COVID-19 Testing, Thursday, June 18
Test Collection Sites/Call Centers
COVID-19 call centers in Norwalk and around the state have medical staff to answer your questions, screen you for symptoms, and help you with next steps if you meet criteria for testing.
PLEASE NOTE: Each site operates differently, including hours, procedures, cost, and turnaround time for results. Please call sites for details.
Nuvance Health COVID-19 Community Hotline/Norwalk Hospital collection site: 888-667-9262; open daily, 8 am - 6 pm (Nuvance Health COVID-19 page includes Frequently Asked Questions about testing.)
PhysicianOne Urgent Care: (203) 846-0005; open Monday through Friday: 8 am - 8 pm; Saturday, Sunday, and holidays: 9 am - 5 pm; https://physicianoneurgentcare.com/find-us/locations/ct/norwalk-urgent-care
DOCS Urgent Care: (203) 298-9752; open Monday through Friday: 8 am - 8 pm; Saturday and Sunday: 8 am - 6 pm; https://docsmedicalgroup.com/docsurgentcare/norwalk/
CVS Testing Services (rapid site in New Haven, standard sites throughout the state): https://www.cvs.com/minuteclinic/covid-19-testing
Murphy Medical Associates (multiple testing locations): https://coronatestct.com/
Stamford Hospital Call Center: 203-276-4111; open daily, 7 am - 7 pm
Yale New Haven Health Call Center: 203-ASK-YNHH; open daily, 7 am - 7 pm
If you need a doctor, please contact your health insurance company to find one or call one of the Community Health Centers listed below. If you do not have health insurance or a doctor, call one of Norwalk’s community health centers to establish care and learn more about testing.
Norwalk Community Health Center: (203) 899-1770
Day Street Community Health Center: (203) 854-9292
The Health Department will work to keep this information up-to-date as testing capabilities expand.
CT 211 compiles community resources, including COVID-19 diagnostic testing sites. Please call 2-1-1 or visit their website for general COVID information or to search for testing sites statewide.
Click here to read the CDC’s guidance on testing for COVID-19.
Digital Media And Communications Academy Students Create Virtual Gallery
Norwalk High School Digital Media and Communication Academy Students (DMCA) created a virtual showcase to share the passion projects they have created during the second semester. The bulk of the work was completed during the distance learning experience.
Working with industry partners, DMCA enables students to master industry standard computer programs. Students enrolled in the DMCA pathway have the opportunity to participate in hands-on experiences that will enable them to enter college or career with a knowledge of industry standards and a mastery of storytelling.
Merriam-Webster redefining racism after college graduate calls for action
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary is revising its entry on racism to illustrate the ways in which it can be systemic.
Currently, the dictionary’s entry contains three sections. The first defines racism as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.”
The second calls it a “doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles” and “a political or social system founded on racism.” The third section refers to “racial prejudice or discrimination.”
Editors are now working on defining racism as not only prejudice against a certain race due to the color of a persons skin, but as both prejudice combined with social and institutional power. It is a system of advantage based on skin color.
The dictionary’s editors were inspired to edit the definition of racism because 22-year-old Kennedy Mitchum, who recently graduated from Drake University, asked them to do so. She lives in Florissant, Missouri, just a few miles away from Ferguson, where protests over the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown helped solidify the Black Lives Matter movement.
Why is everyone suddenly talking about Juneteenth?
The June 19 holiday, Juneteenth, commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.
It is a holiday long celebrated by the Carver community.
Juneteenth -- a blending of the words June and nineteenth -- is the oldest regular US celebration of the end of slavery. It commemorates June 19, 1865: the day that Union Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, and told slaves of their emancipation.
Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia mark June 19 as a state holiday or observance. That day came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Even after Lincoln declared all enslaved people free on paper, that hadn't necessarily been the case in practice. African Americans and others mark Juneteenth -- also called Emancipation Day -- much like the Fourth of July, with parties, picnics and gatherings with family and friends.
President Donald Trump plans to resume holding his political rallies — in Tulsa on June 19. Yet Tulsa is the site of one of the worst episodes of racial violence in U.S. history: the Tulsa Race Massacre. A white mob attacked residents, homes and businesses in the predominantly black Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event remains one of the worst incidents of racial violence in U.S. history, and one of the least-known: News reports were largely squelched, despite the fact that hundreds of people were killed and thousands left homeless.
Many people are calling on Trump to at least change the Juneteenth date of the Oklahoma rally kick-starting his return to public campaigning. Trump campaign officials discussed in advance the possible reaction to the Juneteenth date, but there are no plans as of this writing to change it despite fierce and widespread criticism.
JUNE 13 UPDATE: The president announced he would delay the campaign rally by a day. And there is this op-ed on June 15.
Race and equity now at the center of American culture
Authors and publishers eagerly await each Wednesday's advance look at the weekly New York Times bestseller list.
Amid a pandemic where African Americans are suffering disproportionately, and a global eruption of awareness and protest following the hideous death of George Floyd, new voices are being heard — and read. The list for June 21 is a vivid snapshot of what’s on America’s mind.
No. 1 on the Young Adult Hardcover list: "The Hate U Give," by Angie Thomas: "A 16-year-old girl sees a police officer kill her friend" — on the list for 171 weeks.
The top 10 entries on the Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction list for June 21:
"White Fragility," by Robin DiAngelo.
"So You Want to Talk About Race," by Ijeoma Oluo.
"How to Be an Antiracist," by Ibram X. Kendi.
"Me and White Supremacy," by Layla F. Saad.
"The New Jim Crow," by Michelle Alexander.
"The Color of Law," by Richard Rothstein.
"Between the World and Me," by Ta-Nehisi Coates: "A meditation on race in America."
"Untamed," by Glennon Doyle: "The activist and public speaker describes her journey of listening to her inner voice."
"Stamped from the Beginning," by Ibram X. Kendi: "[A]nti-black racist ideas and their effect on the course of American history."
"Just Mercy," by Bryan Stevenson: "[D]ecades of work to free innocent people condemned to death."
And at No. 11: "Becoming," by Michelle Obama.
The Times' Paperback Nonfiction list opens with six of the titles above, then picks up with:
7. "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" by Beverly Tatum: "The president emerita of Spelman College examines whether self-segregation is a problem or a coping strategy."
8. "Born a Crime," by Trevor Noah: "A memoir about growing up biracial in apartheid South Africa by the host of 'The Daily Show.'"
9. "Raising White Kids," by Jennifer Harvey.
10. "White Rage," by Carol Anderson.
And No. 1 on the Hardcover Fiction list (making its debut) is "The Vanishing Half," by Brit Bennett: "The lives of twin sisters who run away from a Southern black community at age 16 diverge as one returns and the other takes on a different racial identity but their fates intertwine."
Carver Day at the Carver National Monument to go virtual this July
Carver Day at the Carver National Monument is going digital this year, due to COVID-19. The event was originally set for July 11.
Instead, the National Park Service will present a week's worth of videos, stories, historic images and more on its social networks and website.
The programs will run through July 14, when the 77th anniversary of the park's establishment will be celebrated.
The Diamond park, named after the famous botanist, is the first national park to honor an African-American.
The great scientist and humanitarian George Washington Carver, our organization’s namesake, was born in Diamond, Missouri.
Learning losses expected to worsen already wide achievement gaps
Nationally, in the days immediately following the pandemic-related closure of schools throughout the country, we noted here that researchers at the nonprofit assessment organization NWEA predicted that whatever school looks like in the fall, students will start the year with significant gaps.
Now, they are warning that the already wide array of student achievement present in individual classrooms in a normal year is likely to swell dramatically. In 2016, researchers at NWEA and four universities determined that on average (nationally), the range of academic abilities within a single classroom spans five to seven grades, with one-fourth on grade level in math and just 14 percent in reading.
Volunteer student fashion designer donates her latest styles to the Carver community
Click here to go to Instagram where there are many more selections to choose from!
You’ll find Sammi Smith’s colorful offerings on Instagram. THANK YOU, Sammi!
Here is Sammi’s Instagram message.
sammii.smith
when i was designing my summer collection these past few months, i wanted to center it around positivity. instead of pushing the launch because of the current state of the world, i’ve decided to donate & match 100% of proceeds from june to the trevor project, the know your rights camp, & the carver foundation of norwalk. i’m so excited to contribute to local, lgbtq, and youth organizations benefiting the black lives matter movement and give you guys the opportunity to do the same. continue to swipe through this post for more information about each organization! i hope you love the designs & the meaning behind it as much as i do. LINK IN BIO!!!! ✊🏿🏳️🌈
A statement from the Board of Education and Norwalk Public Schools
The Norwalk, CT, Board of Education and Norwalk Public Schools strongly support the international movement to condemn racial violence and oppression against people of color. We stand in solidarity with the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the long list of Black and brown people who have been systemically victimized throughout the history of our country. We join the NAACP in calling for concrete action, while we acknowledge that we still have significant work to do in our own community.
No matter where it takes place, police brutality against unarmed Black people deeply impacts all of us as individuals and as communities. Racial and ethnic discrimination of any type is a multi-faceted stain on our society. None of us may be able to influence all aspects of systemic racism, but we owe it to each other to try.
For our part, the murder of George Floyd requires all of us at Norwalk Public Schools to reflect on our past successes and failures. We must renew our commitment to closing the achievement gap for ALL children, faster and more effectively than ever before. Achieving equity in educational outcomes can equip our children to lead influential lives and sever the multiple tentacles of racism in their time. Our schools exist to serve as the engine of the American Dream for students of all colors, backgrounds and persuasions.
As we welcome Dr. Alexandra Estrella to our district as Norwalk’s next superintendent of schools, we view this as an opportunity to embark on a guided process of self-reflection and examination. We will focus on equity, using data to identify the areas where we need to improve in serving our Black students and all students of color. We will continue to address discipline policies and other practices that may unfairly impact students of color. We will ensure that students of color are not over-diagnosed for special education, and that all students have equitable access to gifted programs and academically rigorous instruction. We will hire and advance the careers of more educators who reflect the diversity of our district. We will continue to train staff to recognize and address bias within themselves, their colleagues, and the system. And we will expand and enhance our age-appropriate work with children at all grades levels to discuss race and racism, teach tolerance, and empower students to enact changes for a more just society.
We are working to make a world where all students have the same opportunities to succeed and be fulfilled, where the playing field is truly level. We would love to hear thoughts and suggestions from the community. To send an email to the whole board, please write to: board@norwalkps.org.