g you up to speed on where we're at and what the next steps are especially related to separation um so over the last year um kind of our primary focus in the finance department has been obviously getting through the audit building the FY 24 budget um but also focusing on how do we um set up our duties day to day through the separation process um get everyone cross-trained and trained on new duties that they'll be assigned so part of that work has been um um you know the physical separation of different software programs that we use um physically moving all of our the finance team over here to two wing and so we are all located in this building with the rest of the city staff which is awesome um and uh being able to fill our third approved finance position early um so we have uh Shannon started in December um and she basically she she also came from Milton um they're gonna really hate us i'm shunned in my own town no no they're fine they're fine uh but having someone who comes with a lot of experience and specifically experience with the vision that i saw for this team moving forward as a city um so it's been awesome to kind of like pull all those pieces together and have the support of not just you know the the council and the staff and Regina um but the the community as well um it's been fantastic so we are um kind of nailing down the day to day we've adjusted and and revamped redone and in one case um Cindy's job description is completely new um so divided up the duties so that internal controls are being met we've got segregation of duties um and cross training with other departments on certain duties too so we have backup we've got coverage in case someone gets hit by that bus um so uh to this point we have so numeric is the system on which all of the finance and clerk world and assessors function within the city um so as of july 1st when we officially became the city of s extension there were some things that we had to separate out immediately um marriage licenses dog licenses land records things like that so it's mostly clerk's office um functions but i susan and i worked very closely to you know she worked on kind of the the day to day how do we physically get this separated and i worked on the back end and then right to figure out how do we get it separated here and get the city entities kind of up and running um so we've done that so far right now um i'm working on getting all of the ap processing we use another of a standalone system for ap approvals for invoice approvals for payment and then that links back into numeric as well so i'm working on getting that set up and separated hopefully in the next month um our bank accounts have been established um and actually hopefully we'll be able to start using that with our pay our first payroll next week we'll come out of that account so dan and i have been working very closely we have uh regular check-ins where we kind of just sort of run through um the separation stuff but also we're still working as a team the town and the city staff are very much still interconnected and working together every day and i will admit i was nervous when Courtney left because i we worked really well together and we had we had really good momentum built up headed into the separation process but dan has been awesome to work with so um he's kind of like let me keep keep the charge on the separation side and um there are tasks that he's sort of taken the lead on so that i can put my focus on that project yeah um so i mean the memo has a list of a lot of details um that we're working on but i think like i mentioned in the budget presentation um continuing work on that capital planning and getting the committee back together and and really putting our heads to developing that plan further um and uh we're doing things like working with the state right now um on separating our grand list and the tax billing and uh the state is also implementing a new completely new software program that's being designed and developed specifically for the state of Vermont which will be used for grand list it's going surprisingly well um and again there's been really good coordination i have contacts at the state at ppr for all of these different pieces that we're working on um and the team that we've pulled together is uh state town and city staff um numeric representatives in this axiomatic the new vendor that the state is using um they've all been awesome about coming together as a team and working on s6 and s extension specifically so we are actually going to be doing in the next three to four weeks we're going to be doing a test run of our task billing process um to make sure that we're going to go for july and august so there's there's a lot of like detail work happening but it's really big um have really big implications across the board so um ultimately you know i when i came in here uh when i interviewed i was told you've got three years to figure this out like no rush um yeah not that but i well and i came in like ain't no way of waiting three years like rip the band-aid off um and so to come in and have the support like i said from from rad who was kind of leading the charge was my direct supervisor when i started and then with when regina came on from you guys from all of you supporting like when i said i want to hire someone before july you guys made it happen you approved it and so just thanks and appreciation for being in a in a world that um has allowed me to come in and just run with it it's been awesome thank you and especially in the sense of when we were talking about separation in the back of my mind my biggest concern is from a policy stance it's yes this is what we need to do for our community and once this is implemented though that i don't envy just that role i can only imagine how difficult this is going to be the amount of things that you we roll your staff are going to have to deal with um this my assumption had been that the finance department was going to be the most significantly impacted and um hopefully uh we would be able to find the right person to fit and you are we did so thankful that you're here that you've done what you've been able to do and get us to where we are in the the time period that you have which is beyond what i thought would have been possible no regina and i have check-ins and i'm like i feel like i got nothing done this week and then i look at this and i'm like oh sorry i did you've literally undone however many years of of consolidation co-locations whatever have you um in so much less time than what it took to put it together and yeah these two tried to make it really hard yeah so yeah nothing but significant appreciation um i also love uh it's interesting to see like implementing bi-week payroll and some of those things i also appreciate the thoughts that you've had around ways that we could improve the system of finance and ways that we could make that work better um make that be more efficient always appreciate that so yeah and i will say that sarah's still very much on the line i've got her cell phone so nice i emailed her this morning actually i was like okay i need you um and she's been kind of just a good i mean even when i was in melton and she was in essics we were constantly in contact with each other bouncing ideas off of each other um so it's awesome that like i still have that resource and she still loves essics and essics function so she connected um but i was asking her like okay this whole cash separation thing like helped me figure this out um because it's just a it's a timing issue right like you've got to kind of freeze frame everything and figure out okay this is the money today that needs to come over to the city but we know that finishing out the rest of the year we're going to have tax payments coming in that we're going to have to divvy up and so working through that process it's i'm a nerd so it's super fun for me um and um it's great to have other people that are just as excited about these things that we have roge amber george hi bradina just really quick i'm just grateful to hear how how wonderfully it's working with the town um that's really nice to hear so thanks to them yeah and and i will say on another piece i all the all your communications are great you know sometimes uh that can be an issue sometimes you're thinking of something we're just not but your communications the email and things we're getting here are fantastic you're doing a really good job with that nice and clear no gobbledygook none well it could be but it looks like it looks like truth to me so thank you just yeah and so now we have the discussion consideration of a dog ordinance amendment in our rules of procedure for dog bite hearings yes um so we have um talked about this last on january 25th and so you've got um a memo in your packet that just describes the different pieces that we've been talking about so what you've got in your packet is both the rules of procedure so this is a document that claudian worked on based on vlct's model right um rules of procedure um so we can if it's helpful we can kind of start um by going through this um regina would you mind putting that on the screen yes thank you ambro be with us in spirit okay and if we just toggle okay um so essentially this is just a helpful two page policy document so when we get these requests we can figure out what how we want to uh work them through the system so um as you folks uh talked about already it would be helpful if we hold these at a special meeting as opposed to a regular business meeting because there's can be very lengthy um then it describes essentially how the um council runs through the process open the hearing who gets to speak in what order how you have folks respond to those um questions um and so most of this is fairly straightforward in terms of process it also describes at the end that the deliberations so this is a choice this says that the deliberations are in private it's a choice that you can make you can have these in a public session or a private session um uh and also it uh explained earlier in this as well um you can like any other you know these sort of run like more trial kinds of cases much like the drb runs you can continue if you don't have enough information you can um make a decision you can close it and make a decision that night um so hopefully this helps kind of just in terms of not the policy of what you're doing but just the procedures of um how you would run these hearings um can i jump in yeah um and i don't if you don't mind and i don't maybe this isn't the right place and i should wait should wait until you finish everything but it looks like to me this might be the right place and and i had asked the question before and i it's not that big a deal but it might be helpful when we in terms of evidence and as i i said you know and and amber is here and she can probably speak more to this but you know a criminal court where someone's life is at stake you know there's levels of doubt and uh uh levels of evidence and in in like a high level criminal case you need proof beyond reasonable doubt um that's not where we're going for you have another level of evidence which is clear and convincing evidence and you have a a lower level which is the preponderance of evidence and that's like for administrative decisions and i i think that's where we are and the reason i say it it's very relevant to the to the case that we had already which is unless someone can absolutely uh categorically say yes that dog bit me and you have another person who saw it and said yes that dog bit that person um but what's generally going to happen with these things is there's going to be chaos and there's going to be maybe one dog going after another and someone is going to get bitten and we have to make a decision and we don't have an absolutely clear uh piece of evidence that that that absolutely proves that one dog bit somebody and so it would be good and i think in that case as i understand it we could use administrative evidence we can say the preponderance of evidence that the general thrust of the thing seems that that that that dog bit this person and we don't actually need someone to say yes i actually saw the teeth enter the flesh right but did did she talk about that at all or do you think that would be helpful to have that i maybe i'm no maybe i'm getting a little too crazy here but i i think that was that really did hang us up yeah i don't think it's too crazy to ask that question of claudine if she unless you have that yeah she i apologize because she did answer these questions and i didn't incorporate some of them okay i think this is probably a good one okay incorporate so in her opinion she thinks preponderance of evidence is the one that we would preponderance of evidence okay um okay all right okay in this case so we can uh we can divine that and incorporate it okay amber you want to weigh in on that i was just thinking you must watch a lot of tv or something i don't know i i probably do i probably no i i mean i think i think it's a valid point um there is uh further up in the um further up in this document it does talk about basically what the city council can take into consideration and whether you you know what you weigh um so it does it does start to get into that i can't remember exactly where it is rejina but um the first page and whether you you know you can you the city council where was it talking um maybe further up than that yeah by majority vote may exclude any irrelevant or reliable unnecessary um is any verbal testimony so it is kind of getting into that and um but i think it doesn't use those words personally it would be very helpful if it was spelled out i think it would be really good if we spelled it out because even though the five of us are brilliant others who follow us may not be so you know we might want to have it really written down there actually i'm kidding i actually would really helpful to have this right enough for me that it would be helpful yep great you can add that great any other questions on this piece before i move over to the ordinance nope is there any um i'll ask this nicely is there any way to limit or decide who we hear from so i think it talks about that a little bit in the sense um you can exclude repetitive evidence irrelevant unreliable or unnecessarily repetitive evidence perfect so having six people say the same thing over again yeah after the third we could say we've heard this yep yep yep oh hi amber hey andrew what's up um i actually had kind of a similar comment and whether we could set time limitations and i know i've mentioned this a couple of times um i don't remember if i've mentioned it in the city council meeting um or in a trustee meeting but i know with the planning commission we did um and so and i was also thinking about i was trying to remember where i'd heard this but there's this language about you know if you're if your neighbor your neighbor got up and said something you can get up and just say ditto you don't need to repeat exactly what your neighbor said if you want to just you know i agree with what john said but don't get up there and say exactly what john said again um i don't know about whether there is and i'm not sure how the rest of the council feels about setting time limitations for for folks to give comments but i i don't know where where the public rules come out on on that issue but i think it's tricky to have language that says by majority vote we may exclude any irrelevant um or unnecessarily repetitive evidence because what's going to happen is you're going to be in the heat of having this this evidence presented and you're going to have to say at that moment exactly what you said which is your thanks you just you're just you're just saying the same exact thing that your neighbor just said um so you can just go sit back down and i think there's a different way of trying to like deal with that without having to individually call the person out in every hearing that we have if that makes any sense yeah i mean let me be really clear what i'm trying to avoid is to hear appearing from people that want to discuss dog psychology and weren't at the incident um if if we don't think it's it's relevant necessarily and i don't mean to be flip about it but i think i think we run the risk of having repeat incidents where this is an emotional situation for everybody involved not just the victim but the people who are on the dog this is a big it's a big deal and they're going to bring everything they can bring to to you know save their dog and i i totally get it i just we can't be doing you know we have to have some kind of limitation i think that's what i'm trying to figure out is i think you right so so i i don't know where that i know how you do that well one of the other things that i'd like to see and and again i don't know what everybody else's thoughts are on this but there is the the line there that talks about you know all people offering written evidence still submits three copies of the evidence to the city council my preference for that is prior to the hearing so this is not a situation where we're getting we're getting documentation at the hearing that we are expected to review and weigh in on and and i don't know if that directly or indirectly answers some of what your concerns might be rash um because then you at least have you know what the you know what the evidence is prior to the hearing in front of you that's a good point yeah sure that's a good point it's definitely prior right yeah that would be good yeah yeah that would be good work just do keep in mind that there this is a tight time frame we have seven days once we get a complaint to get this scheduled and also the police officers have to literally serve both um person the attacker and the owner um so uh not to say that we shouldn't do that but just keep in mind the timing is tight yeah no i totally get that i i think what we say prior i mean a day before i mean it just it can't be get it can't what i want to try to avoid and and i generally have this opinion on city council meetings and we have the same you know when during planning commission meetings i don't like to get stuff at five o'clock before six thirty meeting that i'm expected to decipher and weigh on in on you know i mean that or this is a two-part hearing the two-part process where the day where the time period where we're doing all of this and receiving and then the decision comes down at the next city council meeting right so then we take everything in and maybe the at some portion of the next city council meeting because we can't do this offline um we meet either openly or an executive session or our choice um and we make that decision and announce it there um that's another you know yep that addresses the seven-day issue yeah and um right in terms of uh timing one of the things that was mentioned about the amount of time that people can talk personally it's something i struggle with setting a time limit to cut people off that's just a personal philosophical thing but if it is something that you all want just tell me and we can do that for as long as i'm in this chair if we want to put it in the document we can um we've had some speakers today who it takes a little longer for them to get their thought out and so to me to cut them off as it just takes them longer doesn't feel right and doesn't sit well with me but at the same time i understand that we all have things we've got to get done i i think it's going to be normally if people were just making a statement but i think what's going to happen is you're going to have people making a statement but then we're going to ask them questions uh and they could that it could it could easily go to 20 minutes um you know for someone if it's if it's a complicated situation you could have five different counselors asking someone the questions so you're going to say that everything has to happen in three minutes it's like idling it's going to be able to do that unless you leave yourself a lot of discretion to increase the time but um yeah i don't i don't know how you're going to do it i don't know i i don't i don't have a good way yeah i think the written testimony is probably the maybe we're going to still want to hear from people directly involved right i mean i definitely want to hear from from people were identifying as the victim and i definitely want to hear from people along the dog i mean none of these situations are seem to be very cut and dry right so you know we we could you could ask for everyone and you know whoever is going to be involved to write it you get a statement and you then you have a basically like a witness list ahead of time and you say we want to hear from these people um you know obviously the the principal people the dog owner and the victim but then deciding that then we could decide we can just maybe just not say we're going to throw it open and anyone who wants to come up to the mic we can say well we've got a list of five people here we want to hear from yeah and because i'm having a hard time i'm believing that i'm going to need to hear from someone who was not there right exactly for a dog but it's open minded try to be open minded on it and those character witness right but we've only done one that's a trickier one though and i don't know i'm not going to pretend to be a public meeting expert um but i don't if you open a meeting if you have a public meeting and you invite people to come for comments but then you don't allow them to speak i think that's going to be tricky when i i think i hear what you're saying george i don't think i ever anticipated that the person who is the complainant or the victim or the dog owner was going to be constricted by a three time minute time rule yeah that's not what i'm saying i am looking more at the and and i did not watch the the last hearing um but i gathered from the time in which it took for that process to occur that there were many people who basically spoke for more than three minutes either in support or not in support of the current situation and that's what i'm talking about is trying to trying to prevent a situation where you have a 30 minute filibuster of an individual who is trying is speaking for one way or the other that doesn't have any direct involvement it's not the complainant and it's not the dog owner right so you're still allowing that person the opportunity to weigh in but you're not giving them an open forum to spend an hour or 30 minutes telling us about the psychology of the dog or whatever it happens to me i was just trying is there a is there a semantic difference between a public that are with the hearing versus a public meeting and what what is allowed open meeting law i'm not sure in this kind of hearing would actually be subject to open meeting law that you know as a matter of who we can and can't decide to against to speak yeah i mean it's still a public hearing i don't in this subject to open meeting rules but i don't i don't again i don't know the semantics of whether you do have to i believe you do have to allow the public comment but i'm not entirely positive i think that's that's a cloning question for sure yeah we can ask her that um you know i just keep going back to a similar process as the development review board in those you can limit um participants in the development review board to what's defined as an interested party by statute this i don't think these hearings have quite that level of um definition and statute um so it's probably a little bit more um unclear you do have to with open meeting law you do have to allow members of the public the opportunity to talk this the roman supreme court has set limit or has said that and a board can't set limits that are reasonable so that people are given a reasonable opportunity to to have their opinion heard so you can set time limits um but they have if somebody is here they do have to have the capability to have their voice heard i guess i thought this this turned into something different with the with the procedures in the swimming end that this turned into more of a because we right i mean well let's say if there's a d we had a d rb um hearing i don't know hearing what was it uh appeal mm-hmm would anybody have been able to come or is that d rb regulation separate is that what you're saying yeah so in that appeal 15 people came to talk about that just wanted to talk about the fact that there was some aspect of this they had an opinion on um of that of that appeal or does is that completely separate because d rb rules limit those to interested parties yeah it's completely separate um i'm another example let's forget it yeah sorry but i'm only talking about the broadly the open meeting law and what that means in terms of how quasi-judicial proceedings fit in with that i don't know why you couldn't set say everybody's three minutes or four minutes but the chair has the has the right to extend the time mm-hmm and you could just say yeah this this person this is the this is the principal dog owners is the principal victims the principal witness you can allow that person to speak more but otherwise everybody has to try to keep their comments for the three minutes so that that that might work that sounds reasonable to me and the other thing we used to do with the planning commission is that we would put it at the bottom of the agenda right so that folks could be prepared and know that you know it might make it might make sense for them to prepare a written statement that they've timed to know that they're not going to go over that time period right and and you could even say the chair could even say ahead of time i i i won't hold you because you're you you're the only witness or whatever you're the the officer um who answered the call you you're not found by the time limit so just take your time and give us the story mm-hmm i've been to them they're they're long all of them i've been to a long i mean in some ways right that's understandable because some of it like if it is actually a dog bite that needs medical attention and obviously that's pretty major repercussions for that animal right right so i get it and i don't want to just for for people listening i'm not trying to i don't think any of us are trying to shorten this yeah just so we get out of here no no i think that each each of these hearings is going to have its own situation its own details and we'll give them the respect it needs but i i think we're all worried about another three hour yeah it didn't need to be okay that's helpful i can make some edits for that and um bring back anything else on this document before we move over okay so then what you've got in your packet is um the uh draft ordinance so um currently in the city uh hour chapter five is the regulation of dogs it is pretty slim this is essentially a reworked version of what the town has for a regulation of dogs um on their side and um it's it's just more comprehensive um it brings in the sorry i'm trying to zoom in on this so people can actually see um don't need to go through this whole thing but it essentially um updates the language and for the most part what this does is let me scroll down here to this um it brings in this definition of a potentially vicious dog so um if you folks remember basically what we had to work with in that uh case that you heard was really the state statute and the state statute really only comes into play if a dog bites a person um this potentially vicious dog concept in the um town ordinance um allows you to have a hearing and um put an order in place if there is a dog on dog bite based on this potentially vicious dog bite uh definition later on in this ordinance it describes that you are limited in your order um you basically stop short of euthanasia of a dog if that's uh if it's just a dog biting a dog if it's dog biting a human that's still um an option um there's just some few comments in here back and forth between claudian and i that we um can get straightened out pretty easily um just in terms of who's the um animal control officer um and just clarifying that definition that um bringing in the concept of um for a vicious dog if the person is attacked they um have sought medical attention basically um not sure too much else uh that you want to go through here it's really pretty straightforward um and it uh brings up the um how you have a how you have a hearing in terms of the state statute but this basically we just talked through a lot of that stuff in terms of the detail of it um and it talks about the process and and um how the incident is investigated i think that was it in terms of what else i wanted to kind of point out in here um this brings in the same sorts of things in terms of running at large and brings in a little bit more definition to that this is a um this working farm dog is just a statutory exemption so claudian got that in there um and i think that's about it any thoughts or questions about this and there's also in here is your current chapter five just so you've got that yeah that half page yeah yeah i see amber has her hand up uh so i have to admit i was a little confused um there is definitely a certain irony to the fact that i'm confused by the legal realm here but um um there in section 506 it talks about that's the investigation section that i know we added the potentially vicious dog um and maybe you can pull that section up for dina on the screen i'm trying to uh save you guys from the scrolling yep no it's all right and now i can't forget does that look right not yet yep so this section talks about when a person can file a complaint with the city council and it says when a dog has either bitten or inflicted bodily injury to to a person so am i correct in assuming that they still they can't file a complaint when the dog has bitten or in inflicted injury to an animal because i'm confused how these two sections are interplaying if that makes any sense yeah and this is the statue this is this is the vermont statue i didn't look at this but um and this is what the town has but i'm still just trying to grasp the concept of how it's how it's appearing and yet we're trying what we're trying i think what we're trying to do so are you are you asking like if it's not if they haven't been a person then this does there's no investigation yeah correct that's that's what i'm asking it's missing it's missing that chunk yep yeah okay good question and i think the same question and i think i've found it before how it comes into play but um i'm not sure i'm going to be able to find it it's 507 isn't that it doesn't that manage isn't that address oh yeah 507 does 507 addresses a potentially vicious dog and it says a person can file a written complaint um then it looks like it's kind of up to us it's discreet does that am i is that correct then it's discretionary if it's if it's a clear dog bite but if it looks like a dog that might bite someone it's concerning then we can shall contain the time because the vicious dog is in is in state statue that whole process is in state statue and there's a portion of it that says that basically municipalities can further define other types of activities like a potentially vicious dog so at that point we're outside of state statue and we have more discretion that doesn't need to be within seven days right right so yeah that's why it's a little bit shorter and less defined so okay but as i as i understand so so what so if they if it's a potentially vicious dog a dog that got that gets loose and one after another dog and but no no human was bitten and someone files a complaint it looks to me it says upon receipt of a potentially vicious dog complaint the legislative body may proceed as in the case of a vicious dog complaint so that that's how it gets in front of us yeah and then we look at the circumstances and make that decision right right and do we want that complaint coming to us or do we want that complaint going to the animal control officer tell you i would say animal control officer i think everything should be the same except for the trigger right it's either potential or it's vicious right and the other difference the only other difference would be whether we can euthanize the dog or not right all the investigatory stuff and the hearing and all that should be i mean otherwise are we because we can't just we can't just like take that in again we don't think it was a big deal so everything else would would sort of have to flow from in the same way that a vicious dog bite right but we want to know if the animal control officer made that decision we we probably want to know it we probably want to get right yeah that's some mechanism we are or report to send to us and we read and go yeah okay we agree with that because i really did appreciate that part of former chief gary right you know and the animal control officer here and and having all of that sort of yeah handled right we knew what we're dealing with um okay yeah that's helpful so we can get this to match up more consistently i mean unless unless it's assumed i mean the last sentence of a 507 a refers to the hearing so yeah i might just be a question of like is that good enough right the hearing is laid out somewhere then it's a hearing yeah yeah it's a little bit unclear though yeah it is it is amber did that clear that up for you i think so okay any other questions thoughts my only other question is do you think that you'd be able to get some feedback for our march 8th meeting so that we could have so we could actually warn the uh a public hearing so that way if we are resolved with the feedback that we get that we can then move this forward yeah you mean on march 8th have what you need to warn the hearing that night to or warn to warn the here could we warn the hearing tonight for march 8th gotcha and do you think that we'd get the responses from claudine so that way at the next conversation on march 8th if we feel good with the ordinance then we can just pass it at that point in time yes i'm confident we can get the feedback from claudine by then great also asking as i in my own neighborhood have recently heard of two other dog on dog bites in these past three weeks it's a thing i like very much more all this is going to put it that way i i think it's great i think it's very good it's really helpful so if there are no other questions that's i'd very find now i gotta follow along here um i've got that yeah thank you for you but i didn't attain the motion on the screen with amendments or however you want to say do we want to hear from people in the audience first any questions comments zoomland questions comments concerns well i'll make the motion okay i moved the city council warrant a public hearing on march 8th 2023 at 6 30 to receive comment on the following changes to the sx junction municipal ordinances to replace the existing chapter five regulation of dogs in its entirety with the proposed chapter five regulation of dogs as or just leave it i think you'll leave it we didn't make dogs period or yeah i'll second yet any further discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying aye aye those opposed say nay that was unanimous thank you and so march 8th in theory we would be able to pass the moment and we are on to the consent i'll second any further discussion hearing none on favor signify by saying aye aye those opposed say nay also pass unanimously and into the reading file and council comments anything broadly you want to talk about 954 at night well that's leaving the witness you're welcome not a thing hearing none i would entertain a motion to adjourn so move second any further discussion hearing none all in favor signify by those opposed say nay great have a good night everybody recording stopped and i guys have a good night and right so she seems to be real uh-oh really really didn't mean any


This systematic review evaluates the maternal and infant consequences of untreated postpartum depression, finding that it creates an environment not conducive to personal development or optimal child development, highlighting the importance of detecting and treating depression during the postnatal period as early as possible. This article was authored by Justine Slomian, German Honvo, Patrick Emmins, and others.


Black Mirror dropped its sixth season last week, and I wasn't planning on making a video on it, but I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I expected to, so I decided to make a short review ranking the five episodes of season 6 from my least favorite to my favorite. Be sure to drop your rankings in the comments below so we can compare as we go. Honestly, aside from the episode that I have in my number five position, I genuinely loved each of these episodes this season, so I'm excited to hear your thoughts about it in the comments. If you haven't watched season 6 yet, don't worry, I'm keeping this spoiler free, but now let's start with number five, Maisie Day. While at times shocking, Maisie Day fails to present its mystery in a way that compels the viewer to want to solve it. This is because the episode intentionally doesn't try to clue us in on what's actually going on in order to maximize the shock value of when the twist is revealed. So once the twist is revealed, I felt a bit more blindsided than I felt satisfied, but combined that with uninteresting characters and this episode just failed to engage me in the same way that the rest of season 6 was able to. And it is unfortunate because I did like a lot of the concepts that were at play here, but it just didn't pan out for me. But number four, I have Beyond the Sea. With stellar performances and cinematography, Beyond the Sea is a gut-wrenching slow burn of an episode. Maybe it could have been paced a bit quicker, but this one's ending makes you want to go back and overanalyze all of those slower, subtle moments with specific character choices and behaviors that were sprinkled throughout this outer space-themed drama. The three leads, Kate Mara, Josh Hartnett, and Aaron Paul are all on fire and each have moments of incredible performance that are worth the watch alone. Number three, Joan is awful. As timely as ever with the rise of AI, deep fakes, and the ethical and legal grey areas that come with these recent technological advancements, Joan is awful presents a star-studded satire that is as entertaining as it is batshit crazy. While I'd categorize most of season 6 as full-out horror rather than the typical sci-fi horror balance that Black Mirror is known for, Joan is awful feels more heavily comedic than Black Mirror is used to. It's at times almost a parody of itself. And that's not a bad thing, like I said, it was undeniably entertaining. Annie Murphy and Salma Hayek are hilarious as are pretty much every other cameo appearance in this episode, but I won't spoil those other cameos if you haven't seen it. Number two, Demon 79. The entirety of season 6 has impeccable production and costume design, but Demon 79 is truly off the charts when it comes to visual style. This episode's cast of characters are also a joy to watch, and it definitely presents one of the series's most unique moral dilemmas, and a very layered one at that. Anjana Vasan gave a perfect portrayal of Nita Huk, a character walking the line of humanity and brutality, as she comes to know a demon by the name of Gap, who is impeccably played by Papa Asidu, and the episode is a near-perfect mixture of horror, comedy, and camp, and I highly recommend this episode. But anyway, number one, Loc Henry. Loc Henry presents an irresistibly macabre mystery that had me on the edge of my seat as each of the puzzle pieces fell into place. With complex character dynamics, incredible use of foreshadowing, and an intense climax, Loc Henry had it all for me. The episode stars Samuel Blanken and Myhalla Herald, who you may recognize from Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, one of my favorite films from last year, and just like in that film, Myhalla delivers a very complicated character in Loc Henry, her characters pushing of her documentary partner and boyfriend's boundaries leads to them uncovering some incredibly uncomfortable truths about a serial killer who once lived in this small Scottish town. That's all I'll say because this mystery went down a lot of unexpected alleys, and it was genuinely exciting and disturbing to piece together alongside these characters. So if for some reason you only have one episode of Season 6 to watch, my pick would have to be Loc Henry. But honestly, they're all worth a shot, and Demon 79 definitely gave this one a run for its money. I definitely enjoyed a lot about each episode of Season 6. I won't say it's the strongest season of Black Mirror by a long shot, but it was a very welcome surprise that definitely was a leap in the right direction when compared to Season 5, in my opinion. What did you think of Season 6 of Black Mirror if you've watched it already? Let me know all of your thoughts in the comments below, leave this video a like if you've made it to the end, and I will see you guys next time with more horror coverage.


And range weather. Roger sir, we have no constraints to launch. Mission management team. Jim, the MMP is looking at the issues you've cleared to launch. Copy that. And Atlantis, looks like everything's come together here. Looks like a good morning to launch. So Mike, you and the team have a good rendezvous and a great mission. And we'll see you back here in a week and a half. And NPD, you're cleared to launch. Copy that, launch direction. Copy that, launch direction. And the orbiter access arm is now being retracted away from the vehicle. This is the walkway used by the crew to gain entry into and out of the vehicle. And it can be returned to position within seconds if need be. And the three main engines are being gimbled as a final test before launch. T minus three minutes and counting. And all is going well for today's launch. This mission carries a crew of six who will spend the next 10 days in space. Five of those days dock with the nearest space station. Your protest conductor has requested that pilot print jet clear the caution and warning memory system. Everything looks good. And we're cleared for launch today. So P2C caution warning cleared. And no one has expected that. OK. Flight crew, close the launch device. This is D-8-2. And on behalf of the launch team, have a great night. And I look forward to that. D-8-2, L-8-2, flight cleared, NPD. 12, NPD minus 10, 9, 8. We have a go for main engine start. We have main engines up and running. Three, two, one, boost ignition. And liftoff of the spatial Atlantis on a 10-day mission to dock with Russia's orbiting outfit. Houston now controlling the flight of Atlantis. Atlantis into the roll to place the shuttle in a head-down, wings-level position for the eight and a half minute ride to orbit. 30 seconds into the flight, Atlantis's three liquid fuel main engines now throttling back in a three-step fashion to 67% of rated performance that will dampen the stress on the shuttle's aero surfaces as it breaks through the sound barrier. One minute into the flight, the main engines now beginning to rev up the full throttle, 104% of rated performance. They throttle up call coming up from spacecraft communicator Kevin Kreegel here in mission control. One minute, 20 seconds into the flight, Atlantis traveling at 1,500 miles per hour. Now 10 miles downrange from the Kennedy Space Center, 13 miles in altitude. The shuttle's three main engines, three auxiliary power units, three power-producing fuel cells all functioning normally. One minute, 50 seconds into the flight, standing by for solid rocket booster shutdown in Jettison, that command to come from the onboard computers through the master events controller on board Atlantis. Booster officer confirms a clean solid rocket booster separation guidance now converging on Atlantis's three main engines as they begin to steer for a precise keyhole in space for main engine cutoff. Those calls from spacecraft communicator Kevin Kreegel to Commander Mike Baker aboard Atlantis indicating that the solid rocket boosters provided the desired performance during the first stage of this morning's ass into orbit. And if one main engine should fail, Atlantis has enough inertia to make a trans-oceanic abort to Morone, Spain. However, all three main engines continue to function by the book. Three minutes into the flight. And in fact, we do have live video at this time of all six astronauts who will be flying aboard special Atlantis today. Marsha Ivins, mission specialist, is preparing for her fourth flight aboard the space shuttle. And of course, our other astronauts include our commander and pilot, Commander Mike Baker, pilot Brent Jett, as shown here. Mission specialist John Grunsfeld. He'll be making his second flight into space today. And of course, rounding out the crew have mission specialist Jerry Leninger and mission specialist Jeff Weissoff. Of course, mission specialist Jerry Leninger will be remaining in space. He will be staying for about four months until Atlantis goes back to getting. And this is shuttle launch control at two minus three hours and holding. And we have our first look of our commander, Michael Baker, as he is being suited up for his fourth flight into space today. Pilot Brent Jett, of course, giving thumbs up. He's ready to make his second flight into space. Jerry Leninger is going to be going into space this on his second trip, but it will certainly be as long as he'll be staying on the Mir space station. Mission specialist Jeff Weissoff preparing for his third flight. Mission specialist John Grunsfeld making his second flight into space today. And the last member of the crew is mission specialist Marcia Ivins. Crew is being led by commander Michael Baker, pilot Brent Jett, mission specialist Jerry Leninger, John Grunsfeld, Jeff Weissoff, and Marcia Ivins. Mike Baker is being assisted, being strapped in. Mission specialist Marcia Ivins has just entered the orbiter. She is on the mid-deck where she will take her ride into space today. And she is making final adjustments to her communications cap. Our pilot, Brent Jett, is going to be the next to enter the vehicle. And he'll be taking his seat next to commander Mike Baker. And we're back with pictures of our white room again. Three of the six astronauts have been placed aboard the orbiter. Here we're looking at Jerry Leninger who will be seated on the mid-deck with Marcia Ivins. He's making final preparations to get him in. And once Marcia is fully established in her seat, then Jerry will be climbing aboard. This again is a view from the mid-deck. Astronaut Jerry Leninger is in the process of being strapped into a seat.  Up to that, can we get a CMTC 153, shall we? CMTC, CMTC OT. In the white room, mission specialist John Grunsfield is shaking hands and making preparations to board the orbiter. Martin, John, you're long clear, awesome. And again, making voice checks with NASA test conductor John Guidi. MS-4, time check. MS-4, we read you loud and clear. Good morning, Jerry. Good morning, Kevin, go on the mirror, loud and clear.


Mothballed for 30 years, the historic old administration building in Fresno, California is once again serving the needs of Fresno City College. Designed by California State architect George McDougal and built in 1916, the old administration building was the first permanent structure at what became California's first community college. In 1974, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. But just two years later, new seismic regulations forced the building to close, and it remained vacant for three decades. A grassroots community effort led to a plan to restore the facility to its original glory. Now, the old administration building houses administration offices, classroom space for 2,000, a theater, and other community spaces, all of which enabled the college to expand its academic courses, performing arts education, and student services. Today, the old administration building is bustling with students and faculty members, just as it was 95 years ago.


vasoconstrictive feliception. So what it does is it tends to constrict blood vessels and thereby reduce blood flow. It also does it inside the fetus so that blood flows affected the various organs of the fetus including the brain, heart, kidneys, and that so that it has a tremendous effect on the fetus. It also tends to induce labor so that those babies tend to be born prematurely. In fact it's not unusual that a mom who uses cocaine may try and induce labor in herself by taking a large dose of cocaine. We get them though because they're premature. They come in with the respiratory problems. Their lungs aren't mature so they can't breathe. We get them because they're a thermal regulation. They have temperature problems.  They're real slim. They're skinny babies.  We get them because their gut is immature. They're intestine stomach. They're immature.  We get them because their nervous system is immature. They may be real real jittery. So there's a variety of reasons why they come in. A lot of times with your premature babies you can't tell if they're drug exposed. We know because maybe of the history but if we did not know if I were to walk in and see a premature baby I would not be able to tell you that this baby was drug exposed or not. What we're talking about is the kids that are basically have come through the whole thing with an intact brain generally good health but have some of the behavioral and other problems and there is a lot of bright hope that with really good thoughtful programs early on that those kids can be turned around and do just fine. So I think if we try to look above our own stereotypes and above our own prejudices and just you know encourage them the best you can then I think they've got great potential. Nobody says they can't be road scholars just because they had a slow start in life. While the drugs have been filtered out of her body the effect of the newborn's first environment may linger for a lifetime. As she leaves the healing forces of the hospital this young life faces the challenges of a second environment the home. Traditionally the home has been a place of security and love with all eyes on the newest member of the family. Unfortunately this is often not the case with the substance exposed baby. Substance abuse undermines the normal patterns of interaction and alters conventional priorities. This exposes the child to an unstable chaotic environment which will dramatically influence the child's development. However a setting characterized by structure consistency and warmth can go a long way toward reducing the difficulties associated with prenatal exposure to drugs. I think that it's a constellation of factors that we should look at with these children and the first of course is just how basically strong the child is genetically. Some children are going to be strong individuals they're going to be health wise strong and that's the way they're made. Then the prenatal period and what happened did mother get services. Was her environment fairly stable? Was the child involved in anything else except that you know the drugs and then after the child is born a tremendous and really important environment enters. This child has really three places that it can go. It can go to a foster care or group home setting that at this point in the United States I think is very overworked. It can go home with a mother who is may or may not be using drugs but certainly was using drugs or it can go into an institutional or maybe even a family you know grandmother and this grandmother is already or family is already dealing with the fact that one of their children use drugs during pregnancy. We hope that we'll be able to do the same kind of interventions with the caretaker whoever they are if it's a grandmother that we would have done with the biological mother. The problems they identify with foster parents are similar. Foster parent may have had many foster children and now all of a sudden has a foster child who has a little bit different need and responds differently than any other child in need that they have taken into their home before and so the foster parents too need special information special education on what works and what doesn't work with these children. They require a lot more attention a lot more love and care and understanding then than what my kids did when when they were little. It's just they're insecure they have episodes of screaming and there is their most aggressive more irritable the least little thing can set them off into a screaming episode.  The arrival of a baby is difficult for any new mother especially if she has a history of drug addiction. The challenges of caring for her baby are compounded by the additional needs of a substance exposed newborn. What it's like for me it's scary. I was really scared at first. I'm scared that I would use again and wouldn't be able to be there for. I'm scared that I can't do it and I can't be a mom and I'm not ready for it. I think that all mothers love their babies whether they're addicted to drugs or not. They can form a close attachment. I think the problem is that the environment that these children are raised in can can definitely make it very difficult for the child to have the types of role models that would be beneficial to the child. I haven't ever seen a mother who didn't love her child. It's just her drug addiction that causes her to put her energies elsewhere other than into appropriate parenting for her child. I prostituted but I never would come out and say you know I'll do this for this. I just say come to my house.  My kid missed my love and their attention and the caring and stuff and I know they love me but I wouldn't give it back to them because they drug won't let me I love that drug and then love my children. Parents who are chemically dependent often center their lives around drugs even if they want to quit they often can't and face tremendous guilt about their addiction. When I was in my using stage my main focus was getting high that was it I wouldn't have time to be a mom sometimes today when I think because I have cravings and things now to get high I just look at her and and I try to picture where would she be what would I if she was in her bed crying and I'm in here smoking crack what you know how could I do that because I can't it's totally impossible for me to do I can't have both I can't have I can't have crack and I can't have her I'm gonna lose her if I do smoke again. Now with a baby that is likely to have health problems be difficult and demanding and often less responsive and emotionally rewarding parents find it difficult to bond with and meet their child's needs. These are babies who don't make eye contact very well they're easily overstimulated and when they're overstimulated they have two responses either they respond into framed frantic crying almost rage or they shut down they go to sleep it's like tuning out the world. These are babies who don't like to be handled they don't cuddle well they aren't these aren't the babies that curl up next to your chin and and feel really good. Their babies that are hard to handle.  I probably cussed you know but what I can say for what I know now it's not good to do drugs pray or after you have that baby it's not healthy for neither one of you. Strangely enough sometimes a home that doesn't look cosmetically so good if there is a lot of interaction between the child and the caregiver if there is a lot of receptivity to your clue the baby's clues and the mother's clues it might really be a good growth promoting home. Conversely you could have a home that's in a very wealthy neighborhood that is very sterile where the people are not reading each other's clues whether they're not paying attention to each other that may not be a growth promoting home. Whether children come from wealthy middle class or low-income neighborhoods are raised in white Hispanic or African American homes or are cared for by foster parents family members or the natural parents. All children are products of their environments. There are factors within all of these environments that can have a positive or a negative influence on children as they grow older. Drug use, parenting skills, and neighborhood safety all affect a child's level of security and ability to bond. Consequently children who feel insecure and have difficulty forming attachments are developmentally at risk physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally. As children walk into a classroom for the first time many carry the baggage of a chaotic beginning. It is easier to accept a child's behavior if you say well that child's had three placements it's never really had a good secure attachment with a parent.  I think we at once we understand the history of a child the social emotional history of a child we are a bit more forgiving of their behavior and we can work better with the behavior. To prepare for these students schools should examine their current structure climate and resources. Take a look around see if there are other teachers that are experiencing similar concerns if so again pulling together as a team looking at what the schools problems are in in terms of reaching at risk students what particular plans have already been in place what's working what isn't and going from there in terms of developing new programs or more effective programs. Making a serious commitment to intervention will include everyone on staff starting with the principal. Here at Rowley we have a child study team or an intervention team and it consists of our school social worker school psychologist our referral coordinator for exceptional student education programs teachers speech therapists our guidance counselor administrators are on it and we also pull in additional help when we feel a need to. Each week we meet and we discuss children not only substance exposed children but all children because we have found that the characteristics of substance exposed children are very similar to exceptional students and we're trying to make sure that we clearly distinguish the two. The exceptional technology is very powerful when it's using regular education classrooms the problem is that regular educators it's not in their literature. By drawing on the resources and talents of a multidisciplinary team educators can make their schools more responsive to the needs of substance exposed children. I think some of the things that we have found is environmentally to make the room a very very safe and organized place for the child I think that a teacher that's very very organized that involves themselves with very structured routines and rituals will find that this population works best in that classroom. I also think that high respect for children space to lower the number of people that are walking in and out of your classroom you know to avoid it until that child can feel secure. To keep your classroom if you're going to make major moves in your classroom make sure the children are involved so they don't come into a strange environment. If you're going to be out make sure you're there involved in that decision that you're not going to be there so that they know what the next thing that's going to happen to them is they're very comfortable with the next decision. I think that's the most important in this population because they are so disorganized we're not sure if that disorganization comes from central nervous system damage. The withdrawal period when they were very very young and babies were learning to organize themselves in infancy and they were going to withdraw or the environment that happened later being so chaotic but we do know that when the child feels very stable and secure in the classroom that we have a much more comfortable child. Also I think the areas in our classrooms need to be very very clear as to the function. We do have art areas and dramatic play areas and block areas but we do need to make these very very clear and I think that helps reduce verbal commands so that you'll have less inappropriate behavior. You'll have less directions for the children. It's very clear to them what goes on in this area of the room. Classroom rules expectations and consequences should be posted and their meanings understood by the students. I have a lot of very high expectations. I have a very quiet classroom. I think that an environment where people are you know where expectations aren't set can add more chaos. So in my particular classroom you will see a fairly high degree of expectations. Consistent scheduling of the day's events adds much needed stability for substance exposed children. Routines and rituals have to be so ingrained in these children. They have to understand that we will be there that this follows that follows that and follows that in the beginning of the year. I don't expect children to tell time but I do know that if I repeat over and over again that after breakfast we have circle after circle we have play time after play time we have music. They expect that sequence to move. If play time is shortened to great deal they don't seem to be very upset as long as I move to music next. We took the day and we broke it up into chunks. There was a schedule on the wall and we called those chunks components. So there's a number of components in the day and we made a sheet with icons of all the components of the day. The kids call them tickets and so that's kind of what we call them now is tickets. Each ticket has a blank space next to the icon. At the beginning of the day we give the kids their tickets and we discuss what's going to happen during the day. If there's going to be an alteration in the routine then that's written in on the ticket. So the kid knows what's going to happen to them during the day and that has had a dramatic impact in helping them to delay reinforcement to understand where they are in the routine. And it looks now like it's a lifeline that when there's an alteration in the routine they become visibly upset. At the beginning of the day when the teacher says our routine is going to be the same today the kids will cheer. They'll break out in applause because they know that that day everything's going to go the way they expect it to go. I think transitions are generally hard for young children. We found that we need to use physical and or verbal cues with the children. If it's cleanup time-time to go to music we might give them a 10 minute warning then a 5 minute warning then a 3 minute warning and little by little the child hopefully will be able to organize himself also will be able to predict what comes next in the day. There's a timer so everybody should be putting your work up now. Thank you. This is a challenge for teachers because teachers are trained primarily to be educators. However with the children of today many of us are having to be social workers, mothers, fathers, nurses and we're trying to take on a variety of roles. And I think what the teacher needs to do a few things first of all work with the family get a good history of the child find out from former teachers what that child's experience has been at school and then if the teacher feels that further intervention is needed use the resources available within the school. Some children might need additional help with speech and language. Some children might need some resource help. Some in some cases the teacher might want to work closely with the social worker or the school psychologist and try to develop as good a team as possible within the school setting. I think knowledge goes a long way in terms of helping teachers get ready to say to settle their classrooms to be stable environments to meet the needs of all children. Once they have that knowledge I would add in-service training. I'd also encourage teachers to become more proactive in working with families and making sure that they understand the children and also get into a problem-solving mode with the parent so that they can work together on helping children. Play is a normal instrumental part of development. Through play children learn to understand themselves, their relationship to others and their place in the world. A chaotic background often steals important opportunities for children to benefit from organized play. These missed opportunities may make it difficult for children to understand the rules of a game or why they have to take turns. They may also have trouble organizing individual play activities appearing confused and unable to focus on what they're doing. By supporting and encouraging play teachers can open an important new world for many substance-exposed children. A world which will help them learn new skills and develop stronger friendships with their classmates. High-risk children have always been in the classroom. Over the years educators have identified the behaviors of these students and developed effective intervention strategies. By drawing on these experiences, learning new information and using the resources in the school and district, educators can be successful in teaching all high-risk children, especially those that have been exposed to alcohol and other drugs. Like all high-risk students, substance-exposed children will exhibit a diverse range of behaviors. As young children move through space and manipulate objects in their environment, they learn about themselves and their world. Many factors influence the development of motor and spatial behavior in children. Inadequate care in the prenatal and early stages of life may cause children to have fine and gross motor delays. Young children exposed to drugs prenatally or environmentally are particularly at risk since they are often under-stimulated and not supported in the development of motor and spatial skills. Some of these delays are fairly obvious. Children may trip when walking. They may have trouble judging distances, which can result in moving too close or too far away from an object so that they seem a little clumsy. They may have trouble grasping objects like a crayon or a toy. They may have difficulty manipulating materials like the piece of a puzzle or a carton of milk. These are the children in gross motor that you would call clumsy or adaptive P.E. called clumsy. If you're holding their hand, they walk into you. They don't walk with a child that does that. They just walk into you, trips over their own feet, walks into walls. They're not grossly. They don't have that ORT classification. There's not cerebral palsy there, but they just don't have a very good idea of where they are in space. Many children seem uncoordinated at one time or another. Even adults sometimes feel as if they have two left feet. The difference is that compared to their classmates, children exposed to alcohol and other drugs are likely to be delayed in developing their motor and spatial skills. Teachers and caregivers can help these students to catch up by reminding them of physical obstacles in their environment and by helping children judge how near or far away they are from objects or boundaries. By physically guiding children through the specific steps of an activity, teachers can help their students develop better body control. Songs, games, manipulative exercises, tactile activities and special equipment are all tools which teachers can use to enhance the motor and spatial development of substance exposed children. Very good. Four plus two equals six. Good. Go on, you're doing a good job. Language is a highly complex function which develops as a result of the interaction of cognitive, motor and social skills. Children who were not led to, did not have access to books or were not supported in learning new words are likely to have a slow start in language development.  And if you watch a mother and a caretaker and a baby doing this together, you'll see that when the baby pauses inevitably the caretaker does something. They jiggle the bottle or they pat the baby or they stroke the baby's cheek or they do something. It's a, it's a dance that develops. It's sort of like the baby says something and the mama says something and the baby says something and the mama says something. And we say they're waltzing. We say they're dancing with each other. And when they have been doing, when they do developmental tests on these children as they grow up, they're finding that although some of these children test out normal or low normal in all of the developmental scales that we, that we commonly use, that they frequently are very low or if they bottom out on anything it's in language development or sometimes in the fine motor movements.  As teachers assess the language needs of their students, key areas of concern are delays in expressive and receptive language, prolonged infantile articulation or baby talk. Difficulty in understanding directions and an inability to verbalize needs, wants and fears. Substance exposed children also have difficulty choosing the words to match what they want to say. Use your words. Tell me what do you want to do? What do you want to do? I don't want to bite me. Their resulting frustration may lead to shouting, stomping or other inappropriate and aggressive communication behaviors. Such barriers to effective communication may cause children to remain passive observers rather than active participants and classroom activities. Teachers can help children develop good language and communication skills by making direct eye contact with the student and gently guiding the child's gaze to her own. Are you eating eggs and grits too? Yeah? Okay, let's look at, well, let's look at this. Let's look to see what we've done. That's right. Six, right. Once accomplished, the teacher can use words the student understands to give step-by-step instructions and gradually increase the complexity of directions. Usually you're gonna fix cubes, show me what you did to get six. By repeatedly reminding students to say what they want instead of pointing or shaking their heads yes or no, teachers can help students to interact more effectively with others. Also, teachers who model good language and communication skills provide the student with actual visual cues. This makes it much easier for a student to understand what the teacher expects. Right there on the table, do you need to move some stuff up the table? You can do that. Recognizing that appropriate and inappropriate behavior often results from unmet needs. It is important to plan and implement strategies which encourage children to appropriately express needs, wants and fears. Last and perhaps most important, the teacher should always take time to listen to the student. This way, she can praise the child's efforts to use good language skills because much of language development rests on students feeling confident. It is often best to ignore the small mistakes students make while speaking. He wants to add. He wants to teach you how to add. We've already started adding. Let's see if we can add now. Okay. Who'd like to come and do this first Parliament? Add it for me. Okay. Frederick, would you like to come up here? Learning occurs in a developmental framework. It is an ongoing process in which the child constantly organizes and reorganizes experiences within a continuum of stages. While children have an unending potential for learning, the ability to perceive and explore the environment may be delayed in a child who has been prenatally exposed to drugs. When you're trying to instruct them, they don't remember things the way you would expect kids to remember. For instance, one of the activities kindergarten kids have is there's four pictures and you paste them down on a piece of paper in order.  These kids will put them together anyway. In fact, in talking to these kids, they had a lot of characteristics of people who get labeled autistic. They don't remember things in linear time order. They remember them in order of importance. So they will tell you the most important. So when you say what happened first, first to them means what was the most important thing out of the elements. So they will remember the most important thing and then in descending orders of importance. So like if they saw somebody get hit and start bleeding and say that was blood and we were going then we went to the door and as you listen to it, you say it doesn't make any sense. There's no linear conception to it. And that's exactly right. Well, in terms of education, education is a linear activity. You put in a little bit of foundation and you build on it. Well, if the kid doesn't understand that letter recognition is going to end up with word recognition because they don't have any concept linear time, then there's no payoff to learn your alphabet. There's no payoff to do anything. Children who are easily distracted by sounds, movements or people may be showing signs of cognitive delays. The ability to concentrate and visually scan words and pictures may also be impaired. Many high risk children have trouble with problem solving, become frustrated and in turn give up on challenges quicker than their classmates. Substance exposed children sometimes seem to achieve a task one day and then forget the skill the next. This sporadic mastery of skills contributes to their frustration with learning. They sometimes feel unsafe when their routine has been changed and may withdraw from an activity. To help students with cognitive development, the teacher should limit classroom interruptions and outside distractions as much as possible. It is also important to protect the child from too much or too little stimulation. A consistent daily routine and structure will provide substance exposed children with security and comfort while helping to regulate the amount of stimulation they will experience in the classroom. If there are changes, children handle them best when teachers alert and prepare students for visitors and schedule alterations, especially events such as fire drills. High risk children may have trouble understanding sequence in the order of events. The teacher can help develop the concept of linear time by teaching the child to take one step at a time, talking through each task step and asking the child to process these steps. Then what did we do? Okay, come on, you're going to have the teacher show me what you did. The teacher can also use other children to model the completion of tasks while the targeted children observe. And as always, the teacher should praise the child throughout the process as well as at the outcome. Very good. So we can say that three plus one equals four. Right, Eric? Is that correct? Three plus one equals four? You scared? Yeah. You know, I got much scared. What is it you're scared of? Is it different for you? Do you trust me? You think I'll take care of you? The early years of life are critical for social and emotional development. During this time, a secure and dependable environment fosters self-confidence and trusting relationships with the child's adult caregivers. But an inconsistent environment that is insensitive to a child's needs, such as a home where drugs are the primary focus, stimulates fear and suspicion. These feelings can manifest themselves behaviorally in the classroom. Biting other kids, injuries that required medical attention from our nurse. We had a kindergarten kid suspended for aggression towards another kid. I'd never seen kindergarten kids suspended for that. We had kids who'd pick up chairs and throw them at the other kids, try and stab them with scissors. When probably the other thing that we noticed the most was a total lack of social understanding or social control when it was playtime. We used to call it free time but now it's structured play activities and they brought out different things to play with.  I mean they would become physically protective of whatever item they were playing with. Many children who have been prenatally exposed to drugs have had a chaotic beginning, have been in multiple placements, have had multiple caregivers. So we really need to look at that in understanding the child and we very often see the result of that in behaviors. We see children who have difficulty relating to adults. We see children who are very clingy, who need constant holding and especially at the preschool level and I think that one thing that we find is that when we try to meet those needs that then the child will be better able to cope and to move beyond that stage. Some children may engage in indiscriminate attachment to unfamiliar adults. While this may seem like a friendly gesture, it is often the result of a lack of bonding in their early lives. We refer to it as indiscriminate attachment, which we see more often than children that are withdrawn. The indiscriminate attachment is at age three or four, developmentally children should be at a point where they look to a familiar figure to get approval to go to a non-familiar figure. So if they're with mother, they look up to mother. She says, yes, this is someone I know. This is someone you can go to and the child then may move toward that person. More than likely they'll still stay pretty close to mom. Same in a classroom. If you go into a classroom with a three-year-old, they huddle all behind the teacher when a stranger comes into the room and look to the teacher in a way to say, I'm waiting for your approval so I can move toward this. The teacher then will say, oh, this is the principal and she's come to visit us. Let's all say hello. Our children, as a rule, if a stranger walks into the room, if we are careful about it, they'll just run up. They may call that person mommy. They may say to them, are you here to see me? Hold my hand. If the person sits down and say our music, they'll crawl right up into their lap and at first it's viewed as how friendly they are. And I think people enjoy children that are that friendly, but when you see it consistent where you realize that that child has no one that they turn to for security. So we work very hard in the classroom going back to the original problem of no attachment, of attaching to a teacher or attaching to the assistant, bonding with someone so that they will feel that that person has given them safety to check with that person. And I think without that, this is a population with the indiscriminate attachment that we're going to have real problems later on because they're always going to be looking for someone for that security. And I think in adolescence that gives us some real problems. Expressing emotions is difficult for anyone, especially if they've had a chaotic start in life. Substance exposed children may have poor inner control, losing their tempers more easily and more often than their classmates. These outbursts often contribute to conflicts with other children and undermine their ability to build friendships. Their peer relationships also suffer because they have trouble empathizing with other children. High-risk children may also have trouble in their relationships with adults. While most children use adults for comfort and approval, substance exposed children may not look to their teacher's full recognition or even respond to verbal praise. This may result in ignoring or challenging routine simple instructions and not understanding the meaning of a stern look or other nonverbal cues. The teacher may find it helpful to move close and look directly at the child while explaining exactly what her look, body language or gesture means. The teacher should also take advantage of opportunities to develop a nurturing relationship using facial expressions and touch. It is also helpful for the teacher to center activities around the child and make sure the child has his or her own space. To help students understand and control their emotions, the teacher can use manipulatives such as books, stories, dolls, pictures and games. Also by helping students identify and describe their own emotions, students may begin to build empathy for others. The teacher should also enforce consistent limits of behavior and respond to infractions with predictability and regularity while talking the child through the consequences of his or her actions. Exaggerated behavior patterns are often the way children cope with stressful and overwhelming situations. By establishing a responsive nurturing classroom, teachers can build self-esteem and create a safe environment, one that is conducive to learning and teaches the skills necessary for positive healthy development. There is no typical profile of a high-risk child who has been prenatally or environmentally exposed to drugs. Each must be seen and respected as an individual with particular strengths and vulnerabilities. The sources of a child's behavior must be understood for teachers to develop specific interventions geared to the individual child. Rather than labeling children as crack or cocaine babies, educators should view these children as individuals, each with their own unique characteristics. These traits develop from the medical impact of their mother's drug use, their different home and community environments, and the positive and negative experiences of their young lives. The specific behaviors and interventions discussed in this video should be viewed as separate pieces of a puzzle. These behaviors and interventions have been highlighted and separated for learning's sake only. Now it is up to each educator to fit these pieces back together and create the whole picture of a very special child.


Hey everyone it's been a hot minute hasn't it. Welcome back. Before we get into the video I want to remind you to enter our Trials of Mana giveaway. You can get it on any platform that's releasing we'll be giving away a digital copy of the game on the final day of this month. To enter all you have to do is comment down below, like this video, subscribe for more content and hit the bell icon and set it to all notifications. That being said let's get into the video. Yes folks it feels good to be back.  Homeschooling. Finding the time I need to do this has been really really difficult but I am here I am back and we are gonna just make this content whenever we can and today we have a story that I don't actually like because it involves animals across the New Horizons in a negative light and kind of a political light. Now you know we don't talk about politics that much on the channel but this is important because an entire country has now banned both the sales and importation of animals across the New Horizons which is continuing to blow up at least based on the Japanese sales charts over 3 million in sales all that jazz. Let's just get into the story and I'm going to use Nintendo Life as the primary source for this because they kind of gathered everything together. So here we go. So it says China banned sales of animals across the New Horizons suspected censorship scuffle. Political messages most likely the cause and as you can see this is like one of the big images being shared around right now Free Hong Kong it's in the thumbnail all that jazz. It says imported sales of animals across the New Horizons have been banned in China it has been reported. The instruction filtered through Alibaba's e-commerce platform Taibao to sellers yesterday April 9th and it's expected to come into full effect today. According to the screenshots posted online by Taibao sellers the ban impacts not just the game but all merchandise and related hardware. While no official word has been issued on why the ban has taken place some are suspected it is related to the fact that the game can be used to share materials online such as political slogans that are generally frowned upon by the Chinese government. The game's pattern editing mode permits players to create their own messages and slogans that can be viewed by other players all over the world. Bloomberg is reporting that the game is one of many that is being used to highlight the political struggle in Hong Kong. One of Hong Kong's most famous democracy campaigners Joshua Wong tweeted about using the game to share his message and then in Joshua Wong's piece says animal crossing is fast becoming a new way for Hong Kong protesters to fight democracy. The COVID-19 pandemic has halted public demonstrations. Some protesters are taking their cause to animal crossing. This is my island. I play the game. I bought it a few days ago for lots of people around the world who play this game. They have to put their ideal life into the game and for Hong Kongers we have to put our protest movement and our protest sites inside the game. Animal Crossing New Horizons isn't officially available in China yet but Nintendo is partnering with Tencent to ring a special Animal Crossing console to the region. In fact you can only officially buy three games at the time of writing in China which has forced many Chinese Nintendo fans to resort to importing games and hardware into the country using services like Taobao and Pinduo Duo. Ping West reports the demand for titles like Animal Crossing in China has caused sales of Switch hardware to skyrocket. New Horizons like many Switch games as a Chinese language option despite not being officially released in that territory as of yet. It's not known that the game will actually come out in China following this ban and if it does it's highly likely that some of its features will be disabled to avoid players using different online protests. As an example they're probably going to require Nintendo to remove the ability to create your own patterns or download other people's patterns or share patterns among people. They might even eliminate a lot of the online features just to be safe. This is entirely insane to me. Obviously I don't want to get into the whole political struggle between Hong Kong and the government of China and all that. That's something that people that are much more knowledgeable on the situation news but I don't like the idea of any government entity banning a game over protests. Now obviously I'm from the United States where protests are legally encouraged and allowed and something that we can do within reason and certainly putting a protest message in a game would not be something that the United States government would really frown that much on. Yes Donald Trump might throw a tweet about it but it's not actually against the law and you are just fine. They're not going to get a game ban because people are putting political protests inside a game. But China's different. There are a lot stricter about things and obviously we all know about how the government might have been using some sort of minority slave thing happening with their factories and all this. That's why things are so cheap. I don't know. There's a lot of crazy stuff happening in China but I don't like the animal crossing and this isn't even like the sale of the game. You can't even import the game because people are potentially putting political messages in the game and it's weird because outside of social media these political messages can only really be among people that you're already friends with on switch that you invite to come to your island. So I don't really get how they're that concerned about it. It doesn't make any sense to me at all that they're worried that some people are putting political protest messages on their own island. It's not like these are available to thousands and thousands of people typically. I mean yeah it can be shared on social media but China already cracks down on social media. So I honestly I don't really get the point. People are going to continue to protest and do what they do and there's not really much the Chinese government can do to outright stop it you know unless they want to start mass killing people with the military and I don't know that I put it past China to do that but yeah this is just not a good situation and it kind of sucks to see a game that I'm sure even people in China are excited to play during a time of you know quarantine even though as their quarantine is slowly being lifted still there's going to be people without jobs who are still too afraid to go out especially if you're in the Wuhan province and they're going to want to pass the time away with Animal Crossing even if it's just an imported version and it kind of sucks to be completely honest and I feel for some of the people there that use video games to escape. Obviously this is not going to be an issue for Japan or the United States or most of the European countries but it's a problem in China and it sucks. This does give me a greater appreciation for where I live and this isn't me trying to be like oh America is so great and we're the best countries like that. I recognize that's not even close to the case but we do still have more freedoms than certain other major countries out there including China and this is just a nice reminder to maybe appreciate where you live right now that you're able to even watch YouTube videos because there are countries that won't even let you watch YouTube videos. Just be appreciative of what we have in life because a lot of us are you know we have a bit more privilege I guess than a lot of other places in the world and I think a lot of us know that but we don't think about it that much you know we always you know there's always that starving kids in Africa I think that goes around to kind of remind us how bad it can get but it's still a situation where we need to be a lot more appreciative of the freedoms that many of us do have and the things we have available to us you know whether it's our our phones or switches or you know the ability to watch this stuff this camera all my equipment I really appreciate where I am in life as someone who doesn't really have a lot of money and lives paycheck to paycheck and yet I still have a pretty decent life going for myself here you know and kids I got a good home I have a loving family so yeah I don't know I'm sorry if you folks in China this sucks hopefully Nintendo and Tencent can work something out at least get the game there in some form even if like online functionality gets banned which would kill part of the game but whatever at least you can still build your own island on your own switch I don't know you guys let me know what you think about the story down in the comments below I get that this is probably going to be politicized in some cases for some of you guys I tried to stay mostly out of the politics of it all but it's hard when this when politics seem to be very much part of the story but you guys let me know what you think about this down in the the comments below remember to enter our trials of mana giveaway as well otherwise folks I am with any rubber jents from Nintendo Prime and I will catch you in the next video or live stream whenever the hell it happens because I am just as unaware of what's going on right now day to day as the rest of you as I monitor this COVID situation as I monitor this homeschooling situation and as we have a religious holiday as well that we celebrate in this host this weekend like just kind of monitoring everything and figuring out the best course of action moving forward for the channel during these trying times but thank you so much for your support thank you everyone who showed up at our last live stream and dropped massive support there that's been huge for this month considering that my video productions are are a lot less right now just due to what's going on I just thank you guys for sticking around and and bothering to even give one view of this video because without you guys I'm just talking to no one and that's no fun all right folks have a good day