Falls Church City School Board Candidates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To defend Shapiro, aside from a small amount of PTA volunteering, I too didn't give a sh$t about the school board until they pushed our start date before Labor Day, renamed our schools to the tune of a million dollars and kept the schools closed. Frankly he'd be one of 8 and it's good to have a more conservative opinion given the liberal activists that were on the board for the last 4 years.

You do realize that 1) the name change didn’t cost a million and 2) our schools were the first to go back in the whole region, right? Oh and also all schools in VA moved their start date to before Labor Day once the law changed. People are delusional.

As a parent of a FCCPS young elementary school student I’m tired of hearing people push this talking point. Loudon County elementary school students were back in school before us and most of the other nova districts were just a couple of weeks behind. in the meanwhile these school districts were dealing with coordinating across dozens of disparate schools with far greater complicating factors. The fact that despite its tiny area, substantial resources and only 4 schools to manage, FCCPS still didn't open for the vast majority of its students until spring 2021 is a failure in leadership- not something to brag about.

If you really want to compare, look at how those school districts were opened. Many teachers refused to come back, and the schools had classroom monitors while the teachers taught remotely. I do think our city should be proud that all teachers came back to school and taught in the classrooms. This is largely due to the fact that we had vaccination clinics in our schools, beginning in January, back when it was difficult to get vaccinated (remember those days?!) We had a graduation ceremony. We had prom. I have lots of friends in Fairfax and Arlington, and trust me, our school experiences from February - June were far better than theirs were.

Do not speak for teachers and why we came back. Other local districts asked teachers their preference and tried to match up teachers who preferred virtual with all virtual classes. FCCPS did not. Teachers were told they had to come back or take a leave of absence, which involved agreeing to not work anywhere for a year while paying your health insurance out of pocket. As for the vaccination clinics, staff had the option to go to the clinics through Fairfax County. This was not an extra benefit. They could choose if they wanted to go to the high school or the county location. Teachers came back because they want to teach the students in FCCPS and many feel supported by the parents. Or they didn’t have a choice because they needed the salary and health insurance and it was past the date that resignations were taken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To defend Shapiro, aside from a small amount of PTA volunteering, I too didn't give a sh$t about the school board until they pushed our start date before Labor Day, renamed our schools to the tune of a million dollars and kept the schools closed. Frankly he'd be one of 8 and it's good to have a more conservative opinion given the liberal activists that were on the board for the last 4 years.

You do realize that 1) the name change didn’t cost a million and 2) our schools were the first to go back in the whole region, right? Oh and also all schools in VA moved their start date to before Labor Day once the law changed. People are delusional.

As a parent of a FCCPS young elementary school student I’m tired of hearing people push this talking point. Loudon County elementary school students were back in school before us and most of the other nova districts were just a couple of weeks behind. in the meanwhile these school districts were dealing with coordinating across dozens of disparate schools with far greater complicating factors. The fact that despite its tiny area, substantial resources and only 4 schools to manage, FCCPS still didn't open for the vast majority of its students until spring 2021 is a failure in leadership- not something to brag about.

If you really want to compare, look at how those school districts were opened. Many teachers refused to come back, and the schools had classroom monitors while the teachers taught remotely. I do think our city should be proud that all teachers came back to school and taught in the classrooms. This is largely due to the fact that we had vaccination clinics in our schools, beginning in January, back when it was difficult to get vaccinated (remember those days?!) We had a graduation ceremony. We had prom. I have lots of friends in Fairfax and Arlington, and trust me, our school experiences from February - June were far better than theirs were.

Do not speak for teachers and why we came back. Other local districts asked teachers their preference and tried to match up teachers who preferred virtual with all virtual classes. FCCPS did not. Teachers were told they had to come back or take a leave of absence, which involved agreeing to not work anywhere for a year while paying your health insurance out of pocket. As for the vaccination clinics, staff had the option to go to the clinics through Fairfax County. This was not an extra benefit. They could choose if they wanted to go to the high school or the county location. Teachers came back because they want to teach the students in FCCPS and many feel supported by the parents. Or they didn’t have a choice because they needed the salary and health insurance and it was past the date that resignations were taken.

sounds to me like the schools did a good job of balancing teacher concerns with parent concerns and putting the students first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To defend Shapiro, aside from a small amount of PTA volunteering, I too didn't give a sh$t about the school board until they pushed our start date before Labor Day, renamed our schools to the tune of a million dollars and kept the schools closed. Frankly he'd be one of 8 and it's good to have a more conservative opinion given the liberal activists that were on the board for the last 4 years.

You do realize that 1) the name change didn’t cost a million and 2) our schools were the first to go back in the whole region, right? Oh and also all schools in VA moved their start date to before Labor Day once the law changed. People are delusional.

As a parent of a FCCPS young elementary school student I’m tired of hearing people push this talking point. Loudon County elementary school students were back in school before us and most of the other nova districts were just a couple of weeks behind. in the meanwhile these school districts were dealing with coordinating across dozens of disparate schools with far greater complicating factors. The fact that despite its tiny area, substantial resources and only 4 schools to manage, FCCPS still didn't open for the vast majority of its students until spring 2021 is a failure in leadership- not something to brag about.

If you really want to compare, look at how those school districts were opened. Many teachers refused to come back, and the schools had classroom monitors while the teachers taught remotely. I do think our city should be proud that all teachers came back to school and taught in the classrooms. This is largely due to the fact that we had vaccination clinics in our schools, beginning in January, back when it was difficult to get vaccinated (remember those days?!) We had a graduation ceremony. We had prom. I have lots of friends in Fairfax and Arlington, and trust me, our school experiences from February - June were far better than theirs were.

Do not speak for teachers and why we came back. Other local districts asked teachers their preference and tried to match up teachers who preferred virtual with all virtual classes. FCCPS did not. Teachers were told they had to come back or take a leave of absence, which involved agreeing to not work anywhere for a year while paying your health insurance out of pocket. As for the vaccination clinics, staff had the option to go to the clinics through Fairfax County. This was not an extra benefit. They could choose if they wanted to go to the high school or the county location. Teachers came back because they want to teach the students in FCCPS and many feel supported by the parents. Or they didn’t have a choice because they needed the salary and health insurance and it was past the date that resignations were taken.

KUDOS to you teacher--hope my child has you--as you seem to be one of the few non brainwashed FCCPS staff. My feeling is that any staff that had an ounce of an independent streak either no longer teaches there, is passive aggressive by doing minimal work(definitely had a many of those teachers teach my kids) or is handcuffed to a pension and counting the days to go. Most teachers seem almost cult-ish in this groupthink mentality with a very curved bend to one political way of thinking. It's like Stepford teachers 2.0....

[Anonymous]

"What school is this? It sounds like a private school."

We are a 501(c)3 not-for profit independent school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To defend Shapiro, aside from a small amount of PTA volunteering, I too didn't give a sh$t about the school board until they pushed our start date before Labor Day, renamed our schools to the tune of a million dollars and kept the schools closed. Frankly he'd be one of 8 and it's good to have a more conservative opinion given the liberal activists that were on the board for the last 4 years.

You do realize that 1) the name change didn’t cost a million and 2) our schools were the first to go back in the whole region, right? Oh and also all schools in VA moved their start date to before Labor Day once the law changed. People are delusional.

As a parent of a FCCPS young elementary school student I’m tired of hearing people push this talking point. Loudon County elementary school students were back in school before us and most of the other nova districts were just a couple of weeks behind. in the meanwhile these school districts were dealing with coordinating across dozens of disparate schools with far greater complicating factors. The fact that despite its tiny area, substantial resources and only 4 schools to manage, FCCPS still didn't open for the vast majority of its students until spring 2021 is a failure in leadership- not something to brag about.

If you really want to compare, look at how those school districts were opened. Many teachers refused to come back, and the schools had classroom monitors while the teachers taught remotely. I do think our city should be proud that all teachers came back to school and taught in the classrooms. This is largely due to the fact that we had vaccination clinics in our schools, beginning in January, back when it was difficult to get vaccinated (remember those days?!) We had a graduation ceremony. We had prom. I have lots of friends in Fairfax and Arlington, and trust me, our school experiences from February - June were far better than theirs were.

Do not speak for teachers and why we came back. Other local districts asked teachers their preference and tried to match up teachers who preferred virtual with all virtual classes. FCCPS did not. Teachers were told they had to come back or take a leave of absence, which involved agreeing to not work anywhere for a year while paying your health insurance out of pocket. As for the vaccination clinics, staff had the option to go to the clinics through Fairfax County. This was not an extra benefit. They could choose if they wanted to go to the high school or the county location. Teachers came back because they want to teach the students in FCCPS and many feel supported by the parents. Or they didn’t have a choice because they needed the salary and health insurance and it was past the date that resignations were taken.

KUDOS to you teacher--hope my child has you--as you seem to be one of the few non brainwashed FCCPS staff. My feeling is that any staff that had an ounce of an independent streak either no longer teaches there, is passive aggressive by doing minimal work(definitely had a many of those teachers teach my kids) or is handcuffed to a pension and counting the days to go. Most teachers seem almost cult-ish in this groupthink mentality with a very curved bend to one political way of thinking. It's like Stepford teachers 2.0....

Oh my really? There are many many hard working strong teachers in the school system. If you’ve had many of the teacher doing “minimal work” and are so unhappy with the schools why do you keep your kids in the school system. Probably to moan about it?

We’re a in very very strong school district. Many people just moan about it. Where’s the positivity or constructive ideas? Just entitled moaning

[Anonymous]

The concerns about the calendar are not really about the pre-Labor day start. Its all the random mid week days off. I don't really care about starting before Labor day- allthough I find the reasoning a little disengenious- we were told (as was repeated on this thread) that it was to get more days in before testing etc. Then for this year they added all the random days off so we start before labor day, but still go way into June and don't get the extra days.
Yes- mid week Holidays are REALLY hard on working parents, and they are REALLY hard on kids who need continuity. The School Board points at the rec center and says they are 'doing a great job' providing camps on those days but: 1) camps don't help with continuity and 2) those camps take less than 20 kids and filled quickly. I fully support the Fairfax plan of no tests, etc on recognized holidays. I can get behind random mid week holidays if there is attendance data to support it (Noonan is claiming there is now- but let's see it- it certainly hasn't been publicly produced). But if we are going to prioritize these random holidays we need to stop taking off for Veteran's Day and Election day. AND we need to shorten winter break to 1 week. Those need to be tradeoffs- not in addition to.

[Anonymous]

Any chance we could get back the original tropic?

I thought this was supposed to be about the background on the potential school board members? No “let me moan about every concern I have with the schools so can seem needy and entitled”.

So back on topic I think we’ve exhausted WSJ school takedown even though I had no kids in school Shapiro. What about the rest of the candidates? Any info? Hard to find much out on them? Is there a website which has all their info and running points somewhere? Are they holding any town halls we can ask questions? Curious when we get the question their/understand their ideas or how the process works?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The concerns about the calendar are not really about the pre-Labor day start. Its all the random mid week days off. I don't really care about starting before Labor day- allthough I find the reasoning a little disengenious- we were told (as was repeated on this thread) that it was to get more days in before testing etc. Then for this year they added all the random days off so we start before labor day, but still go way into June and don't get the extra days.
Yes- mid week Holidays are REALLY hard on working parents, and they are REALLY hard on kids who need continuity. The School Board points at the rec center and says they are 'doing a great job' providing camps on those days but: 1) camps don't help with continuity and 2) those camps take less than 20 kids and filled quickly. I fully support the Fairfax plan of no tests, etc on recognized holidays. I can get behind random mid week holidays if there is attendance data to support it (Noonan is claiming there is now- but let's see it- it certainly hasn't been publicly produced). But if we are going to prioritize these random holidays we need to stop taking off for Veteran's Day and Election day. AND we need to shorten winter break to 1 week. Those need to be tradeoffs- not in addition to.

Could not agree more. To say we needed to start early because of equity concerns and then throw this garbage calendar out there, which is horrible for the families who are least able to take off days from work or work from home and whose kids most need continuity, shows that FCCPS doesn't really care about equity - they just want to LOOK like they care about equity. I have yet to see any data showing that a significant number of kids and staff were missing school on these new holidays. I don't think we need to keep catering to Christian holidays either--I would be thrilled to untie Easter from Spring Break and to shorten Winter Break. I'd much prefer the approach Fairfax decided to take (and they are a district that clearly has a much more diverse population and many more kids/staff who celebrate a wide range of holidays).

I hope the candidates are prepared to talk about this and what they would do differently in the future. This calendar was clearly made for optics and not for reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any chance we could get back the original tropic?

I thought this was supposed to be about the background on the potential school board members? No “let me moan about every concern I have with the schools so can seem needy and entitled”.

So back on topic I think we’ve exhausted WSJ school takedown even though I had no kids in school Shapiro. What about the rest of the candidates? Any info? Hard to find much out on them? Is there a website which has all their info and running points somewhere? Are they holding any town halls we can ask questions? Curious when we get the question their/understand their ideas or how the process works?

Someone sent me a link to Jerrod Anderson's website today. It's a little wonky, but his blog posts are very in-depth and he's doing his research. His recaps of the Board meetings are really good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To defend Shapiro, aside from a small amount of PTA volunteering, I too didn't give a sh$t about the school board until they pushed our start date before Labor Day, renamed our schools to the tune of a million dollars and kept the schools closed. Frankly he'd be one of 8 and it's good to have a more conservative opinion given the liberal activists that were on the board for the last 4 years.

You do realize that 1) the name change didn’t cost a million and 2) our schools were the first to go back in the whole region, right? Oh and also all schools in VA moved their start date to before Labor Day once the law changed. People are delusional.

As a parent of a FCCPS young elementary school student I’m tired of hearing people push this talking point. Loudon County elementary school students were back in school before us and most of the other nova districts were just a couple of weeks behind. in the meanwhile these school districts were dealing with coordinating across dozens of disparate schools with far greater complicating factors. The fact that despite its tiny area, substantial resources and only 4 schools to manage, FCCPS still didn't open for the vast majority of its students until spring 2021 is a failure in leadership- not something to brag about.

If you really want to compare, look at how those school districts were opened. Many teachers refused to come back, and the schools had classroom monitors while the teachers taught remotely. I do think our city should be proud that all teachers came back to school and taught in the classrooms. This is largely due to the fact that we had vaccination clinics in our schools, beginning in January, back when it was difficult to get vaccinated (remember those days?!) We had a graduation ceremony. We had prom. I have lots of friends in Fairfax and Arlington, and trust me, our school experiences from February - June were far better than theirs were.

Do not speak for teachers and why we came back. Other local districts asked teachers their preference and tried to match up teachers who preferred virtual with all virtual classes. FCCPS did not. Teachers were told they had to come back or take a leave of absence, which involved agreeing to not work anywhere for a year while paying your health insurance out of pocket. As for the vaccination clinics, staff had the option to go to the clinics through Fairfax County. This was not an extra benefit. They could choose if they wanted to go to the high school or the county location. Teachers came back because they want to teach the students in FCCPS and many feel supported by the parents. Or they didn’t have a choice because they needed the salary and health insurance and it was past the date that resignations were taken.

KUDOS to you teacher--hope my child has you--as you seem to be one of the few non brainwashed FCCPS staff. My feeling is that any staff that had an ounce of an independent streak either no longer teaches there, is passive aggressive by doing minimal work(definitely had a many of those teachers teach my kids) or is handcuffed to a pension and counting the days to go. Most teachers seem almost cult-ish in this groupthink mentality with a very curved bend to one political way of thinking. It's like Stepford teachers 2.0....

Oh my really? There are many many hard working strong teachers in the school system. If you’ve had many of the teacher doing “minimal work” and are so unhappy with the schools why do you keep your kids in the school system. Probably to moan about it?

We’re a in very very strong school district. Many people just moan about it. Where’s the positivity or constructive ideas? Just entitled moaning

Please reread my post--there are many teachers who are good at teaching their subject, but from a social perspective they are brainwashed. My child has no ability to witness different social points of view, and yes that is sad...there is more to the world beyond FCC and State Dept families. When we bought a house here I had no idea how one sided points of view are here. Had we known we would have looked for other options...and yes "If i dont like it here I can leave"-but isnt that in opposition to all the lawn signs "you are welcome here no matter where you are from (or what your worldview is)" in front of most of our houses?.

[Anonymous]

If you care that much about working parents and continuity, perhaps you should be working to end the numerous early releases rather than calling other people’s holidays “random.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you care that much about working parents and continuity, perhaps you should be working to end the numerous early releases rather than calling other people’s holidays “random.”

the weekly early release that occurs at the same time each week does not create the same type of learning continuity issues. It always happens, its an expectation. It is hard for some working parents, but there are more options (e.g. the weekly rec dept run wed program.)

The point is the holidays occur at random points in the week- as do veteran's day and election day. These 'holidays' create a similar problem. There are still a host of things that happen that we don't take off for, that may impact a handful of families=-- Chinese New Year. Orthodox Christmas, The Day of the Dead, Bodhi day. Or families have to be out for a day for reasons important to them- travel to a family wedding or funeral, a sports tournament etc? Where is the line between stopping the whole school system vs. making appropriate accommodations for the impacted families???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To defend Shapiro, aside from a small amount of PTA volunteering, I too didn't give a sh$t about the school board until they pushed our start date before Labor Day, renamed our schools to the tune of a million dollars and kept the schools closed. Frankly he'd be one of 8 and it's good to have a more conservative opinion given the liberal activists that were on the board for the last 4 years.

You do realize that 1) the name change didn’t cost a million and 2) our schools were the first to go back in the whole region, right? Oh and also all schools in VA moved their start date to before Labor Day once the law changed. People are delusional.

As a parent of a FCCPS young elementary school student I’m tired of hearing people push this talking point. Loudon County elementary school students were back in school before us and most of the other nova districts were just a couple of weeks behind. in the meanwhile these school districts were dealing with coordinating across dozens of disparate schools with far greater complicating factors. The fact that despite its tiny area, substantial resources and only 4 schools to manage, FCCPS still didn't open for the vast majority of its students until spring 2021 is a failure in leadership- not something to brag about.

If you really want to compare, look at how those school districts were opened. Many teachers refused to come back, and the schools had classroom monitors while the teachers taught remotely. I do think our city should be proud that all teachers came back to school and taught in the classrooms. This is largely due to the fact that we had vaccination clinics in our schools, beginning in January, back when it was difficult to get vaccinated (remember those days?!) We had a graduation ceremony. We had prom. I have lots of friends in Fairfax and Arlington, and trust me, our school experiences from February - June were far better than theirs were.

Do not speak for teachers and why we came back. Other local districts asked teachers their preference and tried to match up teachers who preferred virtual with all virtual classes. FCCPS did not. Teachers were told they had to come back or take a leave of absence, which involved agreeing to not work anywhere for a year while paying your health insurance out of pocket. As for the vaccination clinics, staff had the option to go to the clinics through Fairfax County. This was not an extra benefit. They could choose if they wanted to go to the high school or the county location. Teachers came back because they want to teach the students in FCCPS and many feel supported by the parents. Or they didn’t have a choice because they needed the salary and health insurance and it was past the date that resignations were taken.

KUDOS to you teacher--hope my child has you--as you seem to be one of the few non brainwashed FCCPS staff. My feeling is that any staff that had an ounce of an independent streak either no longer teaches there, is passive aggressive by doing minimal work(definitely had a many of those teachers teach my kids) or is handcuffed to a pension and counting the days to go. Most teachers seem almost cult-ish in this groupthink mentality with a very curved bend to one political way of thinking. It's like Stepford teachers 2.0....

Oh my really? There are many many hard working strong teachers in the school system. If you’ve had many of the teacher doing “minimal work” and are so unhappy with the schools why do you keep your kids in the school system. Probably to moan about it?

We’re a in very very strong school district. Many people just moan about it. Where’s the positivity or constructive ideas? Just entitled moaning

Please reread my post--there are many teachers who are good at teaching their subject, but from a social perspective they are brainwashed. My child has no ability to witness different social points of view, and yes that is sad...there is more to the world beyond FCC and State Dept families. When we bought a house here I had no idea how one sided points of view are here. Had we known we would have looked for other options...and yes "If i dont like it here I can leave"-but isnt that in opposition to all the lawn signs "you are welcome here no matter where you are from (or what your worldview is)" in front of most of our houses?.

Not one is saying you are not welcome. I think its more a suggestion from the poster you clearly might be happy somewhere else.

How is fair you blame the school system for the social views of an area? They don’t control that. You as a parent should influence that through travel, education and what you expose your kids to. Its well within your control to move or educate your kids on different worldly/social view points. That’s the problem round here people look to blame someone else for everything. Beyond entitled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To defend Shapiro, aside from a small amount of PTA volunteering, I too didn't give a sh$t about the school board until they pushed our start date before Labor Day, renamed our schools to the tune of a million dollars and kept the schools closed. Frankly he'd be one of 8 and it's good to have a more conservative opinion given the liberal activists that were on the board for the last 4 years.

You do realize that 1) the name change didn’t cost a million and 2) our schools were the first to go back in the whole region, right? Oh and also all schools in VA moved their start date to before Labor Day once the law changed. People are delusional.

As a parent of a FCCPS young elementary school student I’m tired of hearing people push this talking point. Loudon County elementary school students were back in school before us and most of the other nova districts were just a couple of weeks behind. in the meanwhile these school districts were dealing with coordinating across dozens of disparate schools with far greater complicating factors. The fact that despite its tiny area, substantial resources and only 4 schools to manage, FCCPS still didn't open for the vast majority of its students until spring 2021 is a failure in leadership- not something to brag about.

If you really want to compare, look at how those school districts were opened. Many teachers refused to come back, and the schools had classroom monitors while the teachers taught remotely. I do think our city should be proud that all teachers came back to school and taught in the classrooms. This is largely due to the fact that we had vaccination clinics in our schools, beginning in January, back when it was difficult to get vaccinated (remember those days?!) We had a graduation ceremony. We had prom. I have lots of friends in Fairfax and Arlington, and trust me, our school experiences from February - June were far better than theirs were.

Do not speak for teachers and why we came back. Other local districts asked teachers their preference and tried to match up teachers who preferred virtual with all virtual classes. FCCPS did not. Teachers were told they had to come back or take a leave of absence, which involved agreeing to not work anywhere for a year while paying your health insurance out of pocket. As for the vaccination clinics, staff had the option to go to the clinics through Fairfax County. This was not an extra benefit. They could choose if they wanted to go to the high school or the county location. Teachers came back because they want to teach the students in FCCPS and many feel supported by the parents. Or they didn’t have a choice because they needed the salary and health insurance and it was past the date that resignations were taken.

KUDOS to you teacher--hope my child has you--as you seem to be one of the few non brainwashed FCCPS staff. My feeling is that any staff that had an ounce of an independent streak either no longer teaches there, is passive aggressive by doing minimal work(definitely had a many of those teachers teach my kids) or is handcuffed to a pension and counting the days to go. Most teachers seem almost cult-ish in this groupthink mentality with a very curved bend to one political way of thinking. It's like Stepford teachers 2.0....

I don’t understand. You think the teachers should have refused to come back?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the true number of people in FCC who support Ilya won't be apparent until after the polls close. I know several people who plan to vote for him but would never put a sign in their yard and aren't public about their support.

Why would people refrain from putting up a yard sign or being public about support? Are they anticipating blowback from their "friends"?

PP - Yes, because people here are pretty intolerant when it comes to different views, sadly. In many crowds, admitting you like Ilya is a black mark.

I hope that's not true. If it is, then (a) people need some backbone, and (b) anyone that would give you blowback is not your friend.

Agree with the pp and while I’d be fine personally dealing with the blow back I am more concerned about it impacting my kids.

My kids are in fear of anything out of the scope of groupthink being expressed by either me or spouse as they know they would loose their (pseudo) friends in an FCC minute...
All of this is one big social experiment...my kids cant drive but understand the above concept....i wasnt in my 40s until i witnessed it-or understood it...

This is sad, and frankly disturbing. You (and your kids) are the living embodiment of the lyrics to Rush’s Subdivisions.

Ugh. I am the PP and re-reading this “intended-to-be-witty” post I realize I was just rude. My apologies to the person to whom I was responding. That’s a hard choice to make. I trust you’ll do the best for your family.