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Vol. 93 No. 22
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St. Louis American See page A11
The
CAC Audited AUG. 26 – SEPT. 1, 2021
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SLPS mandates vaccines for teachers
District joins Ferguson-Florissant in taking action By Sophie Hurwitz The St. Louis American Taking a step that just two have locally, and few have nationally, St. Louis Public Schools on Tuesday instituted a vaccine mandate for all faculty and staff. The Ferguson-Florissant School District also has a vaccine mandate as students return for the 2021-22 school year. The SLPS mandate was approved a day after the FDA granted the Pfizer vaccine full, non-emergency approval. SLPS staff members must be vaccinated by mid-October or face unpaid leave. Employees may file for religious or medical exemptions. Superintendent Kelvin Adams said the district lost two teachers who had not been vaccinated in the first week alone, and the first case of an SLPS student contracting
COVID-19 was identified Tuesday. While there are no other school staff vaccine mandates in St. Louis or St. Louis County, other districts have offered other incentives. Normandy, for example, is offering a $750 bonus to teachers who get inoculated. St. Louis, along with several large local employers, has already mandated vaccination for all of its employees. Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who is in pursuit of the 2022 Republican nomination for Senate, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against every Missouri school district that is currently mandating masks. He filed the lawsuit in Columbia, naming that public school district and its school board and superintendent. All districts with mask mandates are targets, including St. Louis Public Schools, which will See VACCINES, A6
n SLPS staff members must be vaccinated by mid-October or face unpaid leave. Employees may file for religious or medical exemptions.
Photo by Wiley Price / St. Louis American
Center of attention
Wilkinson Early Childhood Center at Roe Elementary School first grade teacher Teresita Higginbottom directs students as they began their first day of school on Monday, Aug. 23, 2021.
Emergency rental assistance clinics serving St. Louis Some residents still face eviction
By Sophie Hurwitz The St. Louis American Last week, two emergency rental assistance clinics opened in St. Louis, and neither is lacking for clients. Though the federal eviction moratorium was extended until Oct. 3, it only means that sheriffs will not enforce evictions: the legal portion of eviction proceedings can continue unabated. That’s where the emergency rental assistance clinics come in. They can help connect clients with federal relief funds, provided that those clients are able to provide proof of their need and that they were negatively impacted in any way by the n Though the COVID-19 panfederal eviction demic. moratorium was Shannah Nieweg is the execuextended until tive director of October 3rd, it Horizon Housing only means that Development sheriffs will not Company, where one of the two enforce evicwalk-in clinics is tions: the legal housed. She says portion of evicthey’re seeing five tion proceedings to ten walk-in clients per day, along can continue with the “150 or so” unabated. clients they work with on a regular basis. “Housing is the foundation for everything,” Nieweg said. “It’s your foundation for security, for stability. If you’re worried about losing your house day to day, those worries are often controlling your mind.” The other housing clinic, at the Wohl Recreation Center on North Kingshighway, has been seeing more walk-in clients than Horizon Housing. Over the week since its opening, it has called in housing specialists from the Urban League to assist with client intake. The Urban League is also one of several organizations that these walk-in clinics funnel clients towards, depending on need. Those organizations then follow up with clients after their first round of emergency rental assistance has been disbursed. That’s something that Paula Carey-Moore, the Urban League’s Regional Director of Housing, says can happen in as little as a
See CLINICS, A6
Afghan community prepares to welcome wave of refugees
The protest organizers asked that all of the women come to the front of the group on Sunday, Aug. 22, 2021. Afghans in St. Louis gathered at City Hall due to their concerns with the Taliban government’s record of human rights abuses against women.
St. Louis to accept up to 1,000 Afghan refugees
By Sophie Hurwitz The St. Louis American Moji Sidiqi, who came to the U.S. as a refugee from Afghanistan 21 years ago, says that some of her family members back home have gone into hiding since last week’s Taliban takeover. For Sidiqi, that means it is all the more important to use her voice as a human rights activist in this country. Along with other Afghan women, she organized a rally Sunday in support of taking in more Afghan refugees and advocating for peace in the country, in which the United States has been engaged in 20 years of war. St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones and St. Louis County Executive Sam Page released a joint statement Aug. 17 saying they are “ready, willing, See REFUGEES, A7
COMPLIMENTARY
Photo by Sophie Hurwitz / St. Louis American