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1 Aug, 5 tweets, 2 min read
In Pearl River County, a 16-year-old died of COVID-19 last week.

The local hospital is out of ICU beds after the number of COVID-19 patients doubled in six days.

Naturally, when Pearl River County School District students return Aug. 5, masks will be "optional for all..." 🙃 PRC return plan says: "Personal Protective Equipment: F
Meanwhile, two schools in the nearby Lamar County School District, which began classes on July 22 with no mask requirements, have shut down in-person classes and will go all virtual starting Monday amid widespread outbreaks during their first full week.
mississippifreepress.org/14272/as-outbr…
After the Lamar County shutdowns, several Mississippi districts reversed planned "mask optional" policies, including the Poplarville School District in Pearl River County.

But the Pearl River County School District still plans a mask optional school year. mississippifreepress.org/14272/as-outbr…
Meanwhile, a month before a Pearl River County child died of COVID-19, this 100% FALSE billboard ad was lighting up a digital billboard in Picayune, the county's largest city.

Only 26% of people in Pearl River County have had even one dose of the vaccine (statewide, it's 37%).
The website these billboards list is Defending The Republic, a group founded affiliated with Sidney Powell, the Donald Trump lawyer (yes, "The Kraken Lady").

It's under investigation in Florida for alleged violations of charity laws.

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More from @ashtonpittman

Ashton Pittman Profile picture
31 Jul
NEW: Days after classes began, COVID-19 outbreaks forced two Lamar County high schools to go all-virtual.

Now, the district is reversing its "mask optional" policy and reinstating a mask requirement. Other Mississippi districts are also reversing course.
mississippifreepress.org/14272/as-outbr…
"The delta variant is different."

After the first SEVEN days of classes in August 2020, the whole Lamar County School District reported 10 cases of COVID-19 between students, staff and faculty.

Just TWO days after students returned this month? 79 cases. mississippifreepress.org/14272/as-outbr…
In a letter to parents announcing it was going all-virtual, Oak Grove High said it had “taken every possible precaution including the continual contact tracing of every positive case” to prevent outbreaks.

Those precautions didn't include a mask mandate.mississippifreepress.org/14272/as-outbr…
Read 21 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
31 Jul
NEW: When the University of Mississippi fired historian Garrett Felber in 2020, he said it was about his anti-racist views—a claim UM rejected.

But emails show officials grew concerned after he spoke publicly against UM's ties to a private prison company.
mississippifreepress.org/14250/emails-s…
In December 2019, Dr. Felber spoke to an audience of prison abolitionists about UM's history of slavery and its historic ties to the prison system.

Then, he turned his attention to an instructor on campus: nationally renowned journalist Charles Overby. mississippifreepress.org/14250/emails-s…
Charles Overby was chair of the Freedom Forum, which was over the Newseum in Washington, D.C., from 1989 to 2011.

In 2001, the Freedom Forum donated $5 million to establish a new center on campus: The Overby Center For Southern Journalism and Politics. mississippifreepress.org/14250/emails-s…
Read 18 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
30 Jul
NEW: After a year of applause for his role in changing the old Confederate-themed state flag, Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn vowed before a mostly white crowd yesterday that he will fight to ban "critical race theory" from Mississippi classrooms.
mississippifreepress.org/14237/gunn-ree…
Gov. Tate Reeves told the mostly white Neshoba County Fair crowd that he, too, is “committed to ensuring critical race theory is kept out of Mississippi schools.”

Reeves admitted in June that he was “not aware of any school district" that teaches it. mississippifreepress.org/14237/gunn-ree…
Encyclopedia Britannica defines CRT as a "framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is ... a socially constructed category that is used to oppress and exploit people of color."

It's taught in law schools & upper-level college courses.
mississippifreepress.org/14237/gunn-ree…
Read 8 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
27 Jul
Since Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves left for his trips to Aspen & Orlando over a week ago:

COVID-19 Case Avg ⬆️ 96%
Hospitalizations ⬆️ 89%
ICU & Ventilator Patients ⬆️ 78%
LTC Outbreaks ⬆️ 103%

Delta is flooding MS ICUs. Kids are back in school. Gov. Reeves is still in Orlando.
When I reported last Friday that Gov. Reeves was MIA all week as COVID surged back to January levels, I didn't realize he'd still be in Florida four days later.

He was talking to GOP voters in Florida about "responsibility" on Thursday.
mississippifreepress.org/14010/as-covid…
When Mississippi identified its first COVID-19 cases in March 2020, Gov. Tate Reeves was also away; he was in Spain for his daughter's sport competition.

He returned several days after the MS Department of Health announced our first known COVID-19 cases.
jacksonfreepress.com/news/2020/mar/…
Read 4 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
27 Jul
NEW: President Biden says Congress should honor Bob Moses by passing a new voting rights act "to continue his unfinished work."

Bob Moses worked to register Black voters in Jim Crow Mississippi & was the architect of Freedom Summer 1964. He died Sunday. mississippifreepress.org/14111/continue…
“From the polling stations of Mississippi and in classrooms of our nation, Bob always showed up and never, ever gave in.

“In his memory, let us continue his unfinished work," says @POTUS.

Voting rights bills are stuck in the Senate due to the filibuster. mississippifreepress.org/14111/continue…
"With attacks on the right to vote unseen since the days of the Jim Crow system Bob helped to dismantle, I call on Congress again to pass the For The People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act," says @POTUS.
mississippifreepress.org/14111/continue…
Read 9 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
25 Jul
"I was taught about the denial of the right to vote behind the Iron Curtain in Europe; I never knew that there was denial of the right to vote behind a Cotton Curtain here in the United States."
—Robert Moses, who set out to destroy Mississippi's cotton curtain (1935-2021) Image
From SNCC Digital:

"'The sits-in woke me up,' recalled Harlem, New York-native Bob Moses, discussing how his involvement with southern struggle began. When he first arrived in Mississippi in the summer of 1960, there was no student movement in the state."
snccdigital.org/people/bob-mos…
📸: Robert Moses at the training for Freedom Summer volunteers, 1964. Photo by Steve Schapiro/Zinn Education Project
Read 4 tweets

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