Virginia Mercury: At parent-focused event, Youngkin takes aim at social media’s ‘destructive influence’
At the latest of three “Parents Matter” town halls he’s hosting around Virginia ahead of pivotal General Assembly elections this fall, Gov. Glenn Youngkin hit on his usual themes of giving parents a bigger role in schools, raising expectations for student achievement and finding “multiple pathways” for young Virginians to start careers.
But one of the biggest topics of discussion over the roughly hour and a half Youngkin spent interacting with a crowd at a Henrico County elementary school was one that defies easy policy solutions: the impact of social media on children and teenagers.
“I do think this topic of social media and the … destructive influence that it is having on our children is one we all need to run to,” Youngkin said. “We have to run to educate ourselves. … Parents want more information so that they can engage more productively and more restrictively with their children on what’s happening in their social media life. That’s going to be a collective effort that we’re going to have to work on together.”
Virginia Mercury: Henrietta Lacks’ family finally got their due; many more never will
“Companies worldwide have for decades been reproducing and marketing HeLa cells, raking in billions.
Yet Lacks herself never saw any benefit from the use of her cells in her lifetime, nor did her family, which struggled with chronic illnesses and financial insecurity after her October 1951 death. Where is the fairness in that? The settlement the family reached with the biotech company Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., whatever the amount of money, is not enough to compensate for the incalculable benefit to humanity that Lacks’ cells provided, but I’m glad they got something.
What about the other Black Virginians and Americans who have also contributed to medical and scientific progress? What is their reward and legacy?”
