Over 1,000 Iranian students suffer 'poisoning' ahead of mass protests

Rachel Schilke

December 06, 01:08 PM December 06, 01:08 PM

The night before a swell of protests against the Iranian regime was set to take place, 1,200 Iranian university students were struck with food poisoning.

The national student union announced that students at Kharazmi and Ark universities were experiencing food poisoning symptoms, including vomiting, severe body aches, and hallucinations on Dec. 1. At least four other universities have reported similar incidents, per the New York Post.

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Iranian officials are pointing to water-borne bacteria as a source of the poisoning, but the student union is claiming they were targeted. Students threw the provided food into the streets in protest, per the Arab News.

“Our past experiences of similar incidents at the Isfahan university negates the authorities' reason for this mass food poisoning,” the union wrote on Telegram.

Several university clinics were closed or ran out of supplies used to treat dehydration, fueling suspicions that the outbreak was intentional to disrupt the national protest movement.

A three-day strike was set to begin on Wednesday, part of a wider movement that has made international headlines. The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in custody in September after not adhering to Iran's strict dress code, launched a series of protests against the regime over the last two months.

Amini was arrested by Iran's morality police. Reports circulated that the regime would be disbanding the group, but the regime has since denied those claims.

During Iran's brief 2022 World Cup appearances last month, players and fans refused to sing Iran's national anthem. Players were reportedly threatened with "violence and torture" by the regime's Revolutionary Guard Corps after taking a stand.

Potential college or university college students rethink schools in states banning abortions

Misty Severi

July 11, 09:08 AM July 11, 09:08 AM

Some high school students are reconsidering their prime higher education preference primarily based on the abortion guidelines of the point out in which a college is situated following the Supreme Court's final decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Kristen Willmott, a counselor with Top Tier Admissions in Massachusetts, informed Reuters some significant school students have taken out Texas, Florida, and Tennessee from their top rated point out alternatives thanks to their restrictive abortion legislation. The CEO of Prepory, a college counseling firm in Florida, also famous a priority change in future college or university pupils.

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"Some of our learners have explicitly mentioned that they will not apply to faculties and universities in states which could infringe on their obtain to reproductive legal rights," claimed Daniel Santos, the CEO of Prepory.

Some students have even eliminated their leading university choice or their parents' alma maters from their lists of thought. Maryland large college senior Alexis Prisco reported she experienced prepared to utilize to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, the exact school each of her mom and dad went to.

"Now my mom has warned me that I require to be pretty cautious when making use of to educational facilities in states with result in regulations," Prisco stated.

An additional university student, Nina Huang, who was arranging to use to Oberlin School in Oberlin, Ohio, which banned abortion just after cardiac activity is detected in the fetus, reported she does not want to attend a college in a state with a ban on abortions. Cardiac exercise normally occurs about six weeks into a pregnancy.

The Supreme Court's choice past month in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health and fitness Organization to overturn Roe and the subsequent ruling in Prepared Parenthood v. Casey is not the very first time large college pupils have become cautious of which universities to attend based on state rules.

In 2016, North Carolina limited the loos that transgender individuals could use, demanding transgender people to use general public bathrooms centered on the person's biological sex alternatively than identification. The regulation caused future college students to reflect on irrespective of whether to go to prime-tier schools in the point out, which includes Duke College and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Having said that, applications to UNC-Chapel Hill however increased by 14% from 2016-2017 despite the hesitancy of some students, in accordance to the outlet.

The publication pointed out that it can be still far too shortly to tell particularly how a lot the bans will have an impact on purposes to faculties and universities in the 10 states that have thoroughly banned abortion.