Transcript: Podcast with "Let Them Breathe"

ICYMI: we had a great conversation with Sharon McKeeman, the founder of Let Them Breathe yesterday. Short version: numerous groups in Southern California have been successful in thwarting mask and vax mandates for public school students.

Listen to our discussion with Sharon on the podcast here:

TRANSCRIPT:

Justin:

And I've got a host of things to talk about let me bring on sharon are you there I think you just have to unmute your mic in the lower right hand corner there

Sharon:

And you'll be live with us on rational ground all right I'm here I'm on this platform sorry it took me a minute

Justin:

That's okay it always does for everything it's 2022 but still haven't gotten figured out but callin is one of the best ones that I've had so I like the system

But sharon where do you find yourself today

Sharon:

Well I am at home we had a busy freedom weekend which was fantastic but I'm at home here in san diego county with some of my kiddos and yeah we're excited to

Justin:
Chat with you sharon have we met before it's possible we were at a rally or two that we spoke together

Sharon:
Yes I think it was at a board of supervisors rally in san diego

Justin:

Yeah and then of course the fabulous twitterland well I have to tell you the people of san diego have been so mobilized on these things we have obviously let them breathe

We've got a bunch of projects we've talked to the folks up north kristen at perk taking on the la school districts there we've been able to hit this from a lot of sides

So I'm excited for these next few phases to see what's going on now tell us just a little bit about yourself how did you get involved in here you have kids down this way

Sharon:

What are you doing yeah so first of all as you brought up san diego county has really been mobilized and I would like to say they're very rational

That's what I love about it there's people that are mobilized but not necessarily rational and empathetic and that's what I love about our community

They're all about dialogue and building bridges so I'm a mom of four my husband has been in the military serving his country for 20 years and I have an extensive background in all types of education

So public school teacher I've owned an online school I was involved in homeschooling my kids through charge school for over a decade and we had just put our kids into the public school system

They were needing some extra support and other options with sports and things and I had pretty much the worst first experience with the public school system you could have

We put them in and the schools immediately closed down I didn't even get to step foot on my kids campuses I was of course really at the forefront of opening the schools because we just worked hard to move into a school district for those schools and they were closed

And I knew my kids had a right to an education so I was part of the legal action that opened schools in california and unfortunately as soon as my kids were back in school

It was clear they weren't back to an effective in person education because of the forced masking so I founded let them breathe I at that point was just hoping someone else would join me and dialogue because I was one of the first to start talking and asking questions and saying

Are these cloth mass effective are they necessary are they hurting our children I was called dangerous right from the start now of course it's been validated that the cost mass basically do nothing and that they are harmful to our kids

They do nothing against covet but they're harming our kids in a lot of other ways but my pushback to that was I wasn't being dangerous what was dangerous for our kids was the mental health crisis

They were from the school closures and having their faces covered really I saw that impact on one of my kids specifically and I felt that the safest thing I could do was start speaking up and putting a focus on the kids because they were bearing the brunt of the pandemic

And then that went from there we sued the governor we sued cdph it's been a long journey so just a high level is that we were able to prove that schools did not have to exclude students

That unmasked and we were able to do advocacy and collaboration and legal action finally help bring about the end of the mask mandate

Justin:

We also sued san diego unified and I know we're going to get into that a little bit more but part of this has also been standing up against the vaccine mandates because then that was the next thing of pushing kids back out of the schools that we had just got them into if they refuse to take this very new vaccine right now

We spoke to kristen at perk who has focused on lausd and their efforts there were really sort of jiujitsu moves which was to take the tactic of look if you have kids that are not getting vaccinated

Then by law there has to be independent study expenditures for them and the case they made to the judge and the judge said yeah you're absolutely right

They don't have the resources to do this if you mandate the vaccine then you're going to have a lot of kids who are going to be uneducated the school district did back down then

That was at the end of last year if I recall so tell us where you've been suing a couple of places here and there it's been a sort of a pitcher move by a couple of groups here

Tell us about where your focus was and what this recent win was about

Sharon:

Yeah so we took a little bit different tactic because I have really wanted to focus on kids fundamental right to an education so it's great everybody coming from different angles is super important so all the bases can be covered

But when san diego unified came out and said that they were going to vote to implement a vaccine mandate for covet and if they did they weren't even going to allow personal belief exemptions

Which are still protected under state law for any new vaccines beyond the childhood list we told them ahead of time we said if you're going to do this

We will sue you at their meeting over 1600 parents rallied with us and called in they only listened to I think maybe 50 parents they had senator pan call into the meeting

They didn't listen to any medical on the other side so we immediately sued them and december 20 we won a rit of mandate against their vaccine mandate

And that basically just the judge said that school districts do have the ability to put in place local policies but those local policies shocker can't contradict state law

Which it's crazy at this point that parents have to come together to sue to prove those points but we do unfortunately and so he also said that there couldn't be this patchwork of different vaccination policies throughout the state because that of course

Doesn't lend itself to equal education every child is supposed to have an equal access and right to publicly funded education so we struck down their vaccine mandate and that really applied to san diego unified

But it proved the point that regardless of resource level schools don't have the authority to exclude a student over not getting the covid vaccine or any vaccines that are outside of that childhood list

At this point unfortunately san diego unified decided they'd like to waste taxpayer dollars by appealing that very clear cut ruling but our legal action and our advocacy efforts have been successful in getting them to delay any type of trying to implement it during the appeal

And they just filed with appellate court and said that they're most likely will never be a vaccine mandate so at this point we're just continuing to put that pressure on

They need to just completely drop this appeal because every day they continue they're wasting those resources that should be on educating students and then la unified just yesterday

That the same firm that we work with had sued them quite a while back it was heard quite a while back I don't know why this ruling was sat on for so long

But the judgment was just issued yesterday basically the same thing a rid of mandate against la unified vaccine mandate and so I think it's clear now that there are ritz against the two largest school districts in california

That any school any district that would try to put a vaccine mandate in place or has one in place they're outliers they are outside of the law and the science

They're going to be held legally accountable and they need to just go ahead and drop those mandates now we have litigation against granada hills and new west charter schools who have been excluding unvaccinated students all semester

They wouldn't allow them to attend prom or graduation right that's going to be heard we're trying to get it moved up but that will be heard very close to the start of school in the fall

But grenada new west they just need to realize that they've already been beat right the question has been answered they need to drop this and stop dragging this out and let kids just be focused on starting their school year in person

Not being segregated

Justin:
And it really should be about education and not always politics and look you can see congressman garcia has been great in putting some pressure on granada hills and the high school there that wouldn't allow the senior there to actually walk in his own graduation or otherwise outside

Right and it became very obvious that this was the worst case scenario was that this was intentional and it was intended to harm these students the kindest interpretation I had is that no one wanted to get stuck with a bag of extra men laying around

It was a hot potato issue we saw this again and again during the pandemic when you would go to nathan fletcher the chairman of the county border supervisors here in sandiego or anyone else in the country

And you'd say well why are you doing x y and z there's really no case for it and they said well the state told us to do this and you go to the state

And the state says well it's really up to the county you go back to the county and say well the cdc recommends right so it's just this terrible hot potato and it leaves our kids in lurch

My own experience that I've mentioned here on the show before jenny and I have two kids who were in private school during the pandemic who were in high school there

And this private school we've been extremely pleased with they were the only high school to remain open for the most part with masks and everything else

But in 2021 in the 2020 season or school six school year but then when it came to the 21 that winter of 21 they just caved there was a very turt and cursed letter to the private schools in the county from nathan basically saying

You have to get with the program where we're going to shut you down and they decided to basically just fold and so our kids missed a bunch of school for all the schools that quote remained open

There were hundreds and thousands of students who were quarantined over ten day periods ongoing over the course of that winter and it was just a terrible situation where they tried to contact trace

And we've since left that private school our daughter is going to go to a local high school here that's in a different district that I think actually will do well

We just thought hey why are we paying for this private school and we're going to have the same regulations at the public school at least at a public school

I have a forum where I can get in front of parents and convince them at a private school I had no such forum and I had to convince the directors but they were dead set against it

So we talked about that a little bit in my book real quick so tell us where do things stand now we know that perk for example has been really eyeing and very on top of all of the different bills that were going through the assembly

I think they were successful in knocking down almost every single one of them but there's a couple that are still out there have you been paying attention to that

Sharon:
Yes and we have launched a lot of very effective one click campaigns I'm in the convention on health rights with perk and some other great groups like freedom keepers

And so we meet weekly and we've all been working together sb eight six six the fact that it hasn't even come to that final vote and it's clear that the votes are not there at this point because they're seeing the opposition from parents

That is really a win when it comes to family rights that's the bill that would give minors the ability to consent and so that's another part of this is parents can't just be focused on the legal action

They have to understand that they've also got to be involved with the legislative process because these things go hand in hand if we win against the unlawful actions of the school districts

But then the state steps in and pushes through extreme legislation that's just going to counteract it I just got back from a trip to sacramento with california policy center working with lance christensen and mary barkey

And it was just a great time of not only learning but also meeting with representatives hearing them tell us that what we're doing as parents is working

But we can't give up because it's not going to be an instantaneous thing and a big part of that is parents actually running for school board don't just keep talking at your school board

Be the school board and what I heard from representatives at the state level is when the boards of supervisors the city councils the school boards change

Then the state dynamics will have to follow suit and it will also be a springboard that those parents can start running for higher and higher offices because there's got to be a drastic shift in sacramento before we really get these things under control

But I also just want to mention is what you're talking about with where do things stand now I'm really glad that you brought up private schools because we have seen

First of all that idea of passing the buck and not wanting to get stuck with the stinky hot potato I think there was an aspect of that with masking when it came to the vaccine mandate

What I saw is this unholy alliance between the unions certain school districts and the extreme politicians in sacramento just trying to push through these extreme agendas when it's gotten to a point where it's like there's no science

There's nothing backing this up the state isn't telling them they have to do this but certain boards are just moving forward because it almost feels like a badge of honor that they're the ones moving forward on this extreme agenda

For instance granada and new west they doubled down they could have allowed andrew luna who we are representing and we were negotiating with them and trying to help him be able to walk in graduation

They wouldn't even let him walk in graduation a kid who has a full ride college scholarship that's outdoors they wouldn't let him go to prom or grad night

Which was at disneyland where unvaccinated guests were allowed but they wouldn't let him buy a ticket to go with his school so there's that aspect of doubling down and we're seeing that in private schools as well

There are some private schools that tried to do the right thing and then they caved because of the pressure from insurance to state everything else but there are other private schools like merman and willows in la that are mandating from five and up

They're excluding students and while they're doing it they're taking $40,000 of tuition dollars from the parents and they're giving them about 15 minutes a week of instruction

So these parents are paying $40,000 for far worse instruction than even in la unified city of angels which has been proven to be a disaster but the families

They don't want to leave these communities because they've grown up in them they have these strong connections but they're starting to realize they've got to step out

They've got to start finding some alternative education options it sounds like you found a district that will hopefully be a good home for your kids there's other parents saying they're done

Whether the mandates are there or not there's the gender ideology there's schools not listening to parents and they're stepping out into alternative education options

We have to let them learn initiative that's maybe a conversation for another time but I think that where it stands is three pronged parents have got to continue supporting this legal action because the districts want to bleed us dry

They want to convince us it's not going to work and we've got to continue to hold the line parents have got to get involved in the legislative process

That doesn't mean just send an email it means call your representative's office set up a meeting start building those relationships possibly run for office yourself

And then third

Justin:
Parents need to start getting educated on what their alternative education options are and networking with all the amazing communities and organizations that are out there

Whether their kids are in the public school or the private or they're planning to pull them we've all got to be working together well none of us knew at the start of this thing that our unelected health overlords

The health directors had so much sway over our businesses our churches our kids education and as I have on good authority that even the white house found it incredibly difficult to ouch doctor fauchy

There just wasn't a vehicle to do so and these are some of the national issues we're looking at I think I've spoken to you before but we have launched a super pac on the national level called posterity pack and we're getting people to pledge their support that they will not allow this to happen again and we're going to be going you after a lot of come up and we think that there is a federal recompense accountability that needs to be had

We think that if the winds of change happened in november that we'll be able to have a listening ear in the majority that will take on hearings both in the house and the senate to really tackle what transpired

What went wrong and how do we make sure this never happens again and we're going to go down to the state level and take on some issues there as a super pac course we can raise unlimited funds from corporations and organizations and we can go after

We can't coordinate with candidates but we can go after them in specific ways their opponents otherwise we can't coordinate with them but we can support whoever we want

And so we're excited about that that's just launching up there and I think there's a lot of stuff that's going to be really exciting of course you take for example our good friend amy rykert who is a candidate for the county board of supervisors running against nathan fletcher and she's just a powerhouse who's just going full bore forward

Now I have to ask you because we have the website here we have your website which is let thembreath.com did I get that right net okay great I'm on there right now and it's a terrific website

There is so much good information who built this for you what's going on there I'm an internet strategist myself and I have to say I love what you guys put together here

Well thank you I actually built it myself thank you I have a background in both communications and education myself this is something that I'm going to have to work with them because they've got all the resources that we've got

Some of them but ours are age they got one click campaigns

Sharon:
It's getting even better it's getting even better because we have an action center coming from our new one click platform that's going to be launched on there as well

Justin:
That's exciting and that's what you need on this local level to get organized because we kind of just fly by these county board meetings are usually kind of boring

But when push came to shove and when the white house unfortunately under president trump and particularly under the guidance of vice president pence and with the terrible

Terrible cobwebs task force with dr. birch dr. fauci doctor redfield jerome adams just as I was told by scott atlas these are dumb people and I think that's my kind interpretation

But I think the problem is that they didn't see the other side of the coin they just thought well if we keep people inside and everything else there

Of course the funny ironic thing or it's not so funny but it's ironic that we know that the two main comorbidities that go towards an exacerbated issue with covid 19 are obesity and from several different studies

Lack of vitamin d right and so what was the solution well let's put everyone inside out of the sun eating takeout close the gym eating takeout for two years

And there you go so this is a terrible detriment but it's really going to take because what happened was after they unleashed the two weeks to slow the spread

And that turned into 40 days then they opened pandora's box and 3200 counties with their own health officials all started making their own guidance in conjunction with their state leaders

And then it became this terrible ping pong as to who is actually responsible for making these decisions I remember in our own private school a classical christian school built on issue pillars of logic and reason

Right and the school lunch lady is telling my daughter be sure you sit sort of you straddle your park bench there your picnic bench and that you sit perpendicular to the table because you don't want to sit across from your kids

From your fellow students and I'm like this covet only go in one direction is that what we're thinking now

Sharon:
It makes no sense but at the same time what was happening is our kids were being traumatized and conditioned these are things that are going to live in their hearts and minds for quite some time

So I love what you're doing with the pack because this was abusive and our kids can't ever go through it again this has to be something that happened it was awful

People are held accountable and we heal from it not something that our kids are on this roller coaster

Justin:
Agreed in politics where adults things happen to us I get upset I take action we get a new leadership in there but we deal with that as adults but you took away two years of my kids lives

Now I also have several young children now I've got a ten month old a three year old and a five year old and the five and three year old went to a fantastic preschool up in sandiego here

And this is a privately owned owned by the family but I think they have some connections to the county and of course the county gets to decide a lot of things for preschool kids

And so they came down the state licensing crew and threatened to shut down threatened to actually shut down the school if they didn't mask their kids I had that great moment with my five year old

I'll never forget this I got a recorded posterity safe and how we had finagled some things that the director was incredibly powerful and trying to say

Hey any parents who don't want their kids mask we're going to make sure they don't have to and so we didn't have our kids masks the state licensed crew made a surprise visit

Go around back the kids are outside my kids are one of the few kids that are masked and they ask her they say little girl why aren't you wearing a mask

Well my dad designed a piece of paper so I don't have to also he doesn't believe in buying and I was so proud as his father I don't think it did the administrators any good

Because they were but yeah they've been working with spending incredible legal resources to try to get they got two a infringements on them which they've never had

The equivalent they had was like 20 years ago when a bookcase mistakenly fell in a kid's hand and he was fine but they got an a infringement and had to take that off eventually

But they got two an infringement for not masking kids and of course we all know now and it's perfectly attested by studies that they do no good and of course

As my preschool teacher would tell us try teaching your kids how to pronounce the letter h through a mask

Sharon:
Right exactly and these are all the reasons why we've launched our let them learn initiative because we have a learning center that we are opening in carlsbad because there's so many families for different reasons that need other options

And we're going to help support that and then also help support parents in learning there may be apparent that they've come across your podcast for the first time

And you just open their eyes right and there's so much more learning that needs to go

Sharon:
Yeah I can go ahead okay good my little green bar left anyway it's awful what has happened to our kids but the silver lining is that some of our kids have learned how to stand up for themselves

They've learned a whole lot more about freedom and what their country stands for it sounds like your kids have and there are these health officials that are not elective

And they cannot have so much power over us and then at the same time I'm running for school board in carlsbad scott davison is running for school board in carlsbad

We've got jim bellas running in vista there's a whole list of parents that are stepping up to run for school board amy as you said is running for county board of supervisors

And I think that will help keep in check some of these officials just need to move on they need to do something different with their lives but in the meantime

At least having elected officials that want to do what's right for the kids and hold that as their utmost priority we bring those parents in and those grandparents in that they want to do the right thing

As elected officials

Justin:
I think we'll start seeing a shift like you said in the fall now one of the things I love about you and your group is that you've kept a positive attitude

You try to engage on a rational level you try to bring these things home in specific ways that are going to help people I think there are times when myself and my crew become a little more caustic

After two years of this thing we're just like I'm not even going to tiptoe on this thing I'm going to grind these eggshells right into the carpet right

What's sort of your attitude or how do you sort of teach people how to best engage obviously lots of us have had neighbors friends co workers colleagues

Fellow parents and then family members that have disowned us or minimize us or put us aside because they fear that we're not taking this seriously enough or something along those lines

But tell us what are your thoughts there

Sharon:
Well we've led like you said with positivity our logo is a smiley face because people can argue over data and numbers but it's really hard to argue with the fact that a kid should be allowed to breathe freely and to smile the same thing when it comes to the vaccine mandates

We're not pro or antivaxx we're just for choice and while our country is raging about who should be able to make what choices obviously family units should be able to make choices for their young kids in a vaccine that doesn't have long term studies

And so anytime I'm engaging with the media and they try to bring up this or they try to bring up that just stick with the common ground the rational ground

I love the name of your show because what we can all agree is that our kids are at very low risk that these vaccines don't have long term studies so let's talk about the things that we can agree on

And I think also one thing that we've done is help parents understand what is their best strategy and what is their best route in each situation so sometimes communities or families will reach out to me and I'll say

You know what don't argue this anymore it's time for legal action let's go let's raise the support let's go this is clear cut we've had our legal team assess it

There are other times where people will bring all of these different things and it's like you know what our legal team has looked at that it's not going to be the most effective thing to pour a bunch of resources into legal action here

This is a time for advocacy this is a time for raising awareness in the media this is a time for contacting your representative and so I think figuring out what is the correct avenue that will have the largest impact and then being firm

Being loving and being positive does not mean you just oh well I guess I'll wear a mask because my neighbor wants me to

Justin:
I really hate the amount of churches that had that argument right

Sharon:
Yeah

Justin:
But being loving and being firm and being positive you can build bridges while saying I'm going to stand on my individual rights and liberties because that's what this country was founded on

And that's the country I hope to give to my grandchildren right look there are a lot of arguments out there that you have to be ready for in certain ways

And you can answer them in specific very articulate ways like one of the ones that's always raised to people for example is that well I don't understand why this is such an issue

Our kids already get so many vaccines into their bodies and they're required for schools and everything else there what's your typical reply for that

Sharon:
That really comes down to the long term study the fact that our kids are at very very low risk from this virus and there have not been any long term studies on the efficacy and the safety

And while a lot of parents were saying they weren't saying they wouldn't ever get it they're saying they want to wait and see and guess what waiting and seeing has produced

It has produced the fact that the efficacy is far lower than what they promised us and that there are significant safety concerns and then I also just bring it back to the social aspect of

For instance the students that were representing at granada hills and new west they were segregated they were put in a corner of the parking lot and kids were staring at them and making fun of them just because they wanted to walk into their school and get an education

Stat get an education but they were segregated based on their vaccination and status and this group was primarily girls and so in the 21st century we've got women being denied their education because they're saying

Hey I want to make a choice with my body I want to wait and see how this plays out scientifically so I think it's both

Justin:
It's look at what we're doing socially to these kids and then also let's talk about the real science that we actually know for a fact not whatever the fauchy science may be at the moment

Yeah and I think the other thing to impress upon people is that when it comes to these other vaccines when you go through the list of things that are mandated for schools

There's not a single vaccine that hasn't been on that list approved and in the public space for less than a decade right these are vaccines that have been out there for a very long time before they've ever been put into mandate status

And of course the one thankful thing about cobbt is it largely spares our children so much so that the recent study that we uncovered that was done over 16 different countries and did a full assessment as to what were the risks for serious disease of a child versus an 80 year old

Which is the average age of death of someone who succumbs to covid-19 and for serious illness it was 1000 times lower than someone who was 80 years old

For hospitalization it was 10,000 times that his child is 10,000 times less likely to be hospitalized with covid than his great grandparents or grandparent up there

And on top of that when you get down to actual death 100,000 times lower it was something like there were seven deaths out of a million infections for children

Which is extraordinarily low and even then when you go down to the actual deaths you find that there are major comorbidities associated with that and so the burden that we put on our children did not match the actual risk to their beings

In fact all the way up to we always said if you're under the age of 65 your risk of succumbing to covid is about the same risk that you face on a 15 miles commute to work every day

It's really null and void it's almost immeasurable if you're under the age of 50 so these are things that people don't know about and they really need to get educated on them

And of course the impact that this has when you egregiously overestimate the actual risks to people is that when they come to find the truth and the next one comes around and let's say it turns out to be something like a 1918 pandemic where the average age of death is 29 years old

That's a serious implication right and people will say I'm just cry wolf because why would I believe you again so much trust is lost on our institutions and I think it needs real input from the citizens to clear house and to get new people in there and start rebuilding those things

Sharon:
Absolutely and it's so important getting that information out there with the real data and I think something else that people don't realize especially if they've lived in californiafor long enough

Even those of us in california that were like we're for common sense and freedom if we've lived here long enough there's people that don't realize that there's only a handful of states throughout the country that don't allow personal belief exemptions

Even for the childhood list so like what you brought up that childhood list those are vaccines that have been around for far longer have had more testing

Specifically some of them there's more risk to youth from those diseases but there are people that have all different viewpoints even on that childhood list as well

Right especially now that they are saying oh what is the influence of big pharma and our legislation but I think it's just interesting people kind of lose track of that fact in california of just how much of an outlier we are with the rest of the country

That there are school districts like san diego unified that we beat in court that their goal is to not even allow students to have a personal belief exemption for the covid vaccine

Whereas the rest of the country you're allowed to have that personal belief exemption even for the childhood list and so it's just that understanding of what are the numbers actually

How extreme is california gotten and as we always say so goes california so goes the rest of the country so there's obviously people leaving the state

And there's other people saying why would I leave my home why would I leave this incredible state and move to another state and give up the fight just knowing it's going to find me there eventually

Justin:
Wow we had that terrible sort of set of circumstances I think it really came down to our leaders like nathan fletcher like wilma wooten who is one of the health directors there

They couldn't save face to backtrack on these things so they just kept going down there whether it was wilmot saying that you should just assume that everyone around you has covet

Those sort of implications really have an impact I just turned 50 years old and I was tweeting out that because I have a family history of colon cancer

I'm dutifully signing up to get my colonoscopy and everything else there I'm excited about that right but I couldn't I called the place they said oh yeah

We're booked up in fact I was put me down for the earliest date well that's at the end of the year might put me on there well that's actually a waiting list

I'm like oh my gosh so they made some recommendations on how you do this but we all know from the spring 2020 because of the fear that people had of actually going to hospitals or getting in the way and being part of a hump that might not flatten the curve

They totally waylayed any sort of procedures that they needed and so 50% of cancers went undiagnosed in april and may and in some cases in particular cancer

78% of cancers and that is to say compared to the previous year april 2019 they saw half as many cancers diagnosed and that's not because covet cured cancers

Because decided they weren't going to get them or doctors decided they couldn't be open for that so these implications are massive the flip side of the coin is going to come due

Most of the people I talk to very few of them several of them do know someone who died of covid I personally don't know anyone who died of covid I know a lot of people got sick from cobid

I know two people who got hospitalized with covid and made it out fine but I know numerous people three of them particularly who died of cancer in the last two years that was completely out of the left field

Now that's just anecdotal but there is a lot of evidence bursting up on the scenes showing that the impact of lockdowns especially towards our kids when we talk about their grade level routine you just look at for example

Florida just came out with its assessment test and for the first time and counters like any other state minority groups hispanics blacks performed better than the last year

Whereas here in california devastated especially inner city la and I think they had a situation where like a third of the students never even showed up for virtual class learning and haven't showed up since

It's like these were phantom students or they just decided to skip all together on life

Sharon:
And there are certain kids that they have been fighting so hard to be able to be in person and they've been denied it and then there's other kids that they've just checked out

Right like we're supposed to be helping to support kids stay engaged with education and the other thing that I've seen is you're bringing up obviously there are not just cancer cases that are not being diagnosed

There's mental illness that is not being supported it's very difficult when everything was online that's not a good way to support someone who is struggling with their mental health

And then that obviously was put into much more crisis as everything was shut down as you couldn't see people's smiles and there was this pervading fear

But the other thing that I've also seen is that our youth has really been affected by fear there are some that are literally scared to take the mask off

They're starting to exhibit kind of obsessive compulsive where they're feeling like they've got to constantly wash their hands they can't come near another human being because these things have been ingrained in them during a very developmental point in their life

But also the fear that kids are dealing with is the fear of bullying and so for instance with sbh 66 if that were to pass that would give 15 and up the ability to consent to a vaccine

Even though that aged children can't vote they can't say no we don't like this type of legislation being passed I just spoke to a kiddo up in sacramento that pointed that out to me

But what we're seeing is these very coercive environments where not only is the school coercing the students but it's just become this new thing where my kid had a medical exemption and he was bullied because he looked different than everyone because you could see his smile

And then we're also seeing it just becoming the new thing right whether it's political or it's just hey this is what we do we go to the vaccination truck in the parking lot and we get our vaccine

And if you don't do it then you're not in the click you know how there's some of those things that they don't make sense but there's these social pressures

There's a lot of kids just starting to be afraid not even of the virus but of well if I don't wear the mask or I don't get the vaccine am I going to be harassed by staff at school

Am I going to be left out by other kids and ultimately we've talked a lot in the show so far about a lot of the people that should be held accountable

And there's so much union influence and that's I think what we haven't touched on is that the kids are being used as bargaining chips and there's a lot of union influence here

And then what we're seeing play out in our kids'lives we're not going to see the full impact for a decade or several decades of what's been done to them

And when you think about going back it's been proven we know at this point that schools were kept shut longer than they needed to be the politics with taking the masks off oftentimes came down to union negotiations

And that is just absolutely deplorable especially when you know cta are they the largest or one of the largest donors to newsome

Justin:
Yeah look this is a difficult proposition especially when you have the pressure now the good thing is again we're in an election cycle I have a feeling that last year at the same time

We would have all been massed up again had there not been a recall election for governor newsom that at least gave us some breathing room literally there

But it is difficult especially when the mindset is like this here's wilma booton this is back in august 2020 and this was her advice for people some reporter asked a question here

Listen in here the virus is widespread so people should not get false complacency assume that the virus is widespread and practice all of those strategies that I share with you every day

That's what people have to do assume that everyone has covid 19 assume that everyone has covid 19 and of course we just become this sort of agoraphobic society

And you called it outright that the different age groups have different pressures I know for my teenager she's very much like they basically are rallying behind

Hey I don't want to wear masks in school anymore my preschoolers like yeah I don't want to wear masks anymore my college bound kids they have different pressures

And they come home and mask they go out there and masks and they don't really want to it's a far cry from my parents in the some of them maybe not my parents

My parents are pretty straight laced but a lot of our parents in the 60s who are the boomers who basically gave it to the man but here they just compliance

And I think it really has to go with the rewards for going against the grain are not there right and the rewards for staying in the lane are very powerful because if you go out

You're canceled right imagine the social media type of pressure and we all experienced right I tried to do my best to get myself out of masks as much as possible when going into the mall

Retail stores until someone said I had to put them on sometimes I'd fight them whatever else but there were times when I was just exhausted and I knew that there was that one worker at vaughan or grocery store that was going to give me some beef about it

And so I'm just going to put it on I don't care but it's that sort of thing that's really difficult in our social pressures there hey if anyone wants to ask a question here of sharon

Pop up and ask yourself to be a caller I'll let you onto the queue here we got a few more minutes left but where do we go from here sharon what are your thoughts on what we need to do next

Sharon:
Well it's just so essential to carry this legal action across to the finish line and so we're so thankful for everyone's support people can donate via our website

And we have to persist so that we can prevail even against san diego unified's appeal and bring this to the finish line for the granada hills and new west students

We're also involved in just continuing to advocate we've sent legal correspondence to merman and willow's private schools because it's right here this hub

I feel of kind of this extreme push and it's being shut down la unified san diego unified we're going to try to mandate this vaccine for students and exclude and segregate them

And it has been shut down it has been proven that the law is on our side and so we have just got to continue to persist because we're on the right side of history

And then going along with that is getting involved in the legislative process like I said you can go to our instagram and let them breathe or our website

Let them breathe net and get involved in our one click campaigns we're launching an entire action center where it's just going to give you even more resources

Everyone should know who their representatives are they should meet with their representatives make a trip to second process one thing I learned is phone callin and tweets are far more effective than emails

Send the email but also make a phone call and tweet at your representatives so that everyone can see publicly what you think of legislation and then finally

Parents have got to be involved in their kids'education whether they pull them out of the public school and they're involved with some type of home school or private academy or whether they're in the public school

Parents I think have realized they can't just send them off to school and give them milk and cookies when they come home whether it's what's happened with the pandemic or what's going on with other pressures

It's really important that parents are involved so that like you said our kids need to understand what is at stake and I think that some of I'm hearing this a lot

What you just mentioned about your kids who are in college that the older kids are and the more they've gone through the public school system the more they've accepted the narrative and they don't understand what's at stake

And literally we could lose our freedom in this country in less than a generation if our children think that anyone has the right to tell them they have to cover their face or that

Then anyone has the right to say take this experimental vaccine or you lose your job your education and so they've got to understand what is at stake

And I think this is a great time to have this conversation right after the 4 july because there were very young people that founded this country that fought for this country

And we want to see this country continue to flourish and the next generation enjoy even more freedom than we've currently gone through over the past couple of years

Justin:
Well sharon that's great tell us again the website so we can get in touch with you

Sharon:
Yes let them breathe net and then we'll also let them breathe on instagram with an underscore after each word and we'll let them breathe on twitter so we'd love to connect with everyone

We really appreciate everyone's support and everything you're doing it's been a great conversation

Justin:
I appreciate it sharon what an incredible forte here we have 20 plus people listening in and this will go live to several hundred more but we're just excited to have you here

Thanks for being so prolific too I mean you put up so much information I know that this has been a long two years there have been times where I'm like

Okay I think I'm giving it up and then they go write a book on this I'm like oh my gosh that was the hardest thing ever done but look there are hard things that we need to get through

But it's going to be worth it in the end I know there's a good center a sort of 50% to 60% of the population who during the pandemic they weren't necessarily on our side

They weren't on team apocalypse but they were just like I don't want to get in the fight I justin keep my heads down and I think what they're realizing now is that may not be an option

They need to get into the fight and to make things happen that way

Sharon:
And if people are a big way to push back is to get together in person so watch what we're doing at the learning center in carlsbad don't just stay on zoom

Get together in person get your kids to in person activities come and meet and that's the silver lining

Justin:
Is the communities that are being built out of this awesome well guys on posteritypack.org we got the pledge all set there we have the donation page up and running there as well

We're going to be doing while sharon and crew are really getting down in the trenches in the deep hot 71 degree trenches of san diego it's so beautiful all the time

But as they're taking the bullets on the local level we work on the national level and then helping them where we can but sharing aaron thanks again

It's great to connect with you again and we will talk to you soon thank you so much thanks folks we'll play you out all right that was loud all right