'Insane and dangerous': Inside the Miami school that told teachers not to get vaccinated

[mia]

...It began with the academy’s first open house when David and Leila Centner asked guests not just to wipe their feet but to swaddle the soles of their shoes in Saran wrap. And it continued with an impassioned pledge to mold students into “emotional ninjas,” and the coverings over the windows to ward off potential radiation from 5G cell towers. (“No adverse health effect has been causally linked with exposure to wireless technologies,” according to the World Health Organization.) Then there were the non-disclosure agreements required of employees who wanted to quit or parents who wanted to withdraw their kids. And the efforts to persuade staff how to vote in the presidential election. And the invitation to anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to address the school community. And the constant exhortations against wearing masks....

“She was always talking about doctors that seemed fringey. And there were all these weird emails: Are masks really good for youth’s mental progress?” said Greg Tatar, the parent of a first-grader. “They screamed Republican, Trump, anti-COVID. All the weird news that you would see between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Fox.”

...Former teachers and current parents told the Herald that the vaccine scandal fit into a pattern of behavior by the Centners that they described as straight out of a “cult.” They said the couple failed to impose adequate health and safety precautions during the pandemic like enforcing the usage of masks and continually spread medical misinformation that bordered on indoctrination....

The Herald interviewed 10 former and current teachers and parents critical of the school. Few wanted to go on the record, but they corroborated each other’s accounts. The teachers feared retaliation; the parents worried they could face legal action or their children would be ostracized in school....

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article250973204.html

[Wounded Bear]

1. I know teachers are a special breed, but why would anybody work there?

I know by and large that teachers do their jobs because of their love of learning and of children, and their passion to help children learn.

But good lord, who could work for people like that in that environment?

[QED]

11. They might agree with the owners

Private schools don't always require certification. Depending on the state, they may not require a college degree. This opens the door to untrained people and makes it easier to recruit those who share one's philosophy.

Unless there is a surplus of teachers in the state, these "teachers" may have other options so they are choosing this.

[Buns_of_Fire]

2. It sounds like the Centners are preparing their students for

an exciting and fulfilling career of handing out flowers at Miami International Airport.

A non-disclosure agreement to withdraw your kid from their school?

[TxGuitar]

3. I know! What if you don't sign it?

Maybe they would withhold the kid's records? That can't be legal though.
And these "current" parents that are complaining--why are they sending their kids there? Surely there's some kind of tour or something before you enroll that would've set off some red flags.

[obamanut2012]

7. Because they want their kids to finish this school year

They can't be put into a new school so close to the end of the year.

And, the owners refuse to refund any tuition or release records until the end of the school semester.

[Buns_of_Fire]

8. The article mentions lawsuits. That'd be my guess.

But it looks like a bunch of more-money-than-brains parents really like an environment that makes their little darlin' Feel Good.

[Hugin]

5. The weirdest thing about it...

as I was sifting through the school's website as I'm wont to do with oddities.

One of the Chief Somebodies of the outfit's administration claims to have a MS in epidemiology. Okay, grain of salt, after Einstein Melly and The former alleged Wharton guy left the stage on the 'degrees' stuff.

But, I thought to myself. If she's an anti-vaxxer. She must've been philosophically miserable getting that MS.

[Hortensis]

14. Interesting, all right. It reminds me of how Ben Carson "reconciles"

science with the absolute God's truth in his Bible -- no prob, Bible always the complete truth. the end. I've tried reading psychologists' explanations but just couldn't get my mind around them.

[gratuitous]

4. Yikes

The article is rather long, and the excerpt captures just a small part of the craziness going on at Centner Academy, which looks like nothing so much as a petri dish for lunacy.

[Hugin]

6. A thunk tank.

Completely over thinking. Especially, critical thought. Don't need any of that.

Do as we say, not what we do.

Classic.

[lindysalsagal]

9. I don't know how good the local public schools are, but "private schools" are sometimes known for

believing they're really special ( "better&quot than ordinary schools, and that can attract other narcissists who are parents of "very special" children. So, there is a market for this kind of super-elitist thinking.

Trouble is, narcissists don't know when too much is too much. And, when their narcissism puts their own lives in danger. They will often place the survival of their ego ahead of themselves, believing that if their "specialness" is lost, so are they.

[Tanuki]

10. And taxpayers are forced to support this, taking money from the public schools,through Florida's

school voucher program.

[2naSalit]

12. +1

[utopian]

13. Exactly

[stopdiggin]

15. Bingo! Another example of 'choice' run amok

You have a right to send your kids to the school of your choice (although we might pity the kids and question your sanity, per above) -- but I do not pay to send your little darlings to private schools.

Unfortunately -- there are lots, and lots of (Democratic) parents, and politicians, that are on the wrong side of this debate. At the very, very least -- school funding should come with some minimum of oversight and accountability attached. Currently. Zip.