Are you familiar with the term ‘jump the shark?” It refers to the moment when you know a program, band, actor, politician, or other public figure has taken a turn for the worse, gone downhill, become irreversibly bad, is unredeemable, etc. It originated with the show Happy Days and refers to the episode where Fonzi went water skiing and jumped a shark. It was the point the show was beyond redemption and quality deteriorated.
This week, antivaxers jumped the shark over the story of David and Louise Turbin, the California parents who had been torturing and neglecting their 13 children for years. California Assemblyman Jose Medina and Senator Dr Richard Pan have both discussed online and in news interviews how there should be oversight of homeschooling to make sure this kind of thing does not happen. Right now, in all states in USA, you can homeschool your children without any oversight by any authorities. Most homeschools are wonderful, but this does present an easy means for child abusers to hide their children away. Assemblyman Medina, who represents the area where the children lived, made the following statement:
“I was very disturbed to learn about the horrific violence that has taken place in our community, and am thankful that these children are now in safety. I am extremely concerned about the lack of oversight the State of California currently has in monitoring private and home schools. I have been in conversation with the Riverside County Office of Education, which agrees that we need to do more to protect our students and validate that they are in safe learning environments. I am looking into introducing a bill this year that would provide a legislative solution and prevent a situation like this from occurring in the future.”
State senator, Dr Richard Pan, has also been concerned.
“This tragic situation is the result of the fact that there’s no requirement for anyone to take a look at the kids,” said State Senator Richard Pan, D-Sacramento.
“It’s certainly not emblematic of homeschooling, but it does underscore the tremendous lack of oversight,” Pan said.
All this has led antivaxers to believe that Dr Pan is coming for their homeschools in order to vaccinate all children in California. In my opinion, they have jumped the shark. They have swarmed to Dr Pan’s facebook page and Assemblyman Medina’s facebook page, posting endless comments about how they know “big pharma’ has paid Dr Pan to force vaccinate all kids and the idea of mandating oversight for homeschool programs is really about the government controlling them. It’s been very rare to see anyone express empathy for the Turbin children or provide a solution to preventing children from being hidden away.
Some examples:
Here’s a rare supportive message:
Over on leviquackenboss blog, Ms Charron has added her two cents, convinced this might even be a fabricated story! You may remember Levi as the one who harassed then 12 year old Marco Arturo.
“This is starting to look like serendipitous timing for Pan. Just what if… any part of this story is fabricated or exaggerated so that California gets out some kind of “children’s safety” bill to start regulating homeschoolers, and once that’s done, they’ll no longer be exempt from vaccines?
I don’t think the press coverage is about monitoring California homeschools. I think this is about destroying them, making all children subject to SB277.”
A comment from her blog:
I think it is pretty easy to see that antivaxers seem very concerned about themselves and the possibility that they will lose some perceived freedoms more than they are concerned about protecting vulnerable people. I find that incredible. We have a great many laws which limit our freedoms in the name of protecting others. Americans used to have the right to own their children like property and put them to work, deny them an education, even sell them into indentured servitude. Laws have taken away all those rights because children are humans and deserve protecting. As a homeschooling mom myself, I would not mind one bit if I had to bring my kids somewhere to report in once a month. I have nothing to hide.
And do you see how they’ve gone off the deep end thinking this is all about vaccines? They cannot fathom Dr Pan might be concerned about children’s well-being. I find it troubling that they are so deeply paranoid.
As for Levi (aka Robyn Charron), I did not provide a link to her blog because I have recently discovered she edits comments. Her identity is pretty well known, in vaccine circles, so I mentioned to her that she could talk to her state representatives in Colorado. She edited out the state name. When I called her on it, she posted this:
The paranoia runs deep in this crowd. Check out this video! Someone from “truthertalk” thinks homeschoolers are being attacked and the state doesn’t care about children at all. This story about the Turbin’s is fake and it is all about “big pharma” coming to getcha!
Remember to think for yourself!
Kathy
More on “jump the shark”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=jump%20the%20shark
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