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As we enter this new phase of living with COVID-19, myths persist. One false rumor is that people can contract COVID through the blood supply.

According to researcher Sonia Bakkour, in a press release promoting her research study “[o]ther studies have shown that in rare cases where a blood sample tested positive, transmission by blood transfusion has not occurred…Therefore, it appears safe to receive blood as a transfusion recipient and to keep donating blood, without fear of transmitting COVID-19 as long as current screenings are used.” 

According to the press release: “Researchers concluded the likelihood of a transfusion recipient receiving blood with trace amounts of SARS-CoV-2 was approximately .001% – a little over 1 in 100,000 – and that the likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 transmission by blood transfusion was insignificant compared to airborne transmission.”

Dr. Sachais of the New York Blood Center (NYBC) adds to this, telling the AmNews “COVID is not transmitted via blood . . . that’s not a way that people get this or other respiratory viruses.” Sachais continues, saying that individuals contract COVID-19 “ through the breathing in of the droplets, being exposed to those droplets that contain the virus and the blood is not infected.”

The Canadian Blood Services supports this conclusion, explaining in the article, “Why you won’t get COVID-19 from a blood transfusion” that “[v]iruses rely on ‘binding sites’ on their host cells. . . The binding sites for COVID-19 are located in the respiratory tract, especially the lower lung, and the digestive system. There is no evidence this coronavirus targets blood cells, or even uses plasma to move around and invade other organs…Blood cells don’t have the binding sites COVID-19 is looking for. The virus is focused on attacking the respiratory and digestive systems.”

As to concerns that individuals may have regarding the safety of blood donation centers, Andrea Cefarelli, Senior Vice President of NYBC, spoke to the AmNews about the safety measures that were taken to safeguard individuals at the height of the COVID pandemic: “[we] implemented several . . . practices . . .  both our staff and our donors were safe and these were very similar to other practices for frontline staff. . . we increased the distance between our donor beds [and] some similar precautions that other organizations were following.”

In January of this year, the New York State Department of Health issued a statement for Blood Donor Month encouraging individuals to donate  blood and stating that “the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have an enormous effect on supply and the need for donations.” In March of 2023, the NYBC declared a blood emergency citing several contributing factors, and the summer has seen nationwide calls for blood donations. COVID’s impact not only translated to myths around blood transfusions but blood donations as well. 

“I would just add that the pandemic sort of devastated the foundation on which we collect blood so pre-pandemic about 25 [percent] of our blood supply came from young donors who donated at high school or a college among their peers . . . having a fun experience for their first donation among friends and then the work from home, which is kind of here to stay or a blended work schedule is making corporate blood drives different and so, the need for blood and disaster preparedness was really heightened coming out of the Pandemic,” Cefarelli said.

For additional resources about Blood Donations in NYC, visit https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-01419.For additional resources about COVID-19, visit www1.nyc.gov/site/coronavirus/index.page or call 311. COVID-19 testing, masks, and vaccination resources can also be accessed on the AmNews COVID-19 page: www.amsterdamnews.com/covid/.

The post Factcheck: False: People routinely contract COVID through blood transfusions appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

Home improvement retailer Home Depot is facing a civil rights lawsuit filed by Larry and Denise Boggs, disabled African American veterans, who claim the company purposefully discriminated against them and denied them services based on their race and disabilities.
The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, accuses Home Depot of violating various laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the New York State Human Rights Law, and federal civil rights statutes.

According to the complaint, the Boggs sought assistance from Home Depot to make their home more accessible for Denise, who uses a wheelchair due to a below-the-knee amputation.

The Home Depot Foundation, a nonprofit organization affiliated with Home Depot, had entered into a contract in October 2017 to perform construction improvements on the Boggs’ home, ensuring ADA compliance and meeting Denise’s needs.

However, the Boggs allege that Home Depot and its affiliates breached the contract and discriminated against them based on their race and disabilities.

The lawsuit claims that the company failed to complete the agreed-upon improvements, withheld necessary building supplies, and performed faulty work that violated local building codes.

Additionally, Home Depot allegedly misused grant funds for building materials to purchase unrelated tools.

The Boggs also claim that Home Depot employees informed them that work on their home would be delayed due to the return of Hasidic Jewish residents for the summer.

When the couple contacted Home Depot to address the ongoing issues, they said company officials told them to complete the work themselves, with Home Depot employees providing only minimal assistance.

The lawsuit asserts violations of the ADA, breach of contract, violations of the New York State Human Rights Law, and federal civil rights statutes.

The couple seeks compensatory and punitive damages, declaratory relief, attorney’s fees, and other appropriate relief.

Home Depot, which operates over 2,200 stores across the United States, including numerous locations in New York State, has yet to issue a public statement regarding the lawsuit.

Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Philip M. Halpern rejected Home Depot’s motion to dismiss the race and disability discrimination suit filed by the Boggs.

Judge Halpern ruled that the couple sufficiently proved that Home Depot employees had prioritized work for white, Hasidic Jewish residents, causing the abandonment of the Boggs’ home renovation.

Halpern dismissed Home Depot’s argument that the Boggs’ did not have the right to enforce the renovation grant provided by the nonprofit Action Towards Independence Inc.

The judge also found that the Boggs’ had a recognizable property interest in using their own home and that Home Depot’s alleged racial discrimination impacted their ability to utilize their property.

Halpern further ruled that Home Depot must face the couple’s breach of contract claim due to the terms of the grant contract and the Boggs being third-party beneficiaries.

Additionally, Halpern rejected Home Depot’s argument that the disability discrimination claim under the New York Human Rights Law should be dismissed, stating that the law applies when a place of public accommodation discriminates at a private residence.

“This is an elderly Black family in a predominately white and Hasidic Jewish neighborhood,” said the couple’s attorney, Onyuwoma W. Igbokwe.

“They obviously didn’t have the financial capability to take care of their home. Home Depot was supposed to step in there and help them out.”

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* This article was originally published here

The Black Educators Initiative is on a mission to train 750 Black teachers by 2024.

Before Kiana Beamon started teaching, there weren’t any Black or Brown teachers in her school. 

Now, she’s one of a few on her elementary campus outside Hartford, Connecticut, where she teaches third grade. At the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year, a parent of one of Beamon’s student’s said she hoped her daughter would be assigned to Beamon’s class — and her daughter did, too. 

Shortly before the end of the year, this student told Beamon that she now wanted to be a teacher because “she knew that she could because she saw me,” Beamon says.

“I’m not gonna lie, I almost started crying,” Beamon says. “It warmed my heart so much to be able to be that person for her.”

But Beamon wasn’t always a teacher. She initially got her bachelor’s degree in history, and later began working as a substitute teacher. Beamon wanted to get the certifications, but she wasn’t sure how to go about it since she’d already gone through traditional college.

I need to be that person for them, to tell them that they can do whatever they want to do no matter who tells them what they can be.KIANA BEAMON, THIRD GRADE TEACHER

A teacher in the district told her about a program she’d seen online: The Connecticut Teacher Residency Program, a grantee of the The Black Educators Initiative run by the National Center for Teacher Residencies. All Beamon needed to do was apply. 

“I was like, ‘Alright, what’s the worst that can happen?’” Beamon says.

After starting in the summer of 2021, Beamon finished the 18-month program shortly before the start of the 2022-2023 school year.

And now, as the person standing in the front of the classroom, Beamon realized her students are looking at her as a model to see what they can do next.

“I need to be that person for them,” Beamon says, “to tell them that they can do whatever they want to do no matter who tells them what they can be.”

The Black Educators Initiative

Launched in 2019, the Black Educators Initiative was created around “one pressing challenge,” says Keilani Goggins, the director of the Black Educators Initiative. 

And that challenge was helping more Black people get to the front of the classroom. Through a $20-million grant from the Ballmer Group, the Black Educators Initiative was created to recruit, develop, and retain 750 new Black teachers over five years through NCTR’s national network of teacher residency partners. 

At the end of the 2021-2022 cycle, its third year, 669 Black teacher residents were enrolled, and 511 of them had graduated. 

The funds go toward various things, like scholarships, stipends, and emergency funds — anything that can help lower the financial barriers for Black teacher residents.

Providing financial support is key for Goggins, who has seen the impact firsthand. 

A resident fell behind on rent and was facing eviction.Her school district was on strike, so she wasn’t getting paid. Through BEI emergency funding, she was able to make rent payments and stay in her home.

Those financial supports “give them a certain sense of comfort and security knowing that the program has the means that will not allow them to fail,” Goggins says. “That allows them to feel comfortable and be able to really focus on the task at hand, which is to teach students and to become a world class teacher.”

And, at the end of the third year, 89% of residents said they felt supported by the program.

Beamon is quick to put an end to anyone who says programs like this aren’t the same as going through a traditional college route. It’s the “exact same classes, exact same information, just crammed into 18 months,” she says. Classes were held all day Monday through Friday during the summer. And, during the school year, residents were in the classroom with another teacher during the day, with more classes in the evening twice a week.

Of course there were the typical courses, like classroom management and subject-matter classes, but BEI residents also had training in how to take the given curriculum and make sure that it’s accessible to all of your students.

“It taught me to be a role model for our students because the students — no matter what color, race, ethnicity, religion,” Beamon says, “whatever they are, they’re benefiting from seeing a person of color in the classroom.”

A Built-In Support System

The Black Educators Initiative pairs every resident with a mentor, which has proven to be very popular. 

“Going in, people think teaching is you close your door, and your classroom is your kingdom,” Goggins says. “You need to be able to have a system of support to lean on, and mentorship has shown itself to be such a viable way of doing that building that support, having a thought partner.”

Teacher turnover rates tend to be highest during the first few years in the classroom — and have ticked up since the pandemic. So, with BEI, the mentor provides a sense of security and helps a resident try out something they might not have been comfortable trying if they were alone in the classroom. 

And these mentorship networks don’t just disappear after graduation. Beamon still meets monthly with a mentor and a group of teachers of color. It’s a “safe space to just talk and be ourselves and figure out what we’re going through and know that we’re not alone.”

“It’s being with a group of people that not only look like me, have the same mindset as me, all trying to work towards a common goal, but also being able to let my guard down,” Beamon says. “Because, in a lot of spaces, we really can’t let our guards down.”

Outside of the monthly meetings, they regularly communicate through ongoing group chats, discussing the goings on and checking in on each other. These networks empower Beamon as a person of color in the teaching field. She’s able to run ideas past her group and get both feedback and hyped up. 

“It makes me feel like I can do what I set out to do,” Beamon says. “They’re always there to say, ‘You got, you can do it.’”

Creating Generations of Mentors

About halfway through her program, Beamon was already getting excited about the prospect of returning later on to be a mentor for a future resident.

“I want to also be that person for the next generation of teachers that are coming in,” she says. It was a sentiment echoed throughout her group chat with other teachers. “Having people of color being mentors to other people of color is going to foster better relationships, make them feel comfortable asking different questions.”

Goggins also shares this vision. She wants the program to continue creating a bunch of leaders — folks that end up leading not just classrooms, but schools and beyond.

“It’s really making sure that students all across the country have access to Black teachers, because research shows that it’s not just Black students who benefit from having Black teachers,” Goggins says. 

“I hope this goes on forever.”

The post Creating the Next Generation of Black Teachers appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

The White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence and Economic Development through Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) announces the 2023 HBCU student scholars. 

It is the ninth and largest cohort of scholars and consists of 102 undergraduate, graduate and professional students across 29 states and countries across 70 HBCUs in the country. 

Three of the students from New York, Raquel Liverpool, from Brooklyn attends Miles College in Birmingham, Ala, Tamara Wood from the Bronx attends Shaw University in Raleigh, NC, and Carys Carr from Rochester attends Howard University in Washington, D.C., and two are from New Jersey, Laquann Wilson from Palmyra attends Alabama State University in Montgomery, Ala and Calvin Bell from Pennsauken attends Morehouse College in Atlanta.

According to the White House, the scholars will be offered professional and personal development, and cross-university networking opportunities with an opportunity to explore, discuss, and improve issues specifically related to the HBCU community..

They will also be invited and able to participate in the 2023 HBCU Week National Annual Conference between Sept. 24 through 28 in Virginia. This year’s conference themes are, “Raising the Bar: Forging Excellence Through Innovation & Leadership.”

The HBCU Scholar Program began a partnership with NASA last year in connection to their program, the Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) Innovation Tech Transfer Idea Competition (MITTIC) aka “Mini MITTIC.” Through the Mini MITTIC program, HBCU Scholars will partner with one another to developing ideas to commercialize technology derived from NASA intellectual property that can improve their campus and surrounding communities.

The students will have the opportunity to present their IP ideas in-person at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

After the conference, the cohorts will be able to take part in different programs, events and class seminars to create greater access to post-graduation opportunities within non-profit, business, and federal agency partners to ensure that as a nation we remain globally competitive.

“On behalf of the U.S. Department of Education and everyone across the Biden-Harris Administration, I congratulate each of our 2023 HBCU scholars on this prestigious recognition and thank them for their commitment to serving their communities,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona Cardona. “I’m thrilled to see the HBCU Scholars program continue to expand its reach and provide such exciting professional development, networking, and educational opportunities to some of our nation’s brightest and most promising young leaders.”

The HBCU Scholar Recognition Program was created under the Obama administration in 2014.

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* This article was originally published here