recording.”
Texas A&M junior Ian Curtis, a journalism major and editor-in-chief of the student newspaper The Battalion, said last week that his peers were not particularly outraged about McCoul’s firing, but they were concerned that President Welsh was seemingly forced to resign amid the controversy.
Texas A&M University President Mark Welsh III, pictured with his wife Betty, resigned last week amid a controversy over a professor teaching gender identity in a children’s literature class. Credit: Screenshot
The retired U.S. Air Force four-star general exited campus on September 19 with his wife Betty as students displayed signs that read, “American Hero & Our Hero. The Student Government Association rounded up dozens of current and former student leaders to sign a letter of support for Welsh and students protested for academic freedom.
“The professor situation, that gets into the politics of the day,” Curtis said. “People’s opinions are really divided on that on campus, but there was a lot of popular support for President Welsh. There’s an interesting dynamic here. It’s all the same scandal so it all gets thrown into one, but I think, among the student body, there’s a lot of support for Welsh because of everything he did for the university, which isn’t always the same as the reaction to the firing of the professor.”
Following the Course Description
The course description in McCoul’s publicly listed syllabus for the “Literature for Children” course states that the class will “tease out the boundaries of children’s literature,” including what counts as children’s literature and what differentiates writing for children from writing for adults, the Texas Tribune reported.
The syllabus lists Jude Saves the World as a course text and describes it as a children’s book by Ronnie Riley about a “nonbinary, bisexual 12-year-old who uses they/them pronouns.”
“Some of the material in this class might be controversial, and it is likely differing opinions will emerge,” the syllabus states. “You are certainly not required to agree with me (or your peers), or to adhere to any particular viewpoints. However, I do insist upon respectful, courteous dialogue, especially in matters where emotions run high.”
So it appears the students knew — or at least were provided information — on what the class would entail when they signed up for it.
Scamardo, the North Carolina professor, who earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. at the Universidad de Cadiz in Spain, said in general, course catalog descriptions are supposed to be four lines or less.
“We’re trying to make the courses look interesting,” he said. “We want students to register for these courses, and these descriptions have to be used semester after semester without having to be constantly altered. That is not very easy to do, but you also have a syllabus that gives more in-depth information. The students are supposed to read the syllabus at the beginning of the semester, when they still have time to drop the class and get their money back if they don’t like what they see planned out for the next 17 weeks.”
The professor added that students need to “lighten up, learn as much as they can, and go with the flow a little bit,” particularly when taking a political science course or a class that covers current events.
“Trust your college professors; they are the experts,” he said. “Take away what you like and disregard the rest. Keep the culture wars out of the classroom. You’re there to learn, not fight.”
Rice University political science professor Mark Jones said recently on the Houston Matters radio program that the course catalog references general topics but “it’s a rubric that you fill in throughout the course.”
“Especially in something like politics, you often are filling it in as the course evolves because you often try to use examples that come from current-day politics,” he said. “If you’re talking about democracy or elections, you’re probably not going to bring in some type of political philosophy that has nothing to do with politics, but it’s tough to say from the start exactly what you’re going to be covering in a course, especially for topics that are ever-changing, like politics.”
State Officials Also Get Involved in Secondary Education
As the so-called scandal at Texas A&M got a lot of attention this month, it became clear that secondary education classrooms are not immune to the watchful eye of the state government.
The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature passed a bill earlier this year requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in all public K-12 classrooms as long as the posters are donated. Two lawsuits have been filed to challenge the legislation and courts have ruled that such a measure is unconstitutional.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton celebrated a legal victory against Austin ISD on September 15, prohibiting the district from teaching critical race theory.
“Critical race theory is anti-American propaganda and in no world will I allow the woke indoctrination of Texas children,” Paxton said in an emailed statement. “While this order is an important step forward, I want to make clear to any school district considering any breach of this law: we will be watching.”
And in the Facebook post heard ‘round Texas, Abilene ISD Superintendent John Kuhn lamented that the “burden is heavy” for administrators in public education.
“Yesterday I spent hours at an update listening to the impacts on teachers and admins at public schools of bill after bill passed by our lege,” he wrote. “Did you know that one bill says teachers are going to be required to catalogue every book in their classrooms? Kindergarten teachers have hundreds of tiny books. With what time? When? Did you know that another bill says nurses can’t provide any health care whatsoever and counselors can’t provide any emotional support whatsoever without a written permission slip from parents?”
“Legislators have been convinced by political groups who hate public schools that everyone inside them are wicked, evil people,” Kuhn added.
Kuhn went on to say that Abilene teachers were referred to as “demons” by social media commenters who objected to the teaching of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close in an honors English class. The book is about a child who lost his father in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and it contains a few curse words, Kuhn said.
“My teachers aren’t demons,” Kuhn wrote. “They may have made a mistake in assigning this book to 15-year-olds rather than 17-year olds and for that there are people online saying they need to be fired. Today, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is likely temporarily coming off our library shelves while we review our book challenge policies. Read the book. It’ll make you cry.”
He went on to say that “we can’t win in public ed anymore” and he was thinking about retiring when he is eligible in January.
“I’m sick of politicians playing divisive politics and leaving local public servants to clean up the mess,” Kuhn wrote. “Public schools are apolitical entities with the job of teaching kids to think critically and become awesome humans. We aren’t perfect. We have missteps because we are human organizations. But don’t call my teachers DEMONS while you cuss in the comments.”
“There is a political movement to pull the teeth of local officials at schools and on city councils and county commissioners courts so that all we have is centralized state leadership. So local yokels like yours truly have to be continually demonized and legislated into submission.”
Academic Freedom
The controversy at A&M has prompted free speech advocates to question whether McCoul’s firing not only was unfounded but endangers academic freedom in Texas.
Lindsie Rank, director of campus rights advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said public institutions can’t fire employees for exercising their First Amendment rights. Such occurrences are likely to prompt some educators to seek employment in other states, Rank said in a published report.
A recent survey conducted by the American Association of University Professors and the Texas Faculty Association found that 25 percent of Texas professors have applied for out-of-state jobs in the last two years. Over 60 percent said they would not recommend that colleagues or graduate students seek positions in the state. The chief complaint among those surveyed was the political climate.
Texas A&M’s College Station campus is home to more than 76,000 students. Credit: Screenshot
Caro Achar, engagement coordinator for free speech at the ACLU of Texas, said free speech is the “cornerstone of our — and any — democracy, and it must apply to all Texans regardless of the viewpoints they express.”
“All public colleges and universities have a constitutional obligation to protect academic freedom on their campuses,” she said. “For decades, the Supreme Court has emphasized the importance of public universities maintaining learning environments where students and faculty are free to learn and explore new ideas. The censorship of certain topics and viewpoints destroys these environments and threatens the very foundation of our democracy.”
Curtis, the A&M junior, said he didn’t think students are concerned about what they can talk about in class, but they are concerned about the political overreach that’s preventing universities from handling their business internally.
“I’ve been in classes where professors have had to say, ‘This is a class where we discuss current events.’ I think it’s a fear, maybe a nervousness or anxiety, that extends to the students sometimes, but a lot of us … we’ve still got to pass our exams. Maybe the severity of what’s going on hasn’t hit the student body yet,” he said.
“I think the resignation of Welsh really put that into perspective for a lot of people,” he added. “It was like, this political thing that I wasn’t paying attention to extended to someone I’ve met. I shook his hand and he came to my awards events. That really shocked a lot of people into caring and looking into the situation.”
Senate Bill 17, requiring state universities to dismantle DEI offices and cease various programs, activities, and trainings that were traditionally conducted by them, became effective in January 2024. That got students’ attention because it affected some of their clubs and extracurricular activities, Curtis said.
Texas A&M is a diverse institution with more than 70,000 people at the main campus, but the perception, based on the visual displayed on televised football games, is a majority-white, conservative campus with a military-style Corps of Cadets and male “yell leaders” instead of cheerleaders, said Curtis, who grew up in College Station.
Texas A&M University is known for its Corps of Cadets and military traditions. The institution began accepting women in 1963. Credit: Screenshot
“There’s a community for everyone; there are representative bodies for queer students, every ethnic group or international student,” he said. “The campus and the school itself is a community and there’s something for everyone here.”
Former A&M President Welsh at first said he wouldn’t fire McCoul but then reversed course and did so, saying at the time, “This isn’t about academic freedom; it’s about academic responsibility.”
But some students believe that academic freedom is under attack, Curtis said, pointing to a reportThe Battalion did earlier this year on the conservative influence that far-right publication Texas Scorecard has on A&M’s policies and personnel discussions.
“Virtually every article they publish is not fully factual, sometimes not even close to factual,” Welsh is quoted saying in the article. “They have never printed a retraction when we provided them with the facts.”
And yet members of the A&M Board of Regents repeatedly pointed to published reports in the Scorecard to justify policy-making decisions, according to The Battalion.
Curtis said students are aware of the political pressure on university administrators but they typically don’t get involved until it affects their daily lives. He said he didn’t think anything would change among students other than reacting to changes at the institutional level.
“I think you’re going to see a shift in how other people conduct themselves more than how students conduct themselves,” he said. “I think there will be a domino effect from that. I think the issue is that you have people on social media seeing one moment out of context, and it being shared by a politician, and then you have people in Austin with their eyes on it. You have university systems that feel like they need to make changes based on that.”
“It’s reactionary. An uneducated opinion is being shared and it’s leading to all this change,” he added. “I think that frustrates a lot of students.”
Watch Out, Eagles and Phillies. Owl Speed Is Taking Over South Philly on Saturdays.
Eagles fans attending home games in South Philly will have to wait until mid-September for a Jalen Hurts to Devonta Smith or AJ Brown connection. If you find yourself nervous about the wait, do not be troubled. The Phillies may not be the only team hitting home runs in the Stadium Complex on Saturdays this fall.
Temple’s football team has a fast addition. Chester native Ashton Allen is now part of the Temple Owls football team for the 2024 season. Allen has been in consideration for football before, previously getting offers from Maryland, Michigan, Tennessee, and Pittsburgh.
Allen spent four seasons as a sprinter for the USC Trojans on the Track and Field Team, competing with his two brothers. Although never ruling out the possibility of playing football at USC, Allen entered the transfer portal this year and will be a dynamic addition to the Owls Football Program.
He may, in fact, have his sights set on larger goals. Sprinters have made an impact on the NFL over the years. Jim Thorpe was a multi-event Olympic competitor, and Devon Allen is the most decorated track and field athlete currently in the NFL. Miami Dolphins Jaylen Waddle and Jaylen Ramsey, as well as running backs Raheem Mostert and De’Von Achane, also have past experience in Track and Field.
Temple basketball has also added great talent when it comes to speed. This week, it announced its first commit of 2025, a local West Chester native and three-star standout, Cam Wallace.
A former college football star is under arrest and charged with murdering his girlfriend and their unborn child with poison.
Blaise Taylor had a stellar career as a defensive back playing major college football at Arkansas State University before graduating in 2017. Then the 27-year-old rose through the coaching ranks, as he was hired for pro scouting and defensive analyst positions with the NFL‘s Tennessee Titans and Utah State University. And a few weeks ago, he was hired by college football powerhouse Texas A&M University, per ESPN.
But that’s all over now. According to multiple media reports, the former standout defensive back was arrested in Utah by US Marshals on Thursday night. He’s charged with poisoning girlfriend Jade Benning and her unborn fetus in an incident that occurred in late February of last year at her Nashville apartment. Taylor had been working as a scout for the Titans at the time; after Jade’s death, he took the Utah State job and spent this past season with that school’s team.
While Taylor was in Utah for the past year, cops in Nashville were hard at work investigating Jade’s untimely death. The tragedy unfolded on the night of February 25, 2023. Per arrest records, Taylor was visiting Benning, who was five months pregnant, in her Nashville-area apartment that evening. Just after 9:30 p.m. local time, he called 911 and informed dispatchers that Benning was having what appeared to be an allergic reaction to something.
Paramedics rushed to the scene and immediately transported Benning to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in critical condition. However, she fell into unconsciousness before she could speak with EMTs or responding police officers. Two days later, her baby — who is believed to have been fathered by Taylor, per WSMV News — died in utero. Then a little more than a week after that, on March 6 — which also happened to be Benning’s 25th birthday — she succumbed to the effects of the poisoning, too.
At the time, though, authorities weren’t sure it was a poisoning yet. Taylor was not arrested, and Benning’s death was initially thought to be an allergic reaction or some other medical issue. That detectives were never able to interview her before she died made things even more complicated. Soon thereafter, Taylor left the Titans, moved out of Nashville, and took a job with Utah State’s football program as a senior defensive analyst for this past season.
But Benning’s story didn’t end there. Per WSMV News, the Metro Nashville Police Department assigned Homicide Unit Detective Adam Reese to look deeper into the case. While working alongside medical examiners and doctors from the coroner’s office, Reese was able to uncover evidence that suggested Benning was poisoned. The indictment against Taylor alleges he poisoned Benning and her unborn baby without her knowledge on the night of February 25 prior to calling paramedics.
Now, instead of going to work alongside his dad Trooper Taylor, the associate head coach at Texas A&M, Blaise is facing justice. He has officially been charged with two counts of first-degree murder — one for Benning and another for her unborn baby. Per the US Sun, Nashville cops are working with the US Marshals and authorities in Utah to have Taylor extradited back to Tennessee.
Larry is no stranger to the inside of a vet clinic. His 11-year-old shepherd pit bull mix, Leo, has had a series of health issues, including allergies and gastrointestinal problems since he was first adopted when he was two months old.
Leo’s inconsistent health requires Larry to feed him a special diet, including a pumpkin supplement and other gastrointestinal-protective, low-fat foods. These dietary needs and Leo’s anti-flea protection add up, leaving Larry to foot a roughly $350 monthly bill.
This is a hefty bill for Larry, who currently lives on a fixed income, since retiring in 2009 after working 29 years in water utilities for the city of Beverly Hills. Shortly after he quit working in California, he relocated to Texas.
Larry has opted to go to the Houston Humane Society’s Animal Wellness Clinic for most veterinary visits to reduce the chances of significantly adding to these costs. However, he said going to this relatively more affordable, lower-cost clinic still adds to the already expensive tab.
Many pet owners find themselves in Larry’s position, facing financial hardship when attempting to find and provide adequate health care to their furry companions. It’s no secret that pet care prices have risen in the past couple of years for both providers and customers, thanks in part to the pandemic.
Local experts say this, coupled with additional monetary responsibilities that these pet owners have unrelated to their animals, has furthered the gap between being able to obtain care for their pets and their ability to afford it.
Increasing prices for veterinary care have been a long-standing issue. Some rescues and shelters are equipped to help mitigate it, but others are limited in the aid that they can provide and are not set up to administer extensive care.
The veterinarians, hospital and clinic administrators themselves face increasing costs. In addition to rising costs for the equipment and medicines used in their practices, veterinarians may still be trying to pay off student loans. And then there’s the people who don’t pay their bills after receiving care for their pets.
The pay is relatively low, the hours are long and some vets are leaving the profession as a result.
“Often, when we talk about rising veterinary costs, we aren’t talking about price increases. We are talking about the accessibility to this care,” said Salise Shuttlesworth, founder and executive director at Friends for Life Animal Shelter. “How do we distribute care more equitably? How do we get access to the people who need this care?
“One of the things that we’ve discerned is that there are resource deserts, just like there are food deserts. There are certain zip codes in Houston where there aren’t vet clinics for miles and miles,” Shuttlesworth added. “There are people that have a median income of $28,000. They can’t afford $150 office visits or $1,500 surgeries.”
BARC, Houston’s animal shelter and adoption center, and the Houston Humane Society spay, neuter and administer basic vaccinations for all animals upon intake. The city’s shelter also provides micro chipping, flea and heart worm prevention through its wellness clinic services.
However, for cases that are more serious in nature, pet owners are advised to find a regular veterinarian or take their animals to a nearby emergency clinic (the most expensive option of all). The city shelter’s wellness clinic is not a full service veterinary clinic.
According to Shuttlesworth, when veterinarians are painted as greedy and rescues are depicted as the long-suffering victims it sets up this adversarial relationship that catches clients in the middle.
Overwhelmed by the costs, some pet owners are turning their dogs and cats into shelters — which only adds to the overpopulation some of these facilities are coping with now.
The Divide
Larry has covered all of Leo’s health expenses out of pocket. Over the years, Leo’s list of health issues expanded as he was diagnosed with thyroid problems — and more recently, when Larry was told Leo was going blind.
Larry visited other veterinary clinics but said he returns to the Houston Humane Society because of its proximity to his house and the quality of care and service.
Clinic Operations Manager Julisa Mendoza said some pet owners drive more than 30 miles to the clinic for vet visits or exam appointments for specific health-related reasons, including masses, upper respiratory issues and more serious cases such as amputations or eye repairs.
The clinic serves residents from Harris, Fort Bend and other surrounding counties. A lengthy commute for, as Larry said, a total that usually ranges between $10 to $20 cheaper than a visit to one of the other veterinary clinics he goes to in the area.
Go to an emergency room in the Houston area, most of which are open around the clock, and you’re looking at a bill that starts at $150 to $185 just for walking in the door.
As of 2023, the national average cost for a veterinary visit ranged between $25 to $186, according to CareCredit, a financial services company and card issuer. In Texas, the statewide average price for pet owners to take their animals to the veterinarian for a routine checkup was $66.81.
The baseline price for a veterinary visit at the Houston Humane Society’s wellness clinic is $26 Monday through Thursday and $36 Friday through Sunday. An exam costs $50 Monday through Thursday and $60 Friday through Sunday.
Although each is a more affordable option, neither factor in add-ons such as medications — Leo took Carprofen for his gastrointestinal issues — or other aspects of a suggested treatment plan, which Larry said could quickly increase the total. He added that the clinic does not offer discounts on Carprofen or anti-flea protection, and he does not have insurance for Leo’s expenses.
“The society wants us to adopt, but after that, we’re [pet owners] kind of left on our own because it can become very expensive even with the health insurance,” Larry said.
“We’re [pet owners] kind of left on our own because it can become very expensive even with health insurance.”
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Shuttlesworth, her staff and volunteers managed the animal population at the George R. Brown Convention Center when it functioned as a makeshift shelter for the city during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Residents relocating to the facility due to flooding and weather-related damage were encouraged to bring their pets.
Shuttlesworth said through caring for these furry companions, most belonging to lower-income families, her team found that roughly 90 percent of the more than 2,000 animals there had never seen a veterinarian before.
They successfully maintained the shelter at zero parvo and distemper cases by vaccinating and distributing additional medical attention to the pets at the center.
“What we learned when we elevated the status of veterinary care was how deep the need is just for basic veterinary care,” Shuttlesworth said.
According to Shuttlesworth, this need expanded during the peak years of the pandemic. The nonprofit shelter was operating its no-cost food bank when it started receiving calls from community members — particularly those in the service industry — who could not afford the medications or treatments their animals needed.
Alongside Dr. Robert Treviño, an emergency medicine veterinarian with VERGI 24/7 and volunteer veterinarian and board member at Friends For Life, the shelter opened 36 free clinics and treated over 7,000 animals.
Dr. Lori Teller, a team veterinarian with the Meyerland Animal Clinic and clinical associate professor at Texas A&M University said when animals receive basic care, such as routine checkups and protective immunizations that prevent animals from contracting potentially severe diseases, it will reduce overall veterinary costs.
“If it really is an ounce of prevention, it is worth a pound of care,” Teller said.
When animals don’t go to veterinarians regularly, they are more at risk to get sicker. If pets are involved in an accident, their conditions could also worsen rapidly, requiring more intensive and expensive care. This could include extensive treatments, major surgeries or overnight hospitalizations.
“If your dog was hit by a car or if your puppy has parvo, you are shit out of luck if you don’t have some money or can’t qualify for CareCredit,” Shuttlesworth said. “That’s not the veterinarian’s fault, and it’s not the fault of the people who don’t have the resources.”
Treviño, who has practiced emergency veterinary medicine for most of his career, said there are emerging payment options such as CareCredit and ScratchPay that offer credit cards or plans to pay off the cost of care incrementally and insurances like Trupanion and Healthy Paws.
He added that there are more options than initially offered in 2009 when he first started practicing. At that time, he said, insurance to cover the cost of veterinary care was not available. Still, many of these insurance plans are reimbursement-based, meaning they don’t provide immediate coverage, and the choices for plans and other payment options are still relatively limited.
Dr. Robert Treviño has volunteered at Friends For Life Animal Shelter since returning from working as an emergency medicine veterinarian internationally.
Photo by Faith Bugenhagen
Treviño said because of this he tries to find ways to curb the costs in cases where animals are not expected to make it without intensive care, but their owners can’t afford those more costly interventions. This could mean stabilizing the pet and asking if the animal’s primary veterinarian would be willing to take the pet the following morning.
According to Treviño, transporting the animal minimizes the number of days of hospitalization, which reduces the cost for their owner.
“It’s sad when you have to look at an animal and say, this is how much you need upfront,” Treviño said. “It’s hard to do that all at one time, and not everybody can, and certain programs can help, but in the end, it’s still a hard thing.”
“It’s not that we’re taking their (pet owners) money. We’re also making the decision to put some of the care of other incoming animals on hold because we have to do this,” he added. “You can only be stretched so far.”
Keeping The Lights On
Robert Fisher, hospital director at Garden Oaks Veterinary Clinic, said animal care providers also find themselves in tough spots as they navigate how to continue distributing quality treatment and operate a business amid rising costs and a tight labor market.
“Everybody wants the very best care until the invoice comes. They (pet owners) look at it as you should be more altruistic because of the field you’re in,” Fisher added. “Everybody has to make a profit because you’re in business. If you don’t make a profit, there is a point that you have to lock your doors and leave.”
“Everybody wants the very best care until the invoice comes.”
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He has heard the stories of older veterinarians who practice for 25 or 35 years but are forced to close because of the debt accrued by allowing people to avoid paying their bills.
Fisher said veterinary clinics and animal hospitals are like any other business. They have to pay utility bills, rents and salaries for veterinarians and other staff members who, he added, should not need to work for less so these facilities can make ends meet.
He has one veterinarian at his clinic who has been practicing for 12 years, is married to an attorney and still owes about $150,000 in student loans.
Treviño said debt from his time in veterinary school factored into his decision to work nonstop from 2009, when he’d first graduated, to 2015 without a vacation in between.
“I have a really bad problem when people say, ‘Hey, I need some help here,’ saying OK,” Treviño said. “Student loans were also weighing on my back, so I tried to work as much as I could.”
According to Fisher, pet owners may come into clinics not wanting to pay $40 to have their animal’s anal glands expressed because it is not an overly complex procedure. But they don’t understand that they are paying for the extensive skill set veterinarians have for the more intensive work required.
Teller said, although it can vary per provider, veterinarians are often doing pro bono work for community members. Others like Treviño may also volunteer or do low-cost work at outside organizations.
The most Treviño receives for his work at Friends For Life are Twizzlers and the occasional beer, but he said he cares about what he gets back from his volunteer work as it allows him to take a mental health break from the harder aspects of his emergency work.
Treviño said this doesn’t mean working at the shelter is always easy. During one of his recent days off, he went in to euthanize a dog who was battling cancer. However, it does offer the ability to step away from the constant severity of cases and the attitude that can sometimes accompany it.
Dr. Treviño said the shelter functions differently than other facilities; when putting down Pierce, a dog with lymphoma, staff fed him all morning and sat with him as he died.
Photo by Friends For Life Animal Shelter
“I just wish people knew everything that goes into veterinary medicine. I think that would make them a little bit more patient with things,” Treviño said. “You can talk to any veterinarian, and they’ll tell you about unruly clients. It’s everywhere, with any business, even human hospitals, that’s being noticed.
“I try to give the benefit of the doubt. There has to be some degree of stress that they’re (pet owners) displaying because it’s a scary situation,” he added. “I can understand when people are like that, but to a point.”
Treviño said most pet owners are sad or in shock because they don’t know what is wrong with their animals or they can’t afford the cost of care, but tend to remain relatively calm. Those who get agitated are in the minority. He described it as an “airline type thing” similar to other industries post-COVID; more people are taking to Google to blast businesses or get confrontational.
Treviño works as an emergency veterinarian full-time, which he said some veterinarians don’t want to do. He said some can’t handle constantly seeing animals die, owners who are unhappy with the treatment’s sticker price and not being able to help those who can’t cover the cost of care.
An ongoing veterinary shortage continues to be a growing problem for the animal care industry. Fisher said the more staff veterinarians leave, the more facilities depend on “relief” or stand-in veterinarians. They help fill the gap in service, but some set their rates at premium costs because they are in high demand.
“We know when veterinarians can go work at a retail store or a restaurant and get paid more than they are getting paid to work in a veterinary practice,” Teller said. “To retain our highly qualified veterinarians, we need to be able to pay them a competitive wage.”
Clinics and hospitals are also being affected by increasing inflation rates regarding the costs of the supplies needed to operate.
According to Fisher, in 2022, every supplier was hit with logistical demands. He said there wasn’t a vendor his clinic worked with who did a price increase of less than 10 percent. The cost for shipping increased, and supplies Fisher paid $10 for were $13.
“Look at veterinary medicine and the number of veterinarians, just like my friend did, that commit suicide. Part of that stress on them is they’ve got people expecting them always to be giving, never to be taking,” Fisher said. “Then they’ve got the pressure of trying to keep the doors open on the business. It’s a staggering stressor on the person that owns a veterinary clinic.”
“This is a really, truly caring profession. I never cease to be amazed at what people are willing to do in this profession to help somebody get out of a tight spot,” he added. “I have seen doctors and other employees [pay] out of pocket to help somebody take care of their animal. We just can’t do it forever.”
Bridging the Gap
Shuttlesworth said the first step toward addressing the inaccessibility of veterinary care is not building more brick-and-mortar veterinary clinics but instead rethinking how facilities provide this care and addressing the needs of pet owners for help with related services.
At Friends For Life, they offer a program called “Thinking Outside The Shelter” that blends aspects of animal work with social work. It allows people to receive basic veterinary care on a sliding scale or at no cost if they cannot afford it. Other services that may make the difference between a pet owner having the ability to access care are offered, too.
“Sometimes, people just need someone to talk them through what’s happening with their animal,” Shuttlesworth said. “Sometimes, people need a fence built or a ride to the vet.”
One woman whose two cats received treatment through the program is paying Shuttlesworth back by making jewelry from beads Shuttlesworth collected while on a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Shuttlesworth said that, like any nonprofit, they always need more money to provide these services. However, she makes it clear to her staff and volunteers to put what is best for the animal first — that the budget is her problem.
By addressing these additional aspects of assistance needed outside of medical attention, shelters and other animal care facilities can work on bridging the gap created not only by cost but also by other obstacles that lead to the inaccessibility of care.
She added that this meant going into the lower-income communities where these services are lacking and finding out what resources are available and which are not. Friends For Life is collecting more information about the areas where veterinary and related care is most needed and how to help expand access to it using a data-driven approach.
“If we (shelters) were to just stay in that (old model), that’s job security for me for the rest of my life. We can just continue to raise money because it will never change,” Shuttlesworth said. “This model will put us out of a job. The math of it has to work. We’re here to do the right thing. That’s how I do it. That’s how I don’t freak out.”
Larry continues to take Leo for routine check ups. Although Larry does not know how much longer he has with his friend, Leo has evaded death once. Last year, veterinarians recommended Leo be put down, but his temperature stabilized and the dog bounced back.
“I’m yet to know how the rest of this journey is going to turn out,” Larry said. “So, the only thing I can do as his handler is make him as comfortable as possible. And keep continuing to give him love in the form that he loves so much.”
In February 2016, infectious disease epidemiologist Steffanie Strathdee was holding her dying husband’s hand, watching him lose an exhausting fight against a deadly superbug infection.
After months of ups and downs, doctors had just told her that her husband, Tom Patterson, was too racked with bacteria to live.
“I told him, ‘Honey, we’re running out of time. I need to know if you want to live. I don’t even know if you can hear me, but if you can hear me and you want to live, please squeeze my hand.’
“All of a sudden, he squeezed really hard. And I thought, ‘Oh, great!’ And then I’m thinking, ‘Oh, crap! What am I going to do?’”
What she accomplished next could easily be called miraculous. First, Strathdee found an obscure treatment that offered a glimmer of hope — fighting superbugs with phages, viruses created by nature to eat bacteria.
Then she convinced phage scientists around the country to hunt and peck through molecular haystacks of sewage, bogs, ponds, the bilge of boats and other prime breeding grounds for bacteria and their viral opponents. The impossible goal: quickly find the few, exquisitely unique phages capable of fighting a specific strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria literally eating her husband alive.
Next, the US Food and Drug Administration had to greenlight this unproven cocktail of hope, and scientists had to purify the mixture so that it wouldn’t be deadly.
Yet just three weeks later, Strathdee watched doctors intravenously inject the mixture into her husband’s body — and save his life.
Their story is one of unrelenting perseverance and unbelievable good fortune. It’s a glowing tribute to the immense kindness of strangers. And it’s a story that just might save countless lives from the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs — maybe even your own.
“It’s estimated that by 2050, 10 million people per year — that’s one person every three seconds — is going to be dying from a superbug infection,” Strathdee told an audience at Life Itself, a 2022 health and wellness event presented in partnership with CNN.
“I’m here to tell you that the enemy of my enemy can be my friend. Viruses can be medicine.”
How this ‘perfect predator’ saved his life after nine months in the hospital
During a Thanksgiving cruise on the Nile in 2015, Patterson was suddenly felled by severe stomach cramps. When a clinic in Egypt failed to help his worsening symptoms, Patterson was flown to Germany, where doctors discovered a grapefruit-size abdominal abscess filled with Acinetobacter baumannii, a virulent bacterium resistant to nearly all antibiotics.
Found in the sands of the Middle East, the bacteria were blown into the wounds of American troops hit by roadside bombs during the Iraq War, earning the pathogen the nickname “Iraqibacter.”
“Veterans would get shrapnel in their legs and bodies from IED explosions and were medevaced home to convalesce,” Strathdee told CNN, referring to improvised explosive devices. “Unfortunately, they brought their superbug with them. Sadly, many of them survived the bomb blasts but died from this deadly bacterium.”
“It’s something of a bacterial kleptomaniac. It’s really good at stealing antimicrobial resistance genes from other bacteria,” Strathdee said. “I started to realize that my husband was a lot sicker than I thought and that modern medicine had run out of antibiotics to treat him.”
With the bacteria growing unchecked inside him, Patterson was soon medevaced to the couple’s hometown of San Diego, where he was a professor of psychiatry and Strathdee was the associate dean of global health sciences at the University of California, San Diego.
“Tom was on a roller coaster — he’d get better for a few days, and then there would be a deterioration, and he would be very ill,” said Dr. Robert “Chip” Schooley, a leading infectious disease specialist at UC San Diego who was a longtime friend and colleague. As weeks turned into months, “Tom began developing multi-organ failure. He was sick enough that we could lose him any day.”
After that reassuring hand squeeze from her husband, Strathdee sprang into action. Scouring the internet, she had already stumbled across a study by a Tbilisi, Georgia, researcher on the use of phages for treatment of drug-resistant bacteria.
A phone call later, Strathdee discovered phage treatment was well established in former Soviet bloc countries but had been discounted long ago as “fringe science” in the West.
“Phages are everywhere. There’s 10 million trillion trillion — that’s 10 to the power of 31 — phages that are thought to be on the planet,” Strathdee said. “They’re in soil, they’re in water, in our oceans and in our bodies, where they are the gatekeepers that keep our bacterial numbers in check. But you have to find the right phage to kill the bacterium that is causing the trouble.”
Buoyed by her newfound knowledge, Strathdee began reaching out to scientists who worked with phages: “I wrote cold emails to total strangers, begging them for help,” she said at Life Itself.
One stranger who quickly answered was Texas A&M University biochemist Ryland Young. He’d been working with phages for over 45 years.
“You know the word persuasive? There’s nobody as persuasive as Steffanie,” said Young, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics who runs the lab at the university’s Center for Phage Technology. “We just dropped everything. No exaggeration, people were literally working 24/7, screening 100 different environmental samples to find just a couple of new phages.”
While the Texas lab burned the midnight oil, Schooley tried to obtain FDA approval for the injection of the phage cocktail into Patterson. Because phage therapy has not undergone clinical trials in the United States, each case of “compassionate use” required a good deal of documentation. It’s a process that can consume precious time.
But the woman who answered the phone at the FDA said, “‘No problem. This is what you need, and we can arrange that,’” Schooley recalled. “And then she tells me she has friends in the Navy that might be able to find some phages for us as well.”
In fact, the US Naval Medical Research Center had banks of phages gathered from seaports around the world. Scientists there began to hunt for a match, “and it wasn’t long before they found a few phages that appeared to be active against the bacterium,” Strathdee said.
Back in Texas, Young and his team had also gotten lucky. They found four promising phages that ravaged Patterson’s antibiotic-resistant bacteria in a test tube. Now the hard part began — figuring out how to separate the victorious phages from the soup of bacterial toxins left behind.
“You put one virus particle into a culture, you go home for lunch, and if you’re lucky, you come back to a big shaking, liquid mess of dead bacteria parts among billions and billions of the virus,” Young said. “You want to inject those virus particles into the human bloodstream, but you’re starting with bacterial goo that’s just horrible. You would not want that injected into your body.”
Purifying phage to be given intravenously was a process that no one had yet perfected in the US, Schooley said, “but both the Navy and Texas A&M got busy, and using different approaches figured out how to clean the phages to the point they could be given safely.”
More hurdles: Legal staff at Texas A&M expressed concern about future lawsuits. “I remember the lawyer saying to me, ‘Let me see if I get this straight. You want to send unapproved viruses from this lab to be injected into a person who will probably die.’ And I said, “Yeah, that’s about it,’” Young said.
“But Stephanie literally had speed dial numbers for the chancellor and all the people involved in human experimentation at UC San Diego. After she calls them, they basically called their counterparts at A&M, and suddenly they all began to work together,” Young added.
“It was like the parting of the Red Sea — all the paperwork and hesitation disappeared.”
The purified cocktail from Young’s lab was the first to arrive in San Diego. Strathdee watched as doctors injected the Texas phages into the pus-filled abscesses in Patterson’s abdomen before settling down for the agonizing wait.
“We started with the abscesses because we didn’t know what would happen, and we didn’t want to kill him,” Schooley said. “We didn’t see any negative side effects; in fact, Tom seemed to be stabilizing a bit, so we continued the therapy every two hours.”
Two days later, the Navy cocktail arrived. Those phages were injected into Patterson’s bloodstream to tackle the bacteria that had spread to the rest of his body.
“We believe Tom was the first person to receive intravenous phage therapy to treat a systemic superbug infection in the US,” Strathdee told CNN.
“And three days later, Tom lifted his head off the pillow out of a deep coma and kissed his daughter’s hand. It was just miraculous.”
Today, nearly eight years later, Patterson is happily retired, walking 3 miles a day and gardening. But the long illness took its toll: He was diagnosed with diabetes and is now insulin dependent, with mild heart damage and gastrointestinal issues that affect his diet.
“He isn’t back surfing again, because he can’t feel the bottoms of his feet, and he did get Covid-19 in April that landed him in the hospital because the bottoms of his lungs are essentially dead,” Strathdee said.
“As soon as the infection hit his lungs he couldn’t breathe and I had to rush him to the hospital, so that was scary,” she said. “He remains high risk for Covid but we’re not letting that hold us hostage at home. He says, ‘I want to go back to having as normal life as fast as possible.’”
To prove it, the couple are again traveling the world — they recently returned from a 12-day trip to Argentina.
“We traveled with a friend who is an infectious disease doctor, which gave me peace of mind to know that if anything went sideways, we’d have an expert at hand,” Strathdee said.
“I guess I’m a bit of a helicopter wife in that sense. Still, we’ve traveled to Costa Rica a couple of times, we’ve been to Africa, and we’re planning to go to Chile in January.”
“There’s been an explosion of clinical trials that are going on now in phage (science) around the world and there’s phage programs in Canada, the UK, Australia, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, India and China has a new one, so it’s really catching on,” Strathdee told CNN.
Some of the work is focused on the interplay between phages and antibiotics — as bacteria battle phages they often shed their outer shell to keep the enemy from docking and gaining access for the kill. When that happens, the bacteria may be suddenly vulnerable to antibiotics again.
“We don’t think phages are ever going to entirely replace antibiotics, but they will be a good adjunct to antibiotics. And in fact, they can even make antibiotics work better,” Strathdee said.
In San Diego, Strathdee and Schooley opened the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics, or IPATH, in 2018, where they treat or counsel patients suffering from multidrug-resistant infections. The center’s success rate is high, with 82% of patients undergoing phage therapy experiencing a clinically successful outcome, according to its website.
Schooley is running a clinical trial using phages to treat patients with cystic fibrosis who constantly battle Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a drug-resistant bacteria that was also responsible for the recent illness and deaths connected to contaminated eye drops manufactured in India.
And a memoir the couple published in 2019 — “The Perfect Predator: A Scientist’s Race to Save Her Husband From a Deadly Superbug” — is also spreading the word about these “perfect predators” to what may soon be the next generation of phage hunters.
How naturally occurring viruses could help treat superbug infections
“I am getting increasingly contacted by students, some as young as 12,” Strathdee said. “There’s a girl in San Francisco who begged her mother to read this book and now she’s doing a science project on phage-antibiotic synergy, and she’s in eighth grade. That thrills me.”
Strathdee is quick to acknowledge the many people who helped save her husband’s life. But those who were along for the ride told CNN that she and Patterson made the difference.
“I think it was a historical accident that could have only happened to Steffanie and Tom,” Young said. “They were at UC San Diego, which is one of the premier universities in the country. They worked with a brilliant infectious disease doctor who said, ‘Yes,’ to phage therapy when most physicians would’ve said, ‘Hell, no, I won’t do that.’
“And then there is Steffanie’s passion and energy — it’s hard to explain until she’s focused it on you. It was like a spiderweb; she was in the middle and pulled on strings,” Young added. “It was just meant to be because of her, I think.”
Miami Hurricanes football safety Kamren Kinchens was carted off the field after a tackle attempt during the team’s 48-33 upset victory against No. 23 Texas A&M on Saturday.
The injury happened late in the fourth quarter at Hard Rock Stadium, when Kinchens took a blow to the chest as he attempted to tackle Aggies receiver Ainias Smith. The safety laid motionless after making the tackle.
Players from both teams gathered around the 20-year-old as he was looked at by medical staff. The All-American player was carted off the field following a lengthy delay.
According to ABC’s broadcast of the game, Kinchens was awake and communicating with medical staff as he left the field. He was taken to Ryder Trauma Center in Miami.
Miami Hurricanes football head coach Mario Cristobal said in the team’s postgame news conference that tests on Kinchens seemed to be “relatively normal.”
“We’re going to head over there right after I get done with this press conference to see how he’s doing but it seems like we’re going to be fine,” Cristobal said.
Newswise — During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments changed rules and procedures related to Medicaid enrollment. These changes decreased many of the burdens eligible people face when signing up for programs and contributed to a 30 percent increase in Medicaid enrollment. However, the end of public health emergency declarations brings an end to these pandemic policies, which many fear could lead to eligible people losing public health insurance simply because they are unable to fulfill administrative requirements such as accurately filling out and submitting forms, renewing their enrollment and communicating with Medicaid agencies.
A new study investigates public perceptions of administrative barriers affecting health insurance access. Publishing soon in the journal Health Affairs Scholar, it was conducted by Simon Haeder, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Health Policy & Management at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, with his co-author Don Moynihan, PhD, from the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. The study uses a nationally representative survey of American adults to measure attitudes about policies meant to reduce administrative burdens and explore how these attitudes vary among different populations.
The survey, conducted in late 2022 and early 2023, asked respondents about nine policies aimed at reducing administrative burdens for individuals currently enrolled in the Medicaid program related to the nation’s transition out of the public health emergency. These include automatic renewals, the use of prefilled forms, plain language and alternate communications like text messaging, ensuring states have enough resources to handle enrollment, and increased outreach and enrollment efforts. Haeder measured levels of general support for such administrative changes and how experience with Medicaid, political ideology and ability to handle administrative tasks affect support of these policies.
Administrative burdens are something people face when dealing with public services. These can include learning about procedures, keeping track of enrollment and renewal dates and filling out and submitting forms. Administrative procedures are a necessary part of providing services and some play a key role in reducing waste and fraud. However, in some cases these procedures can be difficult to understand, especially for people without experience managing administrative tasks. In some cases, procedures can even be used to limit access to programs in a way that is less visible to the public. Additionally, such burdens can have a disproportionate impact on groups that are already facing inequalities.
Haeder’s analysis found notable support for policies that reduce administrative burdens across the whole survey sample. However, some groups showed greater support than others. For example, politically liberal respondents, people with experience with Medicaid and those who have difficulty with administrative tasks were more supportive of reducing burdens. In contrast, politically conservative people and those without experience with Medicaid were still supportive but to a lesser degree.
Haeder noted a few limitations with the study, such as the use of an internet-based survey and the fact that the one-time sample cannot measure changes in public perception. Additionally, the survey’s nine policy changes have a minimal chance of increasing enrollment fraud. People may be less likely to support changes to policies aimed at preventing fraud. Future research into other policies and attitudes toward other public assistance programs will be valuable.
Despite these limitations, the findings of this study point to substantial public support of efforts to shift administrative burdens away from individuals and improve communication and outreach about Medicaid enrollment procedures. Pandemic policies showed the potential success of reducing administrative burdens, and public support of such changes could lead to changes in how governments handle assistance programs in the future.
Everyone is worried about students’ mental health. What can colleges actually do to help?
During a Friday session at the American Council on Education’s annual meeting, three researchers offered lessons learned from new research focused on eight colleges. Their core message was that administrators should start small, experiment with interventions, frequently assess how students feel about the interventions, and change course as needed.
Students don’t view their campus experience as a collection of offices and departments, like administrators often do, said Jennifer Maltby, director of data, analytics, and planning at the Rochester Institute of Technology. That should inform colleges’ approach to troubleshooting students’ mental-health challenges, Maltby said.
Improving student mental health is as complex as raising a child, said Allison Smith, director of health strategy and outcomes at New York University, and both tasks require constant adaptation to fit shifting needs.
Two other key findings were that colleges should pinpoint which student demographic groups are disproportionately failing to thrive, and that institutions should tailor their goals to improve the experiences of specific student populations, rather than attempting to create a blanket solution that will work for every student.
“For a trans student, that means being called the right name and right pronouns in class,” Smith said. “For a student of faith, that means being able to observe their religious holidays without getting penalized.”
Researchers also discovered that having a “core team” of four to eight individuals working to change an institution’s systems was an ideal management structure.
It’s impossible for one administrator, such as a vice president for student well-being, to reach every student and make the necessary changes that can improve students’ mental health, Smith said.
Inside the Research
The research followed Case Western Reserve University, New York University, Cornell University, the Rochester Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University, Stanford University, the University at Albany in the State University of New York system, and the University of California at Los Angeles.
The study examined whether a concept known as “Triple Aim” — the idea that, simultaneously, a population can become healthier, health-care costs can decrease, and the quality of care can improve — could apply to student well-being. Smith is a co-founder of the Action Network for Equitable Wellbeing, a new collaborative of organizations dedicated to improving students’ mental health that aims to expand the effort to more colleges.
The colleges involved in the study frequently collected data through a survey called the Wellbeing Improvement Survey for Higher Education Settings, allowing researchers to get a clear picture of what was working.
Maltby said one intervention at RIT focused on professors and students. Three professors were encouraged to include statements on their syllabi saying they cared about mental health and knew college was challenging.
Feedback from students was initially positive, and the initiative grew. But when the statement was included in the syllabi of 30 professors, the results changed. Students didn’t always feel that professors who included the statement on their syllabus acted in a way that showed they genuinely cared, ultimately causing more harm for students than good. Maltby’s team later discovered that marginalized students were disproportionately experiencing this harm.
“We were able to really pull back and say we’re not going to try and implement this statement universitywide because we understand that there are potential impacts on that for our students that are going to be negative,” Maltby said.
While it might seem resource-intensive to talk individually with students to get a better understanding of their lives and to collect data so frequently, Maltby believes the study’s approach could work for a range of colleges.
“Oftentimes folks will say it’s not possible or we can’t do it that way, and I think one of the things we’ve learned, especially through Covid, is that we can do lots of things that we previously thought were impossible when we have the will and interest to do that.” Maltby said.
Newswise — The COVID-19 pandemic posed an immense challenge on the health care industry in 2020 and 2021. While hospitals were inundated with COVID-19 cases, other illnesses such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) saw a decrease in hospital visits, particularly in the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021.
A Texas A&M University School of Public Health study recently published in the journal Frontiers found that while there were an unusually low number of hospitalizations in 2020, there was an unusual peak in the third quarter of 2021, when hospital admissions for RSV were approximately twice those in a typical year.
“Kids were not going into daycare and getting that exposure (to RSV), and that mirrored the dynamic,” added Natalie Johnson, PhD, associate professor in EOH, and one of the lead authors of the study,
RSV is a common airway pathogen that most frequently results in mild, cold-like respiratory tract infections. In children younger than two years of age, RSV infection can result in severe lower respiratory illness, including acute bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
The seasons are usually a strong predictor of RSV infection, with activity typically occurring in late fall, winter and early spring, peaking from late December to mid-February. According to the researchers, however, the COVID-19 pandemic had an effect on RSV seasonality.
Additionally, the researchers found that the length of hospital stays in relation to RSV, which typically followed a seasonal trend prior to COVID-19, was longer during the pandemic despite the lower number of cases.
“We can only hypothesize that during COVID they were only accepting the extreme cases, and on average the length of stay was longer,” Mendoza-Sanchez said. “We learned that what has happened in the past is informing us that if something similar happens in the future we have to be ready for the peaks in cases.”
Additional authors on the paper include Inyang Uwak, Toriq Mustapha, Mariya Rahman and Tanaya Tonpay, all from the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health, and Annette K. Regan from the School of Nursing and Health Professions at the University of San Francisco.
The Chronicle is tracking legislation that would prohibit colleges from having diversity, equity, and inclusion offices or staff; ban mandatory diversity training; prohibit institutions from using diversity statements in hiring and promotion; or prohibit colleges from using race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in admissions or employment. All four proscriptions were identified inmodel state legislation proposed this year by the Goldwater and Manhattan Institutes.
We are tracking 21 bills in 13 states. So far,
0
have final legislative approval.
0
have been signed into law by a governor.
2
have been tabled or failed to pass.
What Would the Legislation Restrict?
We Want to Hear From You
How are people in your state or on your campus reacting to these efforts to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at public colleges? What are your thoughts on these proposals? And have we missed any relevant bills? Please email Adrienne.lu@chronicle.com and let us know.
Methodology
The Chronicle looked for bills introduced in the current legislative sessions on state legislative websites. We searched for bills that would affect diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts identified in the model state legislation proposed by the Goldwater and Manhattan Institutes this year. We supplemented those efforts by looking for articles about relevant legislation in local media outlets.
Data on student enrollment represents only full-time students for the fall of 2021, and it comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (Ipeds). Employee numbers also come from Ipeds, and these figures include only full-time employees. Nonwhite students and faculty percentages are calculated by taking the total population minus the white population. People who identified as two or more races, nonresidents, or unknown were removed from these calculations as well. Only data from Title IV, degree-granting institutions within the United States is included.
Audrey Williams June, Kate Marijolovic, Julian Roberts-Grmela, and Eva Surovell contributed to this article.
An analysis of data from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s measurements of pollutants released from the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, suggests that nine of the dozens of chemicals that the EPA has been monitoring are higher than would normally be found in the area, according to a group of scientists from Texas A&M and Carnegie Mellon University.
If the levels of some of these chemicals remain high, it could be a problem for residents’ health in the long term, the scientists say. Temperature changes or high winds might stir up the chemicals and release them into the atmosphere.
The highest levels found in East Palestine were of a chemical called acrolein, the analysis says.
Acrolein is used to control plants, algae, rodents and microorganisms. It is a clear liquid at room temperature, and it is toxic. It can cause inflammation and irritation of the skin, respiratory tract and mucous membranes, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“It’s not elevated to the point where it’s necessarily like an immediate ‘evacuate the building’ health concern,” said Dr. Albert Presto, an associate research professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon’s Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, who is working on the university’s chemical monitoring effort in East Palestine. “But, you know, we don’t know necessarily what the long-term risk is or how long that concentration that causes that risk will persist.”
Much of what scientists know about chemical exposure comes from people’s contact with chemicals at work, Preston said, which generally means exposure for about eight hours a day. People now living in East Palestine are in constant contact with the chemicals, he said, and the impact of that kind of exposure on the human body is not fully understood.
The EPA and local government officials have repeatedly said that their tests show the air quality in the area is safe and that the chemicals should dissipate. As of Sunday, officials have tested air in 578 homes, and they say chemical pollution levels have not exceeded residential air quality standards.
EPA’s air monitoring data shows that levels of monitored chemicals “are below levels of concern for adverse health impacts from short-term exposures,” an agency spokesperson told CNN on Monday. “The long-term risks referenced by this analysis assume a lifetime of exposure, which is constant exposure over approximately 70 years. EPA does not anticipate levels of these chemicals will stay high for anywhere near that. We are committed to staying in East Palestine and will continue to monitor the air inside and outside of homes to ensure that these levels remain safe over time.”
However, residents have reported rashes and trouble breathing, sometimes even in their own homes, Presto said.
“When someone says to them then, ‘everything is fine everywhere,’ if I were that person, I wouldn’t believe that statement,” he said.
So who’s right? The scientists say it’s not a black-and-white issue.
“I think it’s important for the public to understand that all sides are right. No one’s lying to them,” said Dr. Ivan Rusyn, director of the Texas A&M University Superfund Research Center and part of the team that did the analysis. “It’s just that every time you’re sharing information, whether it’s Administrator of EPA Michael Regan or Governor [Mike] DeWine or someone from Ohio EPA, when they say certain things are ‘safe,’ they really need to explain what they mean.”
Rusyn says the EPA and local officials need to do a better job of communicating with the public about the risk to residents when they are exposed to chemicals released in the crash.
Communication struggles have been a consistent pattern over the years and over numerous environmental disasters, he said. Officials will often do a good job of collecting and releasing data but then fail to give the proper context that the public will understand.
“That’s what I would like to encourage all parties to do rather than to point fingers,” Rusyn said. “The general public has to trust authorities. Cleanup is continuing. They are doing monitoring. We just need to do a better job communicating the results.”
Government communication about residents’ real level of risk has been a significant source of frustration in East Palestine, Presto said.
“People are furious. They feel like they’re getting this black-and-white answer – things are safe or not safe – when it’s not a black-and-white sort of situation,” Presto said.
The EPA says it will continue to monitor the air quality in the area and in residents’ homes. It is also setting up a community center so residents and business owners can ask questions about agency activity there.
The agency said it is collecting outdoor air samples for contaminants of concern, including vinyl chloride, a hard plastic resin used to make plastic products like pipes or packaging material that can be a cancer concern; n-butyl acrylate a clear liquid used to make resins and paint products that can cause eye, throat, nose and lung irritation or damage as well as a skin allergy; and ethylhexyl acrylate, another colorless liquid used to make paints, plastics and adhesives that can cause skin and eye irritation.
The EPA also collected field measurements for hydrogen sulfide, benzene, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen chloride, phosgeneand particulate matter.
Scientists from Texas A&M and Carnegie Mellon are monitoring the chemicals in the area using a mobile lab that they’ve used for the past decade to measure air pollution in real time in cities across the country. They expect to release data from their own tests in East Palestine on Tuesday.
The mobile lab has extremely sensitive equipment that can measure pollution in the parts per trillion. Scientists would then be able to plot them on a graph to show, in real time, where the concentrations of chemicals may be and at what level, Presto said.
Mobile lab workers will try to determine whether there are chemicals in the air that the EPA isn’t monitoring. They are also looking at pollution levels in places where the agency did not set up monitoring stations.
“The situation has to be monitored, and the EPA should continue measurements, and they should also communicate to the general public as to what they’re seeing and put this into context of risk, rather than use the numbers and expect people to figure it out for themselves,” Rusyn said.
When Mark Winternheimer’s 12-year-old tabby cat was diagnosed with diabetes last year, the treatment was daunting: twice-daily injections of insulin, an implanted monitor and frequent visits to the vet.
Despite their qualms, Winternheimer and his wife, Courtnee, of New Albany, Indiana, learned to give Oliver his shots.
“For us, they’re part of the family,” Winternheimer said of Oliver and their two other cats, Ella and Theo. “You wouldn’t deny another family member care if it’s available.”
Now, a new, once-daily pill promises to make treating feline diabetes easier in newly diagnosed animals, without the shots.
“A pill is a huge step forward from a needle,” said Dr. Audrey Cook, a cat veterinarian at Texas A&M University.
One caveat: The pill called Bexacat can’t be used in cats like Oliver, who had previously received insulin.
The biggest benefit may be the ease of use, experts said. While many cat owners successfully treat their cats with twice-daily insulin, often for years, others struggle. Research shows that owners put down 1 in 10 cats with a new diabetes diagnosis. Another 10% are euthanized within a year, in part because of the difficulties of treatment.
“Some people are afraid of giving insulin injections. Some people don’t have the time to dedicate to the care of their cats,” said Dr. Catharine Scott-Moncrieff, a Purdue University veterinarian who consulted with the makers of Bexacat on the product testing.
Made by Elanco Animal Health Inc., Bexacat was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in December and is expected to be available in the U.S. in the next several weeks. It’s the first drug of its type approved for animals; similar drugs have been approved for people for about a decade.
Diabetes, whether in people or pets, is caused when too much glucose, or sugar, builds up in the bloodstream because the pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin, a hormone, or use it properly. Bexacat lowers blood sugar by causing it to be excreted in urine. Symptoms of feline diabetes include increased thirst and urination, increased appetite and weight loss.
About a quarter of U.S. households include one or more cats, totaling more than 58 million felines. Between 1 in 100 and 1 in 500 cats in the U.S. are diagnosed with diabetes, which is rising as obesity rates in the species approach 50%, said Dr. Bruce Kornreich, director of the Cornell Feline Health Center at Cornell University.
In studies involving more than 300 diabetic cats, Bexacat improved glucose control and decreased at least one symptom of diabetes in more than 80% of newly diagnosed, healthy animals, company documents show. But several cats in the studies also died or had to be euthanized after taking the drug, prompting a so-called black box warning about possible side effects, including diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening complication.
Because of those concerns, the drug can’t be used in cats previously treated with insulin and animals must be carefully screened for liver, kidney and pancreatic disease and to ensure that they’re otherwise healthy, said Scott-Moncrieff.
“It will be life-changing for some cats and some owners, but it’s not for every cat,” Scott-Moncrieff said.
The list price for the drug is about $53 a month, according to Elanco. Most vets will double or triple the cost of the drug, charging pet owners about $100 to $150 a month, said Cook.
Depending on the source, that may be higher than the costs for insulin and the syringes or pens to give it, she said. Cats taking insulin need to be monitored frequently, but cats taking Bexacat will need to be watched, too.
“I think costs will be broadly similar, but there are a lot of variables here,” Cook said.
In Oliver’s case, the cat tolerated the injections ― and a glucose monitor that had to be inserted underneath his skin, Winternheimer said. His owners did OK, too, but they were relieved when Oliver’s diabetes went into remission last fall.
No question, the idea of giving Oliver a pill instead would have been appealing, Winternheimer said. “I would have definitely preferred that if it were available.”
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Newswise — COVID-19 has had a lasting global health impact that continues to challenge the health care system. As the coronavirus continues to mutate, the current COVID-19 prevention strategies are plagued with supply chain disruptions, high vaccine manufacturing costs and inconvenient vaccine administration methods. In a study published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, the lab of Zhilei Chen, PhD, at Texas A&M University School of Medicine engineered two small and specifically targeted proteins that could be administered as a nasal spray to protect against and treat COVID-19.
The proteins were templated on the designed ankyrin repeat protein (DARPin), a synthetic scaffold inspired by a class of binding proteins commonly found in nature. Compared to conventional antibody-based drugs, DARPins are less prone to “go bad” during prolonged storage at moderate-to-high temperatures and can be made in large quantities at low cost, making DARPins potentially much more affordable. In addition, since DARPins are about one-eighth the size of an antibody, they have the capacity to access specific therapeutically important “hot spots” on a disease-related protein with greater precision.
In this study, the researchers created two DARPin molecules that assemble in groups of three and block the interaction between the primary protein used by the COVID-19 virus to enter cells and its partner on host cells, thus stopping the virus in its tracks. When delivered into the nose of animal models with the COVID-causing virus, the DARPins reduced the amount of virus that accumulate in the airways by up to 100-fold and significantly reduced disease progression. What’s more, the DARPins were effective not only against the original variant, but also all of the newer COVID-causing variants, including the omicron strain. The researchers attribute the broad effectiveness of the DARPins to their engineering design, which resulted in DARPins able to mimic a key interface on the cellular receptor needed by the virus to enter cells.
“This study offers the possibility of an on-demand nasal spray able to tackle COVID either before or after virus exposure,” Chen said. The team’s discovery provides another, potentially lower-cost therapeutic option for those who cannot receive traditional vaccines or are considered high risk.
The DARPin molecules were engineered by Vikas Chonira, PhD, with assistance from Rudo Simeon, PhD, both postdoctoral fellows in the Chen lab. This research is part of a larger collaborative effort that included Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, from Washington University; Peter D. Kwong, PhD, from the National Institutes of Health; and Zhiqiang An, PhD, from University of Texas Health Houston. Funding for the Chen lab is provided by the NIH New Innovator Award.
Karuppiah Chockalingam, PhD, Research Assistant Professor at the School of Medicine contributed to this article.
As industries begin to see humans working closely with robots, there’s a need to ensure that the relationship is effective, smooth and beneficial to humans. Robot trustworthiness and humans’ willingness to trust robot behavior are vital to this working relationship. However, capturing human trust levels can be difficult due to subjectivity, a challenge researchers in the Wm Michael Barnes ’64 Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Texas A&M University aim to solve.
Dr. Ranjana Mehta, associate professor and director of the NeuroErgonomics Lab, said her lab’s human-autonomy trust research stemmed from a series of projects on human-robot Interactions in safety-critical work domains funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
“While our focus so far was to understand how operator states of fatigue and stress impact how humans interact with robots, trust became an important construct to study,” Mehta said. “We found that as humans get tired, they let their guards down and become more trusting of automation than they should. However, why that is the case becomes an important question to address.”
Mehta also has another publication in the journal Applied Ergonomics that investigates these human and robot factors.
Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, Mehta’s lab captured functional brain activity as operators collaborated with robots on a manufacturing task. They found faulty robot actions decreased the operator’s trust in the robots. That distrust was associated with increased activation of regions in the frontal, motor and visual cortices, indicating increasing workload and heightened situational awareness. Interestingly, the same distrusting behavior was associated with the decoupling of these brain regions working together, which otherwise were well connected when the robot behaved reliably. Mehta said this decoupling was greater at higher robot autonomy levels, indicating that neural signatures of trust are influenced by the dynamics of human-autonomy teaming.
“What we found most interesting was that the neural signatures differed when we compared brain activation data across reliability conditions (manipulated using normal and faulty robot behavior) versus operator’s trust levels (collected via surveys) in the robot,” Mehta said. “This emphasized the importance of understanding and measuring brain-behavior relationships of trust in human-robot collaborations since perceptions of trust alone is not indicative of how operators’ trusting behaviors shape up.”
Dr. Sarah Hopko ’19, lead author on both papers and recent industrial engineering doctoral student, said neural responses and perceptions of trust are both symptoms of trusting and distrusting behaviors and relay distinct information on how trust builds, breaches and repairs with different robot behaviors. She emphasized the strengths of multimodal trust metrics — neural activity, eye tracking, behavioral analysis, etc. — can reveal new perspectives that subjective responses alone cannot offer.
The next step is to expand the research into a different work context, such as emergency response, and understand how trust in multi-human robot teams impact teamwork and taskwork in safety-critical environments. Mehta said the long-term goal is not to replace humans with autonomous robots but to support them by developing trust-aware autonomy agents.
“This work is critical, and we are motivated to ensure that humans-in-the-loop robotics design, evaluation and integration into the workplace are supportive and empowering of human capabilities,” Mehta said.
