Newsroom Roundup 2/28

Local News

Almost immediately upon taking office, Glen Youngkin signed into practice Executive Order 1 which prohibits the teaching of “inherently divisive concepts.” This past week, Youngkin asked the Education Secretariat to look over the new proposed AP course, AP African American Studies, to see if the course did in fact fall under this category. This is after the class had already gone through many revisions, changing it drastically from the first proposed course. The first draft of the course would include aspects such as Black queer studies, Intersectionality and Activism, The reparations movement, and Black scholars associated with Critical Race Theory. This change happened after major push back from the conservative party. The Education Secretariat decided that the AP course did not fall under the category of “inherently divisive concepts.”

National News

National Eating Disorder Awareness Week is from February 27th through March 5th. International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, February 6th.

This week is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week across the United States, and many different companies and organizations are spreading awareness by hosting different webinars and events to share stories and amplify voices of people who have experienced an eating disorder at some point in their lives. The theme for this year is C.A.R.E. which stands for Continue the Conversation, Act Early, Strengthen Recovery, and End the Cycle. It is estimated that 28 million Americans will develop an eating disorder at some point in their lives, so it is extremely important to continue to talk about this issue.

Global News

The 6th of February is the international day of zero tolerance for female genital mutilation. The United Nations is raising awareness of female genital mutilation as well as the plan to end it in 2030. Female genital mutilation affects over 200 million women in several countries including the United States. Female genital mutilation has gone down significantly in the past 30 years, however, there is still much work to be done to end female genital mutilation.