The Martin County School District is investigating after a photo showing six middle school students spelling out a racial slur was posted on social media.

Tuesday afternoon, district officials confirmed the photo was authentic.

They said it was taken by students at Hidden Oaks Middle School in Palm City.

Each student in the photo is holding a letter spelling out a common racial slur aimed at the Black community.

Officials said the students made the letters in an art class.

“It’s disgusting,” said district spokesperson Jennifer Deshazo. “And it’s against everything that the Martin County School District stands for.”

Coincidentally, the school board was scheduled to hold its regular meeting Tuesday, just hours after the photo was posted.

Discussion of the photo was not on the agenda, but people still packed the room to voice their opinions to the board.

“It’s racism,” one woman said.

“I am appalled,” said another woman.

“What is happening is not OK,” said a third person stepping to the podium.

Outside the meeting, the president of the Martin County chapter of the NAACP expressed his concern.

“I was very heartbroken,” said Jimmy Smith.

Smith said he wanted people to know this is not just kids being kids.

He said it’s about so much more than just a photo.

“We all have made mistakes,” Smith said. “But when you get to that degree and that depth to come up with an idea like that, there’s something else going on.”

Many people at the board meeting took it even further, saying it’s just a small step from a photo to the racially motivated shooting that killed 10 people in Buffalo over the weekend.

“We better take this very, very seriously or we will have Buffalo blood here in Martin County,” said local attorney Marwan Porter.

District officials said there is no question the students in the photo will be punished.

They said the exact punishment would be determined by the outcome of their investigation.

Martin County School District needs to step up with a swift and harsh penalty!!!

Right in our damn back yards. This country is going backwards fast. pic.twitter.com/8T6g2XFZfq
— Chris Kokell – Fort Pierce Westwood HS (@RealCoachK) May 17, 2022

Parents react to racial slur photo at Florida school board meeting: “The R at the end is blood. How do I know these children were not sitting at home thinking about coming to school doing a mass murder on each child?” one mother said. https://t.co/Y3Kxjh0gkR
— Billy Corben (@BillyCorben) May 18, 2022

Martin County went 62-37 for Trump in 2020.https://t.co/CEQb5zY63n
— SFDB (@sfdb) May 18, 2022

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/19/us/florida-education-critical-race-theory-bill/index.html

Florida bill to shield people from feeling ‘discomfort’ over historic actions by their race, nationality or gender approved by Senate committee

A bill backed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that would prohibit Florida’s public schools and private businesses from making people feel “discomfort” or “guilt” based on their race, sex or national origin received first approval Tuesday by the state’s Senate Education Committee.

The Republican-controlled committee approved the bill with six Republican senators in favor of the bill and three Democratic senators opposed to it.

Although the bill, named “Individual Freedom,” does not mention Critical Race Theory, the term is used in the attached bill analysis that was given to senators.

DeSantis also referred to CRT when he announced the proposed legislation at a media event in December, saying the proposed law would help keep CRT out of the schools and out of the workplace, calling it “state-sanctioned racism” that creates a “hostile work environment.”

Under Florida Department of Education rules that took effect last June, CRT cannot be taught in schools.

Critical Race Theory is a concept that seeks to understand and address inequality and racism in the US. The term also has become politicized and been attacked by its critics as a Marxist ideology that’s a threat to the American way of life.

The legislation would prohibit individuals from making people “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin.”

It would also prohibit employers from providing training or instruction that “espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels” individuals to believe “that an individual bears responsibility for, or should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment because of actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, sex or national origin.”

Instructors would be able to address topics of sexism, slavery, racial oppression, racial segregation, racial discrimination in an age-appropriate manner. However, the bill states that “classroom instruction and curriculum may not be used to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view inconsistent with the principles of this subsection or state academic standards.”

Democratic State Senator Shevrin Jones, the committee’s vice chair and its only Black member, told CNN by phone that the bill is an attempt to revise history and keep White people from feeling uncomfortable.

“This isn’t even a ban on Critical Race Theory, this is a ban on Black history,” he said. “They are talking about not wanting White people to feel uncomfortable? Let’s talk about being uncomfortable. My ancestors were uncomfortable when they were stripped away from their children.”

In a statement emailed to CNN, DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw said the governor’s position was that “discrimination based on race, color, sex, and national origin” had no place in Florida.

The bill “makes clear that no Floridian — student, worker, or anyone else — should be subjected to discriminatory content and rhetoric,” she wrote.

“Every Floridian deserves an equal shot at success, regardless of skin color. This means considering each person as an individual with unique attributes, experiences, and aspirations, rather than stereotyping them as a member of this or that identity group,” she said.

Pushaw added: “It is frankly disturbing that anyone would find these ideas controversial in the year 2022.”

India and Pakistan heatwave is ‘testing the limits of human survivability,’ expert says

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/02/asia/india-pakistan-heatwave-climate-intl-hnk/index.html

Temperatures in parts of India and Pakistan have reached record levels, putting the lives of millions at risk as the effects of the climate crisis are felt across the subcontinent.

The average maximum temperature for northwest and central India in April was the highest since records began 122 years ago, reaching 35.9 and 37.78 degrees Celsius (96.62 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit) respectively, according to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).

Last month, New Delhi saw seven consecutive days over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), three degrees above the average temperature for the month of April, according to CNN meteorologists. In some states, the heat closed schools, damaged crops and put pressure on energy supplies, as officials warned residents to remain indoors and keep hydrated.

The heatwave has also been felt by India’s neighbor Pakistan, where the cities of Jacobabad and Sibi in the country’s southeastern Sindh province recorded highs of 47 degrees Celsius (116.6 Fahrenheit) on Friday, according to data shared with CNN by Pakistan’s Meteorological Department (PMD). According to the PMD, this was the highest temperature recorded in any city in the Northern Hemisphere on that day.

People cool themselves in a canal in Lahore, Pakistan, on April 29

“This is the first time in decades that Pakistan is experiencing what many call a ‘spring-less year,” Pakistan’s Minister of Climate Change, Sherry Rehman said in a statement.

Temperatures in India are expected to improve slightly this week with maximum temperatures across northwest India expected to drop by 3 to 4 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit), the IMD said. Temperatures in Pakistan are also expected to be closer to average — about 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) — later this week.

But experts say the climate crisis will cause more frequent and longer heatwaves, affecting more than a billion people across the two countries.

India is among the countries expected to be worst affected by the impacts of the climate crisis, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“This heatwave is definitely unprecedented,” said Dr. Chandni Singh, IPCC Lead Author and Senior Researcher at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements. “We have seen a change in its intensity, its arrival time, and duration. This is what climate experts predicted and it will have cascading impacts on health.”

Loss of crops

India often experiences heatwaves during the summer months of May and June, but this year temperatures started rising in March and April.

In the northern state of Punjab, known as “India’s bread basket,” that’s causing heat stress, not only for millions of agricultural workers, but for fields of wheat they rely on to feed their families and sell across the country.

Gurvinder Singh, director of agriculture in Punjab, said an average increase of up to 7 degrees Celsius (12.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in April had reduced wheat yields.

“Because of the heatwave we’ve had a loss of more than 5 quintal (500 kilograms) per hectare of our April yield,” Singh told CNN Monday.

Chandni Singh, from the IPCC and no relation to Gurvinder Singh, said agricultural workers were more likely to suffer from the oppressive heat.

“People who work outdoors — farmers, those in construction, manual labor — will suffer more. They have less options to cool down and can’t stay away from the heat,” she said.

The Yamuna River on May 1 in New Delhi, India.

School closures and power cuts

In some parts of India, demand for electricity has led to a coal shortage, leaving millions without power for up to nine hours a day.

Last week, coal stocks at three out of the five power plants Delhi relies on to supply its power reached critically low levels, dropping below 25%, according to Delhi’s Power Ministry.

India canceled more than 650 passenger trains through the end of May to clear tracks for more cargo trains as the country scrambles to replenish coal stocks at power plants, a senior official from the country’s Railways Ministry told CNN.

Indian Railways is a key supplier of coal to power plants across the country.

India has seen months of extreme heat and this week it will only get hotter

Some Indian states, including West Bengal and Odisha, have announced school closures to deal with the rising temperatures.

“Children who have to traveled to school, many of them are getting nosebleeds, they can’t tolerate this heatwave,” West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told reporters last week.

In recent years, both the federal and state governments have implemented a number of measures to mitigate the effects of heatwaves, including shutting down schools and issuing health advisories for the public.

But according to Chandni Singh, more should be done to prepare for future heatwaves.

“We don’t have a heat action plan and there are gaps in planning,” Singh said. “You can only adapt so much. This heatwave is testing the limits of human survivability.”

Correction: This story has been updated to correct a conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit.