I think it’s our institutional duty to protect our students. If we don’t take proactive steps to improve the safety of students and work to protect them from kidnapping by federal goons, then we’re not doing our jobs. An incident that happened this morning make me realize that we all need to step up in ways that we haven’t before. Unmarked vehicles showed up in one of the campus parking lots, and it turned out to be ICE who were trying to use the university as a staging ground. They were asked to leave, and they did. Campus is relatively quiet because of summer, but this is a reminder that it’s quite foreseeable that they’ll march into campus with their combat gear and huge guns and kidnap people away from our community. It’s been happening all over the country, with a particular focus on Los Angeles at the moment, so what’s stopping them? What can we do? No, seriously, I’m asking you: What can we do? Ideas of all kinds are welcome, and if there are measures being taking on your campus that you think others should adopt, please share. Our campus already has asked us to notify the Campus Police if we see any ICE activity on campus. I’m assuming that’s what happened today. I’m not sure that’s really going to protect our students, though, because are our campus police going to chase them off campus when they’re out with their guns and face masks and in full commando mode? What else? I’ve only got a couple ideas: I think it’s useful to encourage members of the campus community to install the ICE Block app and keep it active while they are on campus and in the community. That way, they can be notified if anybody reports the kidnappers on or near campus, and also it will help them to promptly report it.
I don’t think this app will be enough to get the word out to everybody as quickly as we will need, but it’s not nothing. Here’s another idea that I think campuses can adopt. I imagine that every single one of our campsues in the United States has an emergency notification system developed for when a dangerous person is seen on campus brandishing a gun. On our campus, everybody gets an emergency text to let them know (that they should run, hide, or fight when there is an active shooter). What if that threatening person on campus is a goon from ICE? Wouldn’t it make 100% sense to leverage that active warning system to protect students from being kidnapped? I’ve been thinking about all of the possibile reasons that a person can come up with that would prevent an active shooter emergency notification system to be leveraged as a gestapo notification system. There are only a couple barriers, which I think are surmountable. One is that some folks might argue that these emergency response systems might have been funded by certain sources or agencies and that if we use it in a different way to prevent crimes committed by federal agents, then there could be some kind of trouble or negative consequences. Considering the depth of depravity we are seeing in our government, they don’t need to find any excuse like that to punish universities, so I don’t see this as a substantial issue. The other one is that this notification system may well be tightly coupled with local law enforcement agencies, and it might not be that simple to change the content of the message to reflect a federal agent with guns instead of a disgruntled student with guns. Calling the local cops out can make the situation with the goons worse. Even though the local cops aren’t going to kidnap anybody, they have created circumstances (intentionally or otherwise) that make it easier for the goons to take people away. I think this might be a possible technical constraint in the system. Though I think an immediate campuswide alert, even if it calls in the local cops, is better than not issuing one at all. So we just need the infrastructure and policy to implement a campuswide alert once the presence of federal goons on campus is verified. Our campus already has a policy about what the university police and administration will do in the event of a good raid, so this is just about communicating that information to all member of the campus rapidly. There’s also the possibility that the various unions on campus, many of which have phone numbers of members, could set up such an alert system as well, which would reach faculty and staff, but not administrators or students. But that’s not nothing either. I don’t think I happened to mention to y’all that, as of a couple months ago, I was elected to serve as the Chair of my university’s Academic Senate. Which means that attending to this issue isn’t just a good idea, but it’s also my responsibility. I think it would make sense for you to contact folks up the chain to see what you can do. We’re going back to campus in like 6 weeks! That’s not a lot of time. Any additional thoughts or considerations out there, angles that I’m missing? You’re currently a free subscriber to Science For Everyone. Thanks for your support! If you wish to support this work more, then you could pay for a subscription.
|
Tuesday, 1 July 2025
Protecting students from ICE
How Labour's Welfare Bill Dehumanises Disabled People In The UK
How Labour's Welfare Bill Dehumanises Disabled People In The UKOn the politicisation of disabled bodyminds
Between work meetings where I am supporting vulnerable disabled children and adults. Amongst the stresses and turmoils of my personal life as a disabled parent and professional. Seeping into my thoughts as I lay in bed trying desperately to recover from a day of working as a disabled adult; I have been watching and following the political debates around the Labour party's welfare bill. For context, I have supported and voted for the Labour party since I was 18 years old. I am a card carrying membership of the Labour party. I truly have believed in the values they have held as a party. But Starmer’s Labour? This is not the Labour I recognise or support. This party that promised to help the average person has lost sight of it's disabled population, reducing us to a site of political debate rather than the human beings that we are. I am a disabled professional, and their proposed changes to the benefits system have the potential to end the employment of countless like me, and kill countless more of us via a politics of poverty. It says a lot about our value in the eyes of Starmer's government that our lives are worth less than the pitiful savings their welfare bill purports to provide. Disabled people are not a cost to be debated. We are human beings with lives, and loves, and thoughts, and feelings. We have dreams and hopes. We face barriers that many MPs can not even imagine, and yet Labour have chosen to create more barriers. Barriers that have been projected to place 150,000 more of us into poverty by 2030. My body is not yours to debate. My existence is not yours to place value on. Disabled rights are human rights, and this cruel and misguided welfare bill not only amounts to the effective denial of our rights, it places our lives at risk. And yet, the Labour leadership pata itself on the back while sending us off into the void. We can not remain silent. Join Our Online Protest By Visiting The Facebook Event Page Here If you're not on Facebook, the online protest starts on Friday 4th at 12pm UK time. “Call To Action! Online die in, show Labour what they are causing by cutting benefits, these cuts WILL kill! What do we need from you? We need a photo of you on the floor, in bed, slumped in your car or on a chair with your eyes shut. Holding a sign if you want to with #LabourDieIn #BenefitCutsKill #MoreThanABudget We want to launch this Friday, so look out for us and join in!” Invite your friends and earn rewardsIf you enjoy David Gray-Hammond, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe.
|
The World Won't Let Me Feel Tired
The audacity to feel tired has become a luxury.We’re not longer allowed to say we’re exhausted unless there’s something visibly demanding to point to, like heavy lifting, night shifts, endless meetings and/or screaming children. If we do not have physical proof of strain, our tiredness doesn’t count. We’re not allowed to complain. We’re not allowed to say ‘I’m tired’, unless we’ve somehow earned it in a way others can easily recognize and validate. Mental exhaustion? Emotional fatigue? The kind of tiredness that comes from strategizing endlessly, from carrying invisible stress, from constantly anticipating the next thing? All the things we do whilst sitting down, staring at our computers and/or our phone screens? That’s not seen as real work that would’ve warrant a rest. That’s easily dismissed by society as ‘being lazy’. Whenever we try to express that kind of tired, we’re always met with a scoff, a side-eye or the all-too familiar phrase: ‘But you’re not doing anything.’ As if staying still means we’re not strategizing. As if not moving means not working. As if being tired is a privilege reserved for people who are older, wealthier, overworked or those who’ve somehow ‘earned’ their right to rest. It’s unfair, but then again, this is the lie we’ve been sold: that unless we’re breaking our backs, visibly drained and emotionally unraveling in front of others, we haven’t earned the right to slow down. Feeling tired is no longer seen as a natural human signal. It’s treated like a privilege. The right to be tired now feels like a status symbol, an exclusive membership reserved for those with obvious, measurable burdens. It’s a quiet tragedy, really, the way we’ve been taught to ignore our own exhaustion. But just because society dismisses our fatigue doesn’t mean we have to. Listening to your body is not a weakness. Slowing down is not failure. It’s resistance, and it’s necessary, especially in the world that never slows down. Sincerely, Cherie. (I’ve also submitted this writing to be published on Journal Kita, a Medium publication for Indonesian writers. Since it’s still under review, feel free to check out all their other writings). The Whiffler is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell The Whiffler that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments.
|
No Mental Health Conference Ticket? No Problem!
Purchase on-demand access to the Autistic Mental Health Conference 2026! ...
-
Dear Reader, To read this week's post, click here: https://teachingtenets.wordpress.com/2025/07/02/aphorism-24-take-care-of-your-teach...
-
A slightly unconventional guide to your first time ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ...
