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Welcome to summer in the great indoors.
Parents around the country are learning their children’s summer camps will be cancelled, delayed or moved online as the fallout from the coronavirus seeps into another facet of American life. From New Hampshire to California, camps and parents are scrambling as Zoom campfires and “virtual cabins” in the living room become more likely.
It’s a blow for children — and their parents — who have spent weeks cooped up during school closures and had considered camp a reward for adhering to weeks of social isolation and homeschooling. It also will squeeze nonprofits that rely on the infusion of cash from camp payments and put young counsellors out of work.
“When we finally found out that schools were going to be closed for the rest of the year, I was like, ‘Well, there’s always summer camp.’ I was really holding out for that,” said Rasha Habiby of Los Angeles.
Her 10-year-old daughter’s first-ever sleep-away camp has been cancelled, and they’re both devastated.
Habiby and her husband have demanding work schedules but kept their kids away from her parents to avoid possibly spreading the virus. Now, she said she may be forced to ask them to babysit.
“I panic. I cry. I do all those things. But what other options are there?” Habiby said. “I know we’re not the only ones in this situation. I’m keenly aware of that — but somehow it doesn’t make it any easier.”
An estimated 20 million U.S. children attend summer camp each year, fueling an $18 billion industry that employs over a million seasonal workers, according to the American Camp Association.
The association, which represents more than 3,100 camps, has hired independent health experts to draft recommendations for camps, and many still hope to open, said Tom Rosenberg, group president and CEO. Camps also are awaiting guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and input from state and local health departments, he said.
“Most camps are not asking if they’re going to open but how they’re going to open. It’s essential,” Rosenberg said. “Right now, 20 million kids that would normally be going to camp are cast adrift in a sea of screens.”
Camp Walt Whitman, a seven-week overnight camp in New Hampshire’s remote White Mountains, sent parents a letter with three options: cancelling, postponing or going forward with social distancing and other precautions. The camp, which charges $13,000 for the full session, will decide after May 20, director Jed Dorfman said.
For smaller camps, cancelling could mean financial ruin. Many nonprofits rely on camp fees for their budgets and to pay contracts signed in advance. Some that have cancelled are urging parents to donate all or part of the tuition or apply it to next year.
That backfired for Galileo Learning, a San Francisco-area camp that enrolls thousands of children, after it cancelled and credited families for next year. After an outcry, the company asked parents whether they would like a full or partial refund or a credit. A Galileo statement said it had laid off or furloughed more than 80% of year-round staff.
Other camps are racing to move online.
Interlochen Arts Camp, which enrolls 2,800 kids and teens from 50 countries in its prestigious summer program in Michigan, will switch to virtual lessons and workshops while making the session shorter, president Trey Devey said.
The Girl Scouts of Oregon and southwest Washington cancelled in-person camps for thousands but will roll out virtual experiences in June, said Allie Roberts, director of programs for the Girl Scouts in 33 Oregon counties and three counties in Washington state.
The Girl Scouts’ 111 councils nationwide are each finding an approach that suits their region and membership.
“It’s a heartbreaking decision but it’s the right decision for the safety of our girls,” Roberts said.
Other camps are shutting down completely.
Administrators in Florida realized it was impossible to practice proper social distancing at Camp Kiwanis, a sleep-away camp tucked along a lake in the Ocala National Forest. Each week, over 100 kids spend four nights and then go back to their homes in Marion County, which is seeing new coronavirus cases daily, camp director Scott Mitchell said.
The camp has been a fixture for 72 years, and one-quarter of the children get scholarships from the local Kiwanis Club, he said.
“Go on Netflix and find the cheesiest summer camp movie you can find, and that’s us. It’s a traditional, good old-fashioned summer camp,” Mitchell said. “It’s kind of a sad day for our community. … But if you look at other places that have really been hit, it’s a small price to pay.”
Still, it’s a bitter pill to swallow for many, including young people who have started to expect disappointment as the pandemic drags on.
Delia Graham, 15, was ecstatic to spend six weeks at Willowbrook Arts Camp, where she’s been going since age 5. She’s old enough to work as a half-day counsellor, a step toward becoming a full-fledged staffer at the popular drama and arts camp near Portland, Oregon.
Graham and five camp friends spent days in a FaceTime group chat debating what would happen before getting the bad news, said Graham, who had already been struggling with her school’s closure.
“I didn’t think it would get so bad, that it would last this long,” she said of the pandemic. “I really miss my friends.”
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Flaccus reported from Portland, Oregon. Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed. Follow Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus.
Gillian Flaccus, The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Parents have weighed in on reopening schools. Teachers have weighed in. Public health experts, too, along with cities, states and President Donald Trump.
But what about the kids themselves? As the grown-ups fret, kindergartners to high schoolers faced with a range of scenarios for virtual and in-person classes are expressing both fear and glee over leaving home to learn.
Many said they’re most worried about fellow students breaking the rules on wearing masks and keeping their distance, especially in areas that are hot spots for the coronavirus.
“We’ll be home in a month,” said a skeptical Peter Klamka, an eighth-grader in Las Vegas, in a county that logged 95% of new coronavirus cases reported in Nevada early last week.
The 13-year-old will return to his private school in about three weeks.
“Some kids will be more responsible than others. I’m not looking forward to it but I’ve got to go school so I’d rather be there in person,” Peter said.
Not yet 5, kindergartner Rivington Hall in Westport, Connecticut, will begin her first big-kid year on Zoom after finishing preschool at home. That may change later in the year.
“I’d rather go to school because it has more toys and it’s more fun,” she said as she munched on animal crackers and sipped from a juice box.
Anxious parents around the country are looking to schools that have already opened for signs of how it might go. One, North Paulding High School in suburban Atlanta, rescinded a five-day suspension for a student who shared photos and video of crowded hallways and few students in masks after doors opened this month.
The school has since suffered an outbreak of COVID-19, along with other schools in hard-hit Georgia.
Nearly 50 miles away in Alpharetta, Georgia, 10-year-old Collier Evans will attend school remotely when he begins fifth grade Aug. 17. He could have gone in person full time or picked a blended option but said he was anxious about returning to school.
“My parents and me, we said we don’t want to go in a classroom, get sick and then I’d bring it home and get my family sick,” Collier said.
As for distance learning, he said: “I hope it’s going to go better than last year. You had to wait in a queue for like 30 minutes to ask the teacher one question.”
In Tuscon, Arizona, 10-year-old Simon Joubeaud Pulitzer returned to his private school Aug. 3, his blue button-down uniform shirt and tie in place. He was happy to see his friends again and have face-to-face access to his teachers.
Did he feel safe?
“Not the first day but after, yes, I felt a bit safer,” Simon said. “All kids were following the rules.”
Those rules include masks worn indoors, socially distanced desks and only two kids per outdoor picnic table at either end for lunch.
Most American parents said it was unsafe to send their children back to school, with more than 80 per centfavouring school conducted at least partly online, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School survey conducted by Ipsos. But many expressed displeasure at the quality of online instruction.
As summer winds down, the mixed feelings mirror the lack of consensus around the country on how to balance virus risks and schooling.
Some Scandinavian countries with far fewer cases than in the U.S. reopened schools with new safety protocols and have had no outbreaks connected to their operations. In Israel, schools that reopened when virus activity was low ended up shutting down a few weeks later when cases spiked.
In the U.S., some school districts plan a mix of in-person classes and online learning to help maintain social distancing. Other districts, including those in Miami, Houston and Los Angeles, are starting classes online only.
Ella Springer, 14, of Kenosha, Wisconsin, will start her sophomore year of high school at home after her school board rescinded an in-class option to open the fall semester. That could change as the year progresses.
“At first I was wanting to go back to school in person but I feel like, watching the numbers in Wisconsin, it makes more sense to go back virtual because it’s rising,” she said. “It’s pretty boring at home but what can you do? Last year the virtual was easier for me to slack off at home because it was a loose kind of thing, but I feel like this year will go a lot better since they’ve had the whole summer to prepare.”
Aiden Anderson, 11, in Orlando, Florida, will begin sixth grade at home for two weeks, then happily head out to school in a state that’s among the nation’s worst hot spots for the virus.
“I don’t like that there’s two weeks online,” he said. “At home it’s so easy to get distracted.”
In Littleton, Colorado, 8-year-old Will Asbury is going into third grade. School starts Aug. 24 and he’ll be there in person. There was a distance learning option but Will and his little sister, Luca, wanted to go.
“I’m going to feel good because I get to see my friends. Masks are a bummer but at least we get to play with our friends during recess and see them at lunch,” he said.
Of distance learning, 6-year-old Luca got right to the point: “I didn’t like it.”
She’s hoping for a unicorn mask to wear when she returns to the classroom.
Alec Blumberg is a high school freshman and his sister, Amelia, a high school senior in Great Neck, New York. Their school, for now, decided on full time, at-home learning to start in September with a possible staggered approach in person later on, allowing half the students in at a time.
“I really want to go back. It would be nice to interact with people and have a more separate life at school and home,” Alec said. “But if the school lays out a plan, will the kids follow it? I’m really not sure.”
Amelia, 17, said exactly how responsible students will be is what worries her the most, based on what she’s seen among peers.
“Some people aren’t as careful as others,” she said. “They aren’t following any type of safety measures, which really scares me. But I really want to go back. It’s the last year. We didn’t even get to say goodbye to any of our teachers when we left last year.”
School for Indianapolis, Indiana, seventh-grader Maria Beck started July 30. The 12-year-old is attending online full time. At first, her school district was going to offer some in-person instruction, then changed its mind. There’s been a recent uptick in COVID-19 cases in her area.
“I’m a big extrovert,” Maria said of missing face-to-face school. “But so far, it’s been going very well. I do hope we get to go back some day.”
Her third-grade sister, 8-year-old Felicity, said she, too, is OK with distance learning. Among the things she misses most about real school? Lunch.
“I’d be scared that I’d get sick,” she said of returning to school, “but I’d be really happy that I’d be able to go back.”
Leanne Italie, The Associated Press
Photo Credit: Michelle Butterly
Toronto mom Emma Trousdale would love to send her two kids to school full time.
But even if she chooses that option over remote learning, she expects they’ll end up spending a considerable amount of time at home.
“Someone’s going to get a cold or a cough — probably not COVID, but you’re going to be keeping someone home, like, all the time,” says Trousdale, whose kids are set to enter grades 1 and 4.
“That’s a big reason why I (also) don’t want to send them back — because then at least I know what my day holds. I can make a plan.”
A little over two weeks from her school’s start date, various guidance plans are still evolving, leaving Trousdale with many questions about how COVID-19 precautions will disrupt learning for kids, work schedules for adults, and where and how to get tested, if needed.
She considers herself lucky to be flexible enough to accommodate last-minute upheaval — she’s self-employed and her husband works from home. But she acknowledges not everyone can drop in and out of work for two weeks at a time to supervise quarantined kids.
Parents need more certainty about what the school year may look like, agrees Dr. Camille Lemieux, faulting Ontario’s current testing strategy for not including enough measures that could limit the number of kids and staff who may be quarantined, and the length of time they’d spend out of school.
Lemieux, who runs the COVID-19 testing centre at Toronto Western Hospital, suggests “serial testing” could ease pressures on families unable to take time off work if their child is exposed to COVID-19 at school and ordered home.
“So you don’t say to every single child, ‘You have to stay home for 14 days.’ You make that testing accessible to those families, and you test them not once, but you test them two and three times under relatively rapid succession and then you can be fairly certain that they’re negative,” Lemieux says.
Ontario’s guidelines stop short of requiring tests for suspected cases and their close contacts by merely recommending or strongly encouraging tests, although such individuals are directed to isolate, contact public health and follow medical advice.
The guidelines also encourage retesting if symptoms develop after a negative test.
Lemieux also wants clarity on whether tests will be available at schools or in communities, fearing families who are only able to test at a COVID assessment centre face another layer of complication and possible delay to containing spread.
“Some people, for various social circumstances, just are not able to go line up in (an assessment centre) or may feel that they are marginalized by going there because there’s a lot of stigma still,” says Lemieux, fearing long lineups and limited locations could pose hurdles.
“When you’re looking at large numbers of kids, it’s going to become more challenging, for sure. Most kids don’t want to stand in line for a long period of time. Some kids just will outright refuse to be tested because it’s frightening to them.”
The province has announced 625 more nurses to monitor school risk.
A spokeswoman for the education ministry says details on their duties have yet to be announced, but confirms there will be mobile teams that can test students at schools and offer more targeted monitoring in high-risk neighbourhoods.
The ministry’s office says nurses will also help conduct random testing of asymptomatic secondary students.
Although Lemieux was a vocal critic of Ontario’s testing capacity early in the pandemic, she doesn’t expect increased demand will cause the backlogs seen in the spring.
“Our testing capacity is really quite large and significant right now. The issue is, how do you deliver that testing in a way that is going to be effective in school settings?” Lemieux says.
Timely reporting is also a concern.
Under Ontario’s guidelines, only a confirmed case would trigger a two-week quarantine for the entire cohort. It recommends testing those contacts as soon as possible, but recognizes “that in many scenarios, a few days will have already passed since exposure.”
Given that test results take anywhere from two to 10 days in Ontario, it’s possible secondary cases will emerge before that first case is confirmed, says Christine Nielsen, chief executive officer of the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science.
Once a case is confirmed, it’s also not clear how soon families would be told, or how.
The guidelines only say families are notified “immediately” if their cohort is affected. Otherwise, confirmed cases will be reported on the board or school website, putting the onus on parents to stay on top of case counts, Nielsen says.
Then there’s lab capacity.
In Ontario, Nielsen says, the province has invested in more equipment to meet the fall demand and a possible second wave and so she doesn’t expect wait times to lengthen.
Still, she acknowledges that additional tests for returning students, teachers and the broader workforce will increase strain on labs, with many regions also grappling with personnel shortages.
In Ontario alone, she says, employers are asking for another 150 medical lab technologists for the fall.
Non-COVID-19 medical testing is also on the rise as procedures delayed in the early days of the pandemic resume, and Nielsen expects more people will seek flu tests to differentiate the type of infection they may have.
She notes these flu tests rely on the same public health nurses, lab personnel and similar equipment used for COVID-19 detection, but use different chemicals to process.
“Surgeries are being scheduled again, family physicians are seeing patients again. We’re definitely going to feel a crunch with respect to all lab testing,” says Nielsen, noting the extent of that crunch depends on whether and how many outbreaks occur, their circumstances and the testing strategy.
“I feel like COVID-19 is a priority for all facilities, but there will be decisions that will need to be made, whether that’s by hospital administrators or lab directors: What comes first? Is it a cardiac patient or is it a COVID-19 patient?”
Nova Scotia dad Adam Davies says he’s uncertain of many of his province’s COVID measures, and anticipates poor communication will lead fearful students and families to speculate on infection risk and trade gossip when unexplained absences occur.
He’d like more information on what happens if bused kids are exposed to COVID-19, and whether his 13-year-old son would be notified even though he doesn’t take the bus — a concern because many of the teen’s close contacts take the bus.
“That’s a whole level of contact tracing that then has to be followed because that’s going well beyond the classroom. You’re now kind of getting right through the school, potentially,” says Davies, whose son is set to begin Grade 8 in the rural community of Pugwash, N.S.
Davies also worries about financial strain if forced to take unpaid leaves from work to accommodate quarantines for his son. In that case, he says he can use one week of sick leave and then has some vacation days available.
Quick and clear reporting of COVID-19 cases would limit such upheaval, he says, as well as cut down on rumours and fear.
“We don’t have that feedback that anyone’s actually listening to what parents are saying,” Davies says.
“Confidence and trust go hand in hand and when there doesn’t seem to be enough being done to raise the confidence in the system, then the trust starts to sag and I think that’s where you’ll get the whisper network.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 28, 2020.
Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press
Disney Plus is testing a new feature exclusively with Canadian subscribers that recreates the experience of watching TV with a group of family and friends.
The streaming service says it recently launched the virtual social feature GroupWatch, which allows up to six Disney Plus accounts to gather in a synched viewing party where they can play, pause, fast forward and rewind together.
Disney Plus says social interactions within the group will be “initially limited” to sharing emojis.
The GroupWatch test is available for Disney Plus titles including “The Mandalorian,” “Hamilton,” and classic animated films.
The feature is supported across all of the Disney Plus streaming apps on TVs, mobile phones, computers or tablets.
Online viewing parties have become commonplace since the start of the pandemic as more people share entertainment experiences while staying at home and physically distant.
Netflix Party, an unofficial third-party app, exploded in popularity in the early days of COVID-19, inspiring some streaming companies to create their own official versions.
Amazon’s Prime Video is beta testing its own technology, called Watch Party, in the United States.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2020.
Follow @dfriend on Twitter.
David Friend, The Canadian Press
NEW YORK — Roving grown-ups tossing candy at kids waiting on lawns. Drive-thru Halloween haunts. Yard parties instead of block parties and parades. Wider paths through corn mazes.
The family holiday so many look forward to each year is going to look different in the pandemic as parents and the people who provide Halloween fun navigate a myriad of restrictions and safety concerns.
Some were looking extra-forward to Halloween this year because it falls on a Saturday, with a monthly blue moon to boot.
Decisions are outstanding in many areas on whether to allow kids to go door to door or car trunk to car trunk in parking lots in search of candy, with Los Angeles first banning trick-or-treating, then downgrading its prohibition to a recommendation.
Other events have been cancelled or changed, from California’s Half Moon Bay to New York’s legendary Sleepy Hollow — and points in between.
On a typical Halloween along Clark Avenue in the St. Louis suburb of Webster Groves, neighbours go all out to decorate their houses and yards with spooky skeletons, tombstones and jack-o’-lanterns as up to 1,000 people pack the blocked-off street to carry on an old tradition: Tell a joke, get a treat.
Not this year. There will likely be no warm bags of popcorn, cups of hot chocolate or cotton candy doled out in exchange for the laughs as residents figure out how to pivot.
“We plan to decorate the house as usual so families can feel the Halloween spirit on their evening walks,” said Kirsten Starzer, mom to two kids, ages 11 and 15. “We will put up a sign that says, `See you next year!’”
Along the Pacific Coast about 25 miles south of San Francisco, this Halloween was meant to be a milestone for the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival. The two-day event, now cancelled, usually draws up to 300,000 people from around the world to show off parade floats and school bands for the holiday.
“It was supposed to be our 50th year. I guess we’ll have to celebrate that in 2021,” said Cameron Sinn, a local business owner and president of the festival. “This year we have other things to worry about.”
The kick-off event the week before, the Safeway World Championship Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off, will carry on with no public spectators but plenty of humongous orange contestants as the judging goes virtual. With any luck, a potential world record-breaker from the U.K. will make it safely to Half Moon Bay. Its grower has a shot at $30,000 if he sets a new record.
There’s still some Halloween fun to be had in Sleepy Hollow more than 200 years after Washington Irving published his classic story about the headless horseman who terrorized a hapless Ichabod Crane. But the undead, evil and insane who usually entertain at Philipsburg Manor won’t be present for the annual walk-through horror attraction Horseman’s Hollow.
It, too, is a pandemic casualty.
So is a popular festival in the Kansas City suburb of Shawnee, Kansas, in which children stuff straw into donated clothes to make their own scarecrows.
In North Kansas City, Missouri, the city’s parks and recreation department cancelled its Halloween in the Park event, instead inviting families to pick up a mystery box with candy and other surprises inside.
“The health and safety of our children and families are our priority during this time,” the city explained on its website.
While the future is uncertain for trick-or-treating, Americans have been stocking up on candy. U.S. sales of Halloween-themed chocolate and candy were up 70% over 2019 in the four weeks ending Aug. 9, according to the National Confectioners Association.
Ferrara Candy Co., which makes a Halloween staple, Brach’s Candy Corn, said most of its retail partners asked for early shipments of Halloween candy because of expected demand. Target, however, is reducing candy assortments in anticipation of less trick-or-treating. It will give away surprise Halloween bags to shoppers who drive up to its stores in October.
CVS Pharmacy said it has scaled back the number of large and giant bags of candy its stores will receive in favour of smaller bags for smaller outings and family gatherings.
Feeding the desire for safety, Walmart is bringing in more masks that can pull double duty as costume accessories, such as versions that feature the words “princess” or “queen.” Walgreens has increased its assortments of indoor and outdoor Halloween decorations, and it stepped up offerings of beverage and snack options for entertaining at home.
Candy-getting scenarios are afloat on social media, with some planning treat tosses to stationary children in their yards so the young don’t have to leave their pandemic bubbles. Others are considering long sticks with hooks for candy buckets at the end, offering social distance at collection time, or long chutes to send the candy through to dressed-up recipients.
Alina Morse, a 15-year-old candy entrepreneur outside Detroit, suggests fashioning a Halloween candy tree decorated with lights and treats so kids can pluck their own from a porch or yard.
“Selecting a treat from the tree makes the safe, self-serve experience much more fun, said Alina, who heads Zolli Candy.
None of that is enough for some parents wary about going door to door with their kids, while others are willing, with care, if their areas allow it.
In Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighbourhood, Jamie Bender said it all depends for her two kids, ages 3 and 5.
“If our neighbours are wearing masks when they open the door, we would let the kids trick-or-treat a few houses then do the obligatory wipe-down of candy wrappers,” she said.
Halloween is Camille Maniago’s 10th birthday. With Halloween on a Saturday, her family in Long Beach, California, was going to go big, but the pandemic put a stop to that.
“We’re not sure what we’ll do now, but it will probably involve a family costume and a small celebration with our immediate pod,” said Camille’s mother, Rachel Maniago. “I have friends who were thinking of planning Easter egg style candy hunts for their kids in their yards in costumes and finishing it with a movie night. Definitely not the same, but I think it has a festive element to it.”
While many haunted houses and events indoors or in tight spaces aren’t happening this year, the folks at the world record-holding largest temporary corn maze in Dixon, California, are pressing on, starting Sept. 27.
At 60 acres, the maze at Cool Patch Pumpkins now has widened paths. Visitors must walk through with live-in household members only, and masks are required when social distance can’t be maintained.
On the Halloween haunts front, Brett Hays of the Haunted Attraction Association, said roughly half the attractions among his 800 or so members will not be able to run this year due to the pandemic.
“It’s so uneven in terms of regulations right now,” said Hays, the group’s president. “Whatever local agencies have been put in charge of this really are clamouring to try to get a hold of what’s going on and be able to handle it.”
A few haunts have already opened, he said, “and they’re having to really stay after people to keep them distanced and to get them to keep their masks on. It’s a lot of babysitting the customers.”
A few haunts have created drive-thru experiences, an approach Hays isn’t a huge fan of, noting the potential danger of the startle reflex in drivers with their feet on gas pedals. Other attractions have gone to timed tickets. Many expect a 50 per cent reduction in attendance in an industry that usually generates about $1.14 billion in annual ticket sales, primarily during Halloween season.
“Nobody’s going to have a great year,” Hays said. “There’s no doubt about it.”
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Associated Press writers Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit, Anne D’Innocenzio in New York and Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, contributed to this report.
Leanne Italie, The Associated Press
BOSTON — Cute plastic animals with tiny accessories that pose a choking hazard, Black Panther-inspired claws with the potential to cause facial or eye injuries, and green slime that could be harmful if swallowed: These are just some of the items on an annual list of potentially dangerous toys released Monday by a consumer advocacy group.
“Although intended for fun and entertainment, many toys contain hidden hazards unnecessarily putting children at risk of injury or death,” Boston-based World Against Toys Causing Harm Inc. said in a statement announcing its “10 Worst Toys” of the year.
With parents looking for ways to keep children occupied during the coronavirus pandemic, and with the 2020 Christmas shopping season approaching, toy safety awareness is critical, the group said.
“Shockingly, classic toy dangers, such as small parts, strings, projectiles, toxic substances, rigid materials, and inaccurate warnings and labels, continue to reappear in new generations of toys putting children at risk,” the organization said.
There are an estimated 240,000 toy-related injuries to children each year and a child is brought to the emergency room every three minutes for a toy-related injury, according to WATCH.
The Toy Association, which represents toy manufacturers, called the WATCH list needlessly alarmist.
“By law, all toys sold in the United States must meet 100+ rigorous safety tests and standards,” the association said in a statement. “However, WATCH does not test the toys in its report to check their safety; their allegations appear to be based on their misrepresentation of the mandatory toy standards — and of the priority the toy industry puts on safe and fun play.”
The Toy Association said parents and others should always choose age-appropriate toys, encourage safe play, and make sure they purchase toys from reputable manufacturers and sellers.
(backslash)
The Associated Press
Parents, tell your kids to put on their thinking caps! It’s their opportunity to suggest potential names for 13 German Shepherd puppies who will be born at the Police Dog Service Training Centre this year.
The puppies will eventually be added to the fleet of police dogs across Canada!
According to the RCMP, there are a few rules: The names have to start with the letter “P,” be no more than nine letters per name, the name having to be one to two syllables. Entrants need to be 4-14 years of age to be eligible.
The 13 children whose names are selected will each receive a laminated 8×10-inch photo of the pup they name, a plush dog named Justice and an RCMP water bottle. Contest winners and the winning names will be announced on April 28, 2021.
The deadline to enter is March 18, 2021. You can enter here:
https://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/depot/name-the-puppy-contest
What’s cuter than a furry, 4-legged crime fighter? Nothing!
BOSTON — Six Dr. Seuss books — including “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” and “If I Ran the Zoo” — will stop being published because of racist and insensitive imagery, the business that preserves and protects the author’s legacy said Tuesday.
“These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” Dr. Seuss Enterprises told The Associated Press in a statement that coincided with the late author and illustrator’s birthday.
“Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ catalogue represents and supports all communities and families,” it said.
The other books affected are “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!,” “Scrambled Eggs Super!,” and “The Cat’s Quizzer.”
The decision to cease publication and sales of the books was made last year after months of discussion, the company told AP.
“Dr. Seuss Enterprises listened and took feedback from our audiences including teachers, academics and specialists in the field as part of our review process. We then worked with a panel of experts, including educators, to review our catalogue of titles,” it said.
Books by Dr. Seuss — who was born Theodor Seuss Geisel in Springfield, Massachusetts, on March 2, 1904 —- have been translated into dozens of languages as well as in braille and are sold in more than 100 countries. He died in 1991.
He remains popular, earning an estimated $33 million before taxes in 2020, up from just $9.5 million five years ago, the company said. Forbes listed him No. 2 on its highest-paid dead celebrities of 2020, behind only the late pop star Michael Jackson.
As adored as Dr. Seuss is by millions around the world for the positive values in many of his works, including environmentalism and tolerance, there has been increasing criticism in recent years over the way Blacks, Asians and others are drawn in some of his most beloved children’s books, as well as in his earlier advertising and propaganda illustrations.
The National Education Association, which founded Read Across America Day in 1998 and deliberately aligned it with Geisel’s birthday, has for several years deemphasized Seuss and encouraged a more diverse reading list for children.
School districts across the country have also moved away from Dr. Seuss, prompting Loudoun County, Virginia, schools just outside Washington, D.C., to douse rumours last month that they were banning the books entirely.
“Research in recent years has revealed strong racial undertones in many books written/illustrated by Dr. Seuss,” the school district said in a statement.
In 2017, a school librarian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, criticized a gift of 10 Seuss books from first lady Melania Trump, saying many of his works were “steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes.”
In 2018, a Dr. Seuss museum in his hometown of Springfield removed a mural that included an Asian stereotype.
“The Cat in the Hat,” one of Seuss’ most popular books, has received criticism, too, but will continue to be published for now.
Dr. Seuss Enterprises, however, said it is “committed to listening and learning and will continue to review our entire portfolio.”
Numerous other popular children’s series have been criticized in recent years for alleged racism.
In the 2007 book, “Should We Burn Babar?,” the author and educator Herbert R. Kohl contended that the “Babar the Elephant” books were celebrations of colonialism because of how the title character leaves the jungle and later returns to “civilize” his fellow animals.
One of the books, “Babar’s Travels,” was removed from the shelves of a British library in 2012 because of its alleged stereotypes of Africans. Critics also have faulted the “Curious George” books for their premise of a white man bringing home a monkey from Africa.
And Laura Ingalls Wilder’s portrayals of Native Americans in her “Little House On the Prairie” novels have been faulted so often that the American Library Association removed her name in 2018 from a lifetime achievement award it gives out each year.
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AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed from New York.
Mark Pratt, The Associated Press
Retired Mountie Katherine Hansen, shown in a handout photo, was overjoyed when she was offered a second stint in the RCMP’s iconic Musical Ride this summer, but they were dashed in March when just days before she was to join the team, COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the tour season. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-RCMP MANDATORY CREDIT
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) wants your help naming newborn horses (foals) that may be part of the world-famous Musical Ride someday! Their annual “Name the Foal” contest is back! This year, they are asking for names that start with “W”.
Up to 12 winners will be selected from across Canada, including one classroom entry. The winning names will be given to as many as 12 foals that are expected to be born this spring at the RCMP Breeding Farm in Pakenham, Ontario.
The children whose names are selected will each receive a prize pack that includes a photo of the foal they named, a certificate signed by the RCMP Commissioner and an engraved horseshoe made by an RCMP farrier. The winning classroom entry will receive a framed photo of the foal they named and a certificate signed by the RCMP Commissioner.
To qualify, a participant must:
*If you are submitting on behalf of a class, you must be at least 18 years of age and teach children 14 years of age or younger.
The winning foal names will be chosen by a committee of employees at the RCMP Musical Ride and Heritage Branch and announced later this spring – along with the contest winners – on the RCMP website and social media.
You can submit your entry here:
Name the Foal contest – RCMP.ca (rcmp-grc.gc.ca)
