I feel like in fan fiction, Logan is normally cast as the PE teacher. I hesitate to give him that role for some reason. I think people might underestimate how PE teaches things like stretching, how that changes, Logan’s willingness to test to be certified for teaching and/or attend conferences to follow education standards as new research comes out.
But hear me out - I think he is better suited as the groundskeeper. Especially in the movieverse setting post X2 where Logan is at the start seemingly freeloading off of the school while it operates. He starts of with subtle things that just annoys him - like a creaking sound on a cabinet. Just put some WD40 on that. Then he notices a worn panel, probably damaged by a student with overactive powers. No worries - Logan found some tools in an outdoor shed and builds a new panel and installs it.
The other faculty and students don’t notice it but then start to realize slowly that… the drawers open more smoothly. The wood finishes seem more shiny and new. That fence has a fresh coat of paint. The kitchen sink stopped dripping. Eventually, the students catch on and they ask for Logan to fix things in their room. It starts off with a student who is embarrassed to tell the teachers that he burned a piece of furniture when accidentally using their powers. Then Rogue complains about a wobbly chair in her table within earshot of Logan and he comes over and fixes it. Jean mentions that she needs to replace a piece of exercise equipment in the gym and Logan offers to pick it up and install it. Instead of taking the car into a mechanic, Scott consults Logan first about an issue with one of the cars and they’re able to figure out what’s wrong on their own instead.
Charles eventually brings up in a faculty meeting how nice it is that they haven’t had to hire contractors lately to fix things around the school. It’s normally a pain to vet contractors to make sure that they aren’t anti-mutant or make arrangements to keep the mutant school thing a secret. But now Logan seems to have naturally taken that role in the school. Logan has no comment on the matter and is regularly absent during staff meetings.
He can still be a substitute teacher (in a pinch), proctor tests, lead X-team trainings, supervise the kids during field trips, lead extracurricular activities like outdoor trips and martial arts. I believe in the DoFP universe where Logan is a history teacher in the Howard Zinn style of "bottom up" vs "top down". But I just feel like groundskeeper is more realistic imo.
Side note: Maybe I just overvalue my PE education because as a 30 year old I am so appreciative of learning how to stretch. I don’t think Logan would bother or know like the most recent changes to exercise best practice for an updated curriculum. I also went to school in California when Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor and he implemented a lot of state educational policy where students had to be tested on several things like mile times, bmi, endurance, strength, etc. As an unathletic nerd, I remember it because it source of stress if I couldn’t pass these assessments. And again I think that administrative burden doesn’t feel like something that Logan would bother. I do think it’d bother the faculty if it’s not done because they do want the students to matriculate to colleges should the students want to pursue higher education. That requires meeting accreditations standards regardless if the school has secrets about the paramilitary training and the mutant social services.
A lot of the lefty people in the universities assume that they can be as partisan as they want, and the university won't go under, because Republicans don't have a choice. University degrees mark selection for talent, and they can't drop the talent-selection system and replace it with nothing.
Republicans have already been splitting K-12 schooling using the idea of charter schools - privately-operated schools that receive public money through vouchers.
What's different between universities and the K-12 system? Well, mostly research. If the research is increasingly partisan, however, then the two systems become more similar, and Republicans could begin partitioning out the different functions of the universities as part of a reform movement after the shift from truth-oriented organization to politics-oriented organization.
The long-term goal would be to move the credential-minting portion of the university's portfolio - its main source of cash and influence - from universities to a third-party in-person exam service. New university degrees would then be legally deprecated, and employers would be prohibited from accepting or knowing about them in hiring and promotion.
The intermediate, "one foot in the water" approach would be to require that all accredited degree-granting universities provide a by-exam award of each degree they grant, and they can't differentiate between traditional students and exam-only students in the awarding process - or mark it on the credentials in any way. (Naturally, this rule would also require that all of the involved texts are published openly, and there is no factual information involved which is not in the texts.)
What is the value of learning on Harvard's campus, from Harvard's professors, as compared to someone with a similar level of aptitude learning from a small school in Iowa?
Who can sit to take the exam? That depends on just how brutal the people who implement this policy want to be. If you're feeling merciful, you can allow Harvard to limit the number of by-exam seats to match the number of seats they have on campus, and impose conditions similar to the ones they use for admissions on the exam takers. This would still allow Harvard to keep most of their revenue, especially since a Harvard student would likely be guaranteed a seat.
If you're feeling harsher, you can allow Harvard to set the fee necessary to administrate the test, but 1) all in-person Harvard students must also pay the fee, and if they can't pay it, they can't take the test, and 2) the fee is limited to 1/10th of tuition, adjusted downwards for financial aid received by Harvard students.
I'm not going to go in to further details. There are also a number of potential problems, which I'm not going to go into, either.
The reason that the Republicans haven't unbundled the universities isn't because it's impossible. It's because they don't want to. They still think the universities can be salvaged, and that it makes sense to pool researchers with learners. They have lighter-touch tactics available before resorting to this, as well.
Student loan policy is shifting from forgiveness to repayment.
Less than a year after the Biden administration proposed forgiving up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for most borrowers, the Supreme Court ruled the policy unconstitutional. At the core of the case was whether the HEROES Act of 2003 granted the Secretary of Education the authority to “waive or modify” federal student loan terms, up to and including forgiving those loans. The Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that broad forgiveness was beyond the scope of what Congress intended when passing the HEROES Act, further arguing in the majority decision that policies with such a large economic and political impact should be decided through Congress, and not executive action.
In the wake of that decision, the Biden administration has shifted policy toward improving the borrowing process as well as the repayment process. Political attention has focused on repayment (from the Biden administration’s attempts at loan forgiveness to Republican-sponsored legislation proposing new repayment structures) but must also turn to reforming how students decide whether and how much to borrow to ensure future students do not face unmanageable student loan debt.
Short-term policies around loan repayment
With widespread student loan forgiveness struck down by the Supreme Court, the Department of Education (ED) is moving forward on two repayment-oriented efforts. First, the Department has been implementing targeted student loan forgiveness under existing programs. In one recent move, ED announced they had reviewed old income-driven repayment accounts to ensure borrowers received accurate credit for prior monthly payments — as a result about 800,000 borrowers had the rest of their loans forgiven.
The Department is also working to expand student loan forgiveness for students who attended fraudulent universities. In some cases, the administration has automatically forgiven loans for students attending colleges that misrepresented its graduates’ employment rates or that lied about their program accreditation when recruiting prospective students. The administration is also launching a “borrowers defense” application on July 30 where borrowers can make claims against their colleges engaging in misbehavior and request loan forgiveness.
Second, the Biden administration announced the details of their new income-driven repayment plan, with some elements going into effect prior to when student loan repayments restart later this year. The new Saving on a Valuable Education (‘SAVE”) plan will replace REPAYE (an existing income-driven repayment plan) and will automatically transfer borrowers on REPAYE to the new SAVE terms.
The key short-term changes include exempting a higher threshold of income and limiting interest accrual. Borrowers’ monthly payment is calculated off their discretionary income, which has to-date been any income above 150% of the poverty line. Under SAVE, that will be any income above 225% of the poverty line. For a household of four, that means an additional $22,500 of income is protected against consideration when calculating monthly payments. Further, starting this summer if borrowers’ payments don’t cover the interest accrued that month, that interest won’t be charged. Interest accumulation has been a key driver of why some borrowers owe more on their loans four years after graduation than their original balance. While other elements of the plan, such as reducing the years borrowers have to pay before forgiveness, won’t go into effect until next summer, many have argued the new repayment plan is so generous it amounts to a new loan forgiveness program.
Pre-pandemic, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that ED loses 16.9 cents on the dollar for loans in income-driven repayment plans (as opposed to the 12.8 cents on the dollar they gain from loans repaid in standard plans). In its initial review of the Biden administration’s proposed income-driven repayment plan, CBO estimated the program would cost about $230 billion over the next decade, though will update that estimate as the details of the program get finalized.
Challenges restarting payments
Millions of borrowers have had their student loan payments on pause since March 2020, but a provision in recent debt ceiling negotiations stipulated that the pause must end this year and payments will resume this fall. One analysis estimates about 16% of borrowers could be unprepared to make their student loan payment, recommending ED double-down on enrolling borrowers in existing income-driven repayment plans and calls on states and employers to provide assistance navigating loan repayment.
At the federal level, the Biden administration announced that borrowers would not face any negative credit consequence of non-payment until September 30, 2024 during a repayment “on ramp” period. While this action will help borrowers avoid default, it is incumbent on the administration to clearly communicate to borrowers that interest will still accumulate on their loans, so borrowers aren’t surprised by increasing debt balances.
The administration has not stopped pursuing widespread student loan forgiveness. But these actions must be taken through the authority granted to the Secretary of Education under the Higher Education Act (HEA). The administration now turns to a long, complicated process called “negotiated rulemaking,” (commonly abbreviated as “neg reg” or “reg neg”) to advance student loan forgiveness.
This Brookings explainer details the negotiated rulemaking process from 2021 when ED convened a committee around student loan forgiveness rulemaking. At a high level, ED must craft a negotiating committee, which will hold hearings and vote on proposed actions, and then ED will propose rules based on committee consensus. These phases can take a long time — but ED is moving quickly and the 2023-24 negotiated rulemaking process is already underway.
There are two key timing considerations for implementation. ED must propose rules by November 1 for them to go into effect by the following July — meaning the Department will likely announce final rules on student loan forgiveness just days before the November 2024 presidential election, raising the stakes on implementation. A new presidential administration could potentially pause implementation and move to formally rescind a federal rule, as former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos did in 2019 when she rescinded a “gainful employment” rule regulating career programs’ eligibility for federal financial aid that had been passed under the Obama administration.
There’s another date to consider — the end of 2025. Most types of student loan forgiveness are subject to taxation, but the American Rescue Plan has a provision that federal student loan discharges are not subject to federal taxation through December 31, 2025 (and most, though not all, states have followed suit). This deadline makes it even more pressing for borrowers that neg-reg rules get submitted by November 2024 so they can be implemented in the second half of 2025 before the tax exemption expires.
Legal challenges ahead?
Federal rulemaking is subject to judicial review, and whatever rules emerge from the current neg-reg process will almost certainly face legal challenge. However, based on the Administrative Procedural Act, those challenges will be unlikely to come until late 2024 once there has been “final agency action” (e.g., when the final rule is posted). Of course, a legal challenge to one rule does not preclude another attempt from an agency. When the Obama administration was crafting gainful employment regulations, their first proposal was struck down, after which they changed the metrics they would use to evaluate colleges and proposed a new rule that was upheld against legal challenges. This may be the first of multiple rulemaking processes around student loan forgiveness and how to best structure loan repayment.
Republicans don't want you to be educated because it's usually the ignorant and the gullible who believe their bullshit and conspiracy theories.
In a video posted on his website last week, Trump pledged to "fire the radical Left accreditors" and hire new ones "who will impose real standards on colleges."
° Some of those standards would include "protecting free speech," "removing all Marxist diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucrats," and "implementing college entrance and exit exams to prove that students are actually learning and getting their money's worth."
° Last month, DeSantis sued the Biden administration over the college accreditation system, alleging it's unconstitutional, Inside Higher Ed reports. Students who receive federal aid must attend an accredited college or university.
Donald Trump, the founder and namesake of Trump University, is not a fan of accreditation. For Trump, a "university" is an opportunity to scam people and then pocket some loot.
Ron DeSantis, like Vladimir Putin, simply doesn't like any information system which he can't directly control; he feels nobody should challenge his view that slavery was "beneficial" to its victims.
Of course the GOP finds college loan forgiveness horrifying. In their view, if you're not rich and don't have a daddy to bribe an admissions officer then you should be working at sub-minimum wage for an Earth-unfriendly corporation owned by a Republican megadonor.
The GOP has embraced the role of being the anti-youth party. Maybe GOP really means the "Get Off my Party!"
Vivek Ramaswamy, currently in third place for the Republican nomination, wants to raise the voting age to 25. Ramaswamy is the youngest of the candidates for the nomination, but that doesn't mean he'd be any good for young people. He's essentially Trump with a Cincinnati accent.
It's an irony that the oldest president of the United States, Joe Biden, is more pro-youth than anybody in the Republican Party. Biden is exponentially better on issues which matter to younger voters: reproductive freedom, affordable college, income inequality, LGBTQ+ rights, climate/environment, ending racism, and decent healthcare.
It's not age but personal attitude which ultimately determines political philosophy. 37-year-old Vivek Ramaswamy and 44-year-old Ron DeSantis have the political equivalent of advanced dementia when it comes to positions on policies relating to younger voters.
Lupine Publishers | Assessment of the Application of Micro-Irrigation Systems and Calculation of the Definition of its Economic Efficiency in the Conditions of Azerbaijan
Lupine Publishers | Agriculture Open Access Journal
Annotation
For a well-known purpose in 2010-2015, Guba-Khachmaz RAEM, Tartar and RAEM Shamakhi TSB have been confirmed by numerous research findings in the field of mountain watering, in terms of the development of irrigation, the mountainous slopes include soybean, sugar beet, trees, and germination (barley, wheat, etc.), the microcirculation method was not cost-effective in terms of efficiency, and preventive measures such as surface soil wash, sliding, irrigation and drowning, erosion characteristic for mountainous terrain zones , which is of particular importance, confirms the feasibility study of the farm calculated with the following formula.
(Figure 1) Rapid growth of the world population, limited land plots, lack of fresh water resources, environmental degradation, climate variability and so on. problems have highlighted the problem of food humanity, which in turn requires proper regulation of land protection and improvement of the public administration mechanism of land resources. From this point of view, 60% of the land with difficult relief and complex natural climatic characteristics has been eradicated from the threatened state of the intensive development of mountainous zones and has been partially implemented in order to rehabilitate the fertility of these areas in the direction of agricultural destination, The scientific and economic importance of irrigation irrigation systems for progressive water is an undeniable fact. In this regard, it is aimed to calculate the effectiveness of these irrigation systems with more accurate method and methodology. The calculation of the economic efficiency of the use of the microscopy in terms of production experience with respect to the application of the application of the microscopy is considered to be one of the key factors.
Figure 1:
The Course of the Study
In accordance with the methodology for determining the importance of the application of new techniques and technology applied to the existing agricultural sector, the annual economic benefit obtained by the application of sugar beet micro-gradient is as follows:
Equation 1:
here w1 and w2 [1] hectares base case and new sources for the introduction of products owned by agricultural practices directly with the account mentioned costs; with USD. TS TS and -1 hectares base case and new sources of agricultural techniques involved, giving accounts belonging to the production plant; from USD. And [2] -annual volume applicator, ha. He compared to the sources of new methods for sufferers of traditionally implemented furrows watering sources. Ammortizasiya countries, major industrial distribution ammortizasiya popular norma and fond of Shamil running costs and repair costs in “Sojuzvodproekt”-n recommendations methodological guidance mainly accredited [3]. And studied at the settlement, belonging to the current irrigation natural indicators (parameters) Importance of the importance of Daka important elements in analysis. Micro-irrigation’s a series of hail shower processes physiological Mammary sugar, basic version compared to 20% to stimulation, he believes qn (cf. 1). From the table, July-October, months hang sources. This product is comparable to a 32.4% microscope option and down to the country’s product range of 54.3s/ha. In this difference, serious sources of water are effective (Table 1). This is the largest amount of supplies in the United States dollars volumesopposite or complementary sources of water is to take prices production Shehzad (increment) is generally characterized by (Table 2 ). Table 2 also available with situations mentioned, mikrosuvarmada/1 cents to get additional product name şırım Deng with sh 2-2, 5 times less water to spend relatively olunurki and that the sources of saving water [4]. Economic comparative efficiency sources for questioning, is the microelements macro and cotton from sugar beet using micro-irrigation with an additional set of products that have been achieved before Wahid overloaded costs the cost of establishing the system of mikrosuvarma, according to the variant set of products in production costs (labor, land cultivation) taken into consideration and s. (Tables 3 & 4). the report results Table 5-inch Micro-irrigation is generally characterized by observable short produced sugar beet , Ana Rajendra indicators during PA effectiveness will depend on several noted:
Table 1: Effect of yield of sugar beets from Micro-irrigation.
Table 2: Sources of water in the production of effective use of for sugar beets (July-October months average).
Table 3: According to agricultural cultivation and maps of harvest sugar beets.
Table 4: According to agricultural cultivation costs spent cards and harvesting of sugar beet.
Table 5: Economic evaluation of sugar beet micro-irrigation.
a) New Micro-irrigation technology application gives you the opportunity to increase the sources of water this means 90%, so the sources of water for more than 2 times in savings;
b) Labour cost fee-owned SH 3 has dropped from more than times;
c) Traditional furrow irrigation sugar beets is compared with an embedded micro-irrigation systems from annual economic income of $959.6, for reality in 3’s provinces from additional 1 hectare reclaimed area average investment return in the year.
Ecology of economically reliable, efficient and economic point reasonable are one of the sources who develop it worshipped the mikrosuvarma experience scientific institutions in our country system, produced the social sphere, pole təsərrüfanlarında and other qurumlarında to be self-sufficient it is spread wide, this mountain was regarded [5] agriculture as sources to use to obtain ownership of agricultural bitkilərindən Ecology of the retrieval of a set of products enables you to clean it. Now 25 metres below according to main, Nagorno positions in the zone zonada duties YAP torpaqlarında area management and mikrosuvarmanın economic efficiency identification and here is the production they created new gardens and Vineyard development of Fame main götürülərək system applied to them economic to be evaluated. That’s on top of research appointed economic efficiency will depend on several, which Yao 0.5 ha area Shamakhy region Soil a new worked asked Alma and pears arrested for ties and studied. Economic efficiency here is never possible. So that, a new 2-3 only after liberation and other in the morning pears GH property [6].
But despite this, they separate the option of economic efficiency of alloy conditions, shrink microwave for conditions for şəraitləri conditions comparative effectiveness of efficiency (roofing, lubrication, cultivation of agrotechnical program, the establishment of the microwave system sources and costs and phenology on the economic implications of the observed comparative effectiveness of efficiency fully aware. Table 5 mikrosuvarma ((roofing, lubrication, etc.) creating a system of actual expenditures and for fruit (pears) proqrama cultivation of agrotechnical program for current expenditure. Information that, 1 ha of orchards in the establishment of the microwave system you want to belong to the largest expenses 1006 USD. Use this operation despite the expenses without electric power less than many water sources explains, because that same value (1m3 in 0.0041 dollars) compared to 0.27 against $. irrigation is equal to $0.7. Low intensity (Dadia wildlife sources incarnation) sources, sources of water systems using in roaming which as a result of the current 2.6 2.4 times too low expenses time reduction seconds. At the same time, low intensity sources bathing condition unlike the reserves compared with in the ground present in tree fruit thanks to physiological activity stimulates moisture [7] (Table 6).
Table 6: Effect of yield of sugar beets from Micro-irrigation.
Note
a) Low-intensity (micro drip irrigation sources hot and s.) the establishment of a system of recurrent expenditure sources really $606 is because locking-pumps 400 USD, establish stocks of some unwinding of the following. This natural water in the summer, it is considered that the lack of ownership of water scarcity in the country, its water will be used from another source (small reservoirs) necessary.
b) ASMO is an integral part of the technology systems for automated control system is not given for free, so, in a small area and also in the objects of study due to its great expense and it is not installed in the system account is not maintained Therefore, the record.
An attempt by radical educators to inject anti-Israel propaganda into California's public schools was derailed by the Jewish community's strong response. In Newton, Massachusetts,
Different Responses from the Jewish Communities of California and Newton
Across the United States, radicalized educators are foisting their anti-Israel agenda onto susceptible schoolchildren. Frequently this is done under the guise of the trendy “intersectionality” concept that associates the Palestinian cause with more accredited “social justice” causes. Feckless school committees and administrators fail to block the infiltration of flawed material into the classroom or reprimand teachers who misuse their classroom stature to indoctrinate students. It is left up to vigilant citizens to oppose the hijacking of public education.
This report examines two cases, one in California, and the other in Newton, Massachusetts, that evoked sharply different responses from their respective Jewish communities:
The California case involves an attempt to inject anti-Israel activism and anti-Jewish tropes into an Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum mandated by California’s legislature.
The Newton case tracks the insertion of biased units on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into history courses by ideologically-motivated teachers.
In California, exposure of the radical politics embedded in the proposed curriculum elicited a strong reaction from the Jewish community and responsive politicians, including the governor. This impressive grass-roots response persuaded state education officials to delay the curriculum’s implementation and promise to make revisions.
In Newton, the city’s school committee has treated public concerns with disdain and disinterest. Lacking curiosity to investigate the claims of bias and factual flaws, the school committee has failed to hold the superintendent accountable for ensuring that students receive an education free from bias and indoctrination. An entire generation of Newton children are being inculcated with a distorted depiction of Israel and the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Exposing the Attempt by Radicals to Subvert a Legislatively Mandated Curriculum
The Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum was mandated by the California legislature in 2016. Its intent is to bring more attention to the experiences of ethnic groups in California that historically encountered discrimination. The groups included were Hispanics, African-Americans, Asians and Arab-Americans.
The inclusion of Arab-Americans and the heavy focus on Islamophobia reflects the political orientation of the drafters. In California, other ethno-religious groups – Jews, Armenians and various Middle Eastern Christian groups, outnumber Arab-Americans and Muslims in California and have substantive claims to having experienced discrimination and persecution. FBI statistics show Jews are far more often the target of hate crimes than Arabs or Muslims.
California’s education officials turned to academics who specialize in ethnic studies to produce a curriculum draft. Several members of the drafting group openly advocate the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. The curriculum reflects the drafters’ political agenda.
The BDS movement is not, as its advocates disingenuously contend, a humanitarian campaign to compel Israel to respect Palestinian rights. Its founders explicitly call for the elimination of Israel. The antisemitic nature of the BDS movement has been exposed and thoroughly documented (https://4il.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/MSA-report-Behind-the-Mask.pdf). The United States Congress, the German government and numerous state legislatures have denounced the BDS movement as antisemitic. Even the UN Human Rights Council, a forum dominated by undemocratic regimes, where denunciation of Israel is a routine procedural item, has finally acknowledged the inherent antisemitism of the BDS movement.
While the BDS movement has had no measurable effect on Israel’s economy and foreign relations, its impact is felt elsewhere. As columnist Caroline Glick points out,
BDS in America is directed primarily against American Jews. Its goal is to silence them as a political force in America. American Jews who support Israel are ostracized in universities, and even in high schools. They are subjected to abuse in every quarter.
Jewish students have been subject to increasing harassment and intimidation at California’s universities as a result of BDS activities. Anti-Israel student groups routinely disrupt activities that have anything positive to do with Israel. But even more disturbing, a recent report on the status of anti-Israel activism on college campuses found that radical faculty are the main drivers of anti-Israel activity on campuses.
Hi, from reading your answers and posts I really admire a lot about you as a therapist and mental health person. As someone still at the very beginning I was wondering where and how you think you learned the most about therapy and being a psychologist? Where do you think you had the steepest learning curves and what taught you the most valuable lessons? I'm so thankful for you and your insight!! You're amazing :)
hi anon, thank you so much! this really means a lot to me ❤️
the learning curve for me was exponential throughout graduate school. I was constantly learning so much, and every week I knew way more things than I did the week before. the difference between being a first year grad student and second year grad student was enormous, and then being a third year was huge again. it didn’t let up until probably a year or so into my postdoc, and even now (3+ years post-PhD) I learn new things all the time. but it’s way way slower now. so I guess the steep learning curves were sort of constant for about seven years. but the thing is, that I was gaining a lot of competencies and confidence to use those competencies, so even though there still was so much to learn as I got further into grad school, I also got better at learning and had a much bigger foundation of knowledge and arsenal of skills. So it got easier over time even though I was still learning at that exponential rate.
one of the things that’s really great about grad school- and in some ways, my program in particular -is that a lot of the learning is so built into these multifaceted experiences that combine education, clinical work, and other areas including research, teaching/training, working in systems, administration, etc. So I think the biggest learning experiences for me came through those complicated experiences- like: being a member of an interdisciplinary treatment team; working on administrative tasks like JCAHO accreditation; trying to find or create specialized services for clients when appropriate services don’t exist; working with clinical teams to create new services or implement a research project; and training other clinicians. there’s so much more to being a psychologist than the moments where you’re in a room with a client, and those complicated situations have helped me understand the mental health system and my role within it much better (and also- helped me be a better therapist, since I understand the context my clients are existing in better).
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Urgent Action Morocco: Health risks for detainee in isolation for 232 days
Following seven months of prolonged solitary confinement, Ali Aarrass' health condition has critically deteriorated. He is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence in Tifelt II Local Prison.
Following seven months of continuous solitary confinement and untreated health problems, Ali Aarrass' health has significantly deteriorated. According to his lawyers and family, Ali Aarrass suffers from chronic nausea and recurrent unexplained vomiting. He has lost around 18 kilograms since his placement in solitary confinement. So far, the prison administration has denied him access to a gastroenterology specialist, despite his repeated requests. Although the food provision has slightly improved, his family has reported that prison guards refuse most of the food and all the nutritional supplements that they bring to Ali Aarrass during visits. Ali Aarrass has also been sleeping on a slab with inadequate covers since he has been detained in solitary confinement.
Ali Aarrass has been held in solitary confinement since his transfer to Tifelt II Local Prison, 60 km east of the capital Rabat, on 10 October 2016. Although the prison authorities had recently transferred other prisoners to his block several weeks ago, they have since been moved. Ali Aarrass is therefore again, since 21 May, being held in an empty prison bloc. He is being held for over 22 hours a day without meaningful human contact and is allowed in the prison courtyard only one hour a day. The social isolation has taken a heavy toll on his psychological conditions. According to UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Mandela Rules), this amounts to prolonged solitary confinement and as such constitutes a form of torture or other ill-treatment.
On 28 March, the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) issued a decision requesting the Moroccan authorities to improve his conditions of detention in order to prevent “irreparable harm”, and to guarantee his rights as a prisoner. On 28 April, the Court of Cassation rejected his appeal and confirmed his conviction and 12-year prison sentence. The Working Group of Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) considers the conviction to be arbitrary as it is based on “confessions” obtained under torture, and has called for his release and adequate compensation.
Please write immediately in Arabic, French or your own language urging the Moroccan authorities to:
Ensure Ali Aarrass has immediate access to a qualified health professional that can provide health care in compliance with medical ethics, including the principles of confidentiality, autonomy, and informed consent;
Ensure his detention conditions are in line with international law and the Mandela Rules, including access to primary needs, adequate food and bedding;
Immediately end Ali Aarrass’ solitary confinement and ensure he is held in humane conditions, including by implementing the CAT's decision;
Implement the WGAD's decision calling for the immediate release of Ali Aarrass' and award him adequate compensation.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 11 JULY 2017 TO:
Director of General Administration for Prison Administration and Reinsertion
Mohamed Saleh Tamek
Angle Avenue Arar et rue El-Jouz
Hay El Riyad, Rabat, Morocco
Fax: + 212 5 37 71 26 19
Salutation: Dear Sir
Minister of Justice and Liberties
Mohammed Aujjar
Ministry of Justice and Liberties
Place El Mamounia – BP 1015
Rabat, Morocco
Fax: + 212 5 37 72 13 737
Twitter: @MincomMa
https://www.facebook.com/justice.gov.maroc/
Mail: [email protected]
Salutation: Your Excellency
And copies to:
Ministry of State in charge of Human Rights
Mustapha Ramid
Departement Head of Gouvernement
Palais Royal
Touarga, Rabat
Fax: +212 5 37 76 99 95
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. HIS EXCELLENCY MR ABDESSELAM ABOUDRAREmbassy of the Kingdom of Morocco, 49 Queens Gate Gardens SW7 5NE, 0207 581 5001-4, Fax 0207 225 38 62, [email protected] www.morocanembassylondon.org.uk
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. This is the seventh update of UA 219/15. Further information: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde29/6005/2017/en/
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Since 10 October 2016, Ali Aarrass has had minimal meaningful contact with other detainees and has been confined to his single cell for 22 to 23 hours a day. Such conditions amount to prolonged solitary confinement according to the Mandela Rules.
Prolonged and indefinite solitary confinement amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, according to the Mandela Rules, and must not be imposed under any circumstances. The Moroccan authorities have repeatedly denied holding Ali Aarrass in solitary confinement, stating that he is merely held in an individual cell in a sparsely-populated prison. However, as Amnesty International explained to Morocco’s General Delegation for Penitentiary Administration and Reintegration in a letter detailing the organization’s concerns in November 2016, isolation does not need to be intended as punishment in order to constitute solitary confinement.
Ali Aarrass has been detained in Morocco since 14 December 2010 after Spain extradited him at Morocco’s request, ignoring warnings by the UN Human Rights Committee and Amnesty International that he risked being tortured in Morocco. He reported being tortured and otherwise ill-treated in custody between 14 and 24 December 2010, and subsequently in prison. Moroccan authorities have failed to adequately investigate his claims to date. He was convicted, on 19 November 2011, on the sole basis of statements extracted under torture, of illegal use of weapons and participation in a group intending to commit acts of terrorism (under Article 218 of Morocco’s anti-terrorism law, integrated into the Penal Code) and sentenced to 15 years in prison, reduced to 12 years on appeal. On 18 September 2012, he appealed the decision before the Court of Cassation. On 28 April 2017, the
latter eventually issued its final decision by confirming the previous sentence and thus dismissing any further appeal.
In 2013, the WGAD called on the Moroccan authorities to release Ali Aarrass immediately, after concluding that he had been convicted solely on the basis of “confessions” extracted under torture. In 2014, the CAT similarly concluded that the “confession” had been decisive in securing his conviction, in the absence of adequate investigations into the torture he reported.
In parallel, in July 2014, the UN Human Rights Committee decided that Spain had breached its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) by extraditing Ali Aarrass to Morocco. The Committee asked Spain
to award Ali Aarrass adequate compensation and take all possible measures to work with the Moroccan authorities to ensure that his detention in Morocco was in line with international law and standards. In 2015, the CAT also expressed concern about
the 2010 extradition and called on Spain to investigate his allegations of torture. In spite of numerous UN decisions confirming the human rights violations that Ali Aarrass has suffered, Moroccan and Spanish authorities have not, to date, offered him redress.
Ali Aarrass has been asking the Belgian authorities for consular assistance for years, which they firstly have been refusing on the ground of his dual citizenship. However, a September 2014 decision by the Brussels Court of Appeals instructed them to do
so. The Belgian authorities have appealed the Court of Appeals’ decision before Belgium’s Court of Cassation, and a final sentence is expected is expected in the coming months.
On 28 March 2017, the CAT issued a decision requesting the Moroccan authorities to improve Ali Aarrass' conditions of detention in order to prevent ''irreparable harm''.
In 2014, Morocco acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) and is expected to establish a National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) with a mandate to
monitor all places of detention later this year.
Further information on UA: 219/15 Index: MDE 29/6303/2017 Issue Date: 30 May 2017
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