FDA Cracking down on Vapes

Disclaimer: Starting off this blog post by stating that I am a huge fan of vaping. I do it myself. However, this is not a blog about whether people should be vaping or if it is dangerous. This is all about adult choice.

The FDA is looking into banning vape flavors other than (tobacco and menthol). Why? Because of the supposed epidemic on teen vaping. Here is the issue banning these flavors may stop teens from vaping all together but taking choices away for adults is not the answer. 

The FDA previously said that they are going to do a trial on taking to option away from convenience stores from selling vapes. They believe that adult only vape stores do a much better job of IDing those wanting to purchase vape products. This is all well and good, don’t take the choices away from adults but move their options to another location.

Here is the bad thing about their logic.

Sales Associate: Hi how are you today?

Customer: I am doing great and you

Sales Associate: I am doing great thank you may I see your ID

Customer: *pulls out their ID and hands it to the sales rep*

Sales Associate: *checks the ID making sure the customer is over the legal age and sells them what they came in for*

Customer: *goes out to their car and hands it to the person in the passenger seat*

Wait did that just happen? Did a minor just get vape products with out even going into the store? The logic behind banning adults from buying the things they should have the right to chose to buy because minors are illegally getting them would be like doing the same thing with alcohol.

How many of us drank under the legal age in your country? I know I did. Never once did I go into a store and buy it. I had cousins, friends, and even my mom buying alcohol for me when I was under the legal age for drinking in my country (21).

My whole point here is I don’t agree with taking the choices and rights away from adults just because teens are illegally getting ahold of vapor products. Make harsher punishments for those who get vapes for the minor or punish the teen and their parents for vaping.

Bump stock ban what is next?

I want to start off this post by saying “I am not against the banning nor for the keeping of bump stocks”

This blog post is not about whether I think they should be banned or not. This blog post is about the tactics they are using to ban  a legally obtained item. Most of us have heard about pleading the 5^th in court. 

 

 The Fifth Amendment says.

"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

I would like us to pay attention to the last line about private property. “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation”. This is a big part of the constitution, our property that we legally gained can not be forcefully taken from us with out compensation. Now that’s not to say that they can’t make things illegal for the greater good. Like I said I am not giving my opinion on whether they should be banned or not.

Who is to say they will not do the same with other products we have legally obtained? Think about the vape market right now. The FDA is desperately trying to get Vapes out of the hands of minors. What is stopping our government from forcing American citizens to turn over or destroy all vapor related products? Violent video games are another hot topic with the government. Some think that it is promoting violence and not showing what death really is. If you kill someone on a game, they almost always come back. Some children are unable to separate reality from fiction. Just as easily the government could ban violent video games. 

It doesn’t matter what side of the fence you stand on, we should all be scared and outraged that our government is forcing citizens to dispose of legally obtained items with no composition.

 

My Short Employment at The Goddard School

             I would like to start off that this is just my experience, not everyone will have the same experience. I have an Associate degree in Early Childhood Education, I have worked in childcare for 10+ years. I feel that its finally time to get my story our there after working here over 5 years ago.

            

             When I went in for the interview I was told I would be working in a classroom with the age group of 36-42 months. I was excited, normally these children are out of diapers or potty training and have a good enough grasp on how school goes, they are also an age group were planning lessons was simple and fun. The first day of working there they just threw me into a classroom. They had no idea when I arrived at 9am. where I would be aiding for the day. So, they put me in a classroom of about 6 children (state standard for 1 teacher for this age group) and the age group was 15-24 months. I was alright with the change, it was not what I had expected but I could make it work. I was in there about for about 2 minutes when they brought in 3 more children from another classroom, so the other classroom could make ratio (moving children from classroom to classroom to meet ratio is against DRCC regulations). The lead teacher was very nice she hardly ever had a negative word to say.

                Two days later I came in and found out they were going to put me with even younger children, 9-14 months. I was not happy at all by this change. The children were always crying, and they were unable to comprehend most of what was said to them. By my noon break I was very upset. This was not what I had agreed upon when I accepted this job. I went to my friend’s house on my break and cried because I was so upset over the change. He suggested I talk to the director and let her know that I was unhappy, and I would like to be placed in an older age group. So as soon as I got back from break I went into her office and talked with her about being put with older children. She said that she would see what she could do but for the duration I was stuck where I was.

                The next day I came in and she made a valiant attempt to put me in an older age group. The group she put me with were the 24-36-month group. Some were still potty training and a couple others had big kid panties on. I was so happy with this group. I automatically told them that I loved this group and would love to keep working with them.

                Throughout the next week and half I was bounced from several different rooms, including the two rooms I hated, the infant room and the 9-14-month room. While I was in the 24-36month room I did observe some peculiar and appalling things. The lead teacher would yell at children who went potty in their diapers, or big kid panties. She yelled at one little boy and began to cry and then she proceeded to tell him his daddy would be very mad at him and that he had to tell his father what he did when he came to pick him up. She also yelled at this sweet little girl and told the child that her mommy would not be happy to hear about her going potty in her panties.

                For a school that does not believe in does not believe in discipline (time out) and only wants the teachers to use redirection, I saw several children sitting in time out. Also, if a parent was coming in they would quickly have the child sitting in time out go play or stick a book in front of them to make it look as if the child was supposed to be reading. Also, we were never supposed to force the children to participate in an activity they didn’t want to. However, many of the teachers forced the children to sit in for their circle time, also would make the children play at centers that they didn’t want to be playing in. I would like to make it clear that I realize that children do need to be forced to do things they do not want to do. It is a part of life you must do things you do not want, however when a school has a policy they need to make sure their teachers are following the policy.

This school only seems to care about making state ratio. They shuffle children around from class to class to make sure they are always on ratio. Even if that means moving a child up into a class they are not supposed to be in. Towards the end of the day there was a lot of child shuffling going on, so they could let teachers go home. I was scheduled 9am to 6pm every day. I left anywhere between 4:30-5:30 every day.

                We were having a very bad winter this year and the road were very bad. I lived in a rural area where the roads were not touched by snow plows, so if it snowed and iced overnight it was very dangerous for me to leave my home especially living on a hill. I called that morning and told them I would be coming in, but it would be around noon. The assistant director was so nice and said that would be just fine. Later I texted the main director and told her I would be coming in and she responded saying there were not many children there, so they didn’t need me to come in and to come in at 9am the next day. I was alright with that the roads were still bad, so I didn’t want to chance wrecking my car for $8 an hr.

                The next day I came in to find out that the girl in the 4-year-old class was a no call no show and I would be taking her place. I was excited by this because I really wanted to work with the older group. After 2 days of working with her I came in on Friday and expected to continue working with her. She told me that she was at ratio and didn’t need the help and to go ask the director if I would be needed somewhere else. There was a parent/relative job show going on in the Pre-K room, so they didn’t really need me to do anything.

The director asked me to clean out the refrigerator since it hadn’t been done in a while. Then once that was done she had me clean the foyer. Finally, the owner of the school and the director pulled me into a room and told me they were letting me go, because they wanted to hire me for the 9-14-month group and I didn’t wish to work with them. I told her that when I went in for the interview she told me different. She made no attempt to answer on why she did that.