A Fear Of Public Schools

Sure there are things going on these days which we probably wouldn't know about if there weren't so many News sources.

And sure, it does seem at times as though things in America are just going to hell in a hand basket every time we turn around.

But really, I just hope that folks don't give up and surrender. We can't lose hope!

I've received a lot of e-mail asking me what to do with everything looking so bad these days? My answer is that though it might look bad, we still can't give up and let it happen.

I have a nephew whose wife is expecting. He said he doesn't want his child to go to public schools but he can't afford private schools, so he is at a loss as to what to do.

When I asked why not send him to public school? He said schools are not places to learn how to be an American, or any positive aspects of our history or of our nation in general.

Besides, he says, schools today are "extremely anti-Christian." And also, he doesn't want to send his son to a school that will persecute his son for his Christian beliefs.

And really, how can I argue with him there because he's right.

And no, it doesn't stop at grade schools demeaning Christian students, it's even taking place at supposedly higher levels of education. Example of this is what is going on at Florida Atlantic University.

Professor Deandre Poole gave his class a horrible anti-Christian assignment, many call shameful and insensitive. Poole ordered his students to write "Jesus" on a piece of paper, then put it on the floor and stomp on it.

Imagine if students were asked to write "Mohammad" on a piece of paper and stomp on it? Or how about write "Obama" on a piece of paper and stomp on it?

It would never be tolerated! Never! Neither would be condoned, yet anti-Christians like this jackass Poole are protected and encouraged by their schools.

A woman who wrote me lately, responding to an article that I did on California's Education System, echoed many others who have written me to say that today's schools are just anti-American, violent, politically correct, ultra-liberal, more like leftist indoctrination camps - and not schools for learning useful knowledge such as math, English, science, or geography.

Since she hasn't been out of High School for very long herself, she said that it has even gotten worse than when she was in school.

She said she's having a tough time undoing what schools are doing to her children.

Her kids are being told that drugs are good and people who are against them are narrow minded; that gay and other deviant lifestyles are normal and that straight people are all homophobes; that Christian values are bad and that there is no God; that Republicans are bad and Democrats are good because Republicans hate blacks and Mexicans and anyone not white; that the 9/11 terrorists were not at fault and that the United States is really the reason for the attack; all guns are bad no matter what kind of gun: that there is no reason to listen to what your parents have to say - especially if they don't agree with President Obama because they are just Racists; and much more.

She said she is going to take her children to a hospital when they are older to see the results of a drug overdose and see what AIDS is all about - both the results of reckless behavior.

As for convincing them that she doesn't care what gays do, but does not think it normal, she said her children will have to learn that they shouldn't be made to accept something just because of peer pressure to do so.

And she's right, after all, there were a lot of Southerners who were anti-Slavery and sympathized with Republicans who were trying to free the slaves - all while being called some of the most foul things imaginable by their peers in the South.

She has decided that her children will be raised Christian, and hopefully they will learn that their are those who don't like others to have faith because they themselves don't. She's hoping that her children will recognize hate for what it is, even if it comes in the shape and form of a smiling teacher who tries to rob a child of their faith.

As for Republicans, those nasty folks who are all wealthy and white, she reminds her children that their family is of Mexican descent and they are Republicans.

She said she reminds her daughter, who is approaching her teens, that when she was pregnant with her and feeling lost that Planned Parenthood, who is made up of liberals and Democrats, told her that she should abort her.

She asked her daughter, "So if the Democrats are really so caring, why did they own slaves and fought against Civil Rights, and have encouraged so many women to kill so many babies?"

Since her family owns guns, she said her children are aware of gun safety and how guns can be useful for hunting and self-defense.

She told her oldest daughter, "if guns are not good for self-defense, then why do all police officers carry them? And if a police officer can carry a gun for self-defense purposes, why can't we do the same thing?"

As for their teachers telling them that they don't need to listen to what their parents have to say - especially if they don't agree with President Obama because they are just Racists, well that is just stupid.

She said, "I told my children that that is like calling me a racist because I disagree with your dad on spending too much money when we can't afford it - its just stupid"

So, is my nephew and those who write me correct in that it is getting worse these day?

Well, a 7-year-old boy in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, was suspended for two days for chewing his Pop-Tart type breakfast pastry into the shape of a gun and saying, “bang, bang” — an offense that the school described as a threat to other students, according to his family.

The pastry was a rectangular strawberry-filled bar, akin to a Pop-Tart, that the second-grader had tried to nibble into the shape of a mountain Friday morning, but then found it looked more like a gun, said his father, William “B.J.” Welch.

Mr Welch said an assistant principal at Park Elementary School in Baltimore told him that his son pointed the pastry at a classmate  — though the child maintains he pointed it at the ceiling.

“In my eyes, it’s irrelevant; I don’t care who he pointed it at,” Mr Welch said. “It was harmless. It was a danish.”

So has political correctness gone crazy in schools?

Well, in the 11 weeks since the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, at least two young children in the Washington, D.C. region have been suspended for pointing their fingers like guns; a 10-year-old in Alexandria, Va., was arrested by police for showing a toy gun to others on his school bus; and in Pennsylvania, a 5-year-old little girl was suspended for talking to classmates about shooting her Hello Kitty water gun that blows bubbles.

Of course, in one Texas school, a quiz given to fifth-graders blames the U.S. for 9/11 attacks.

That's right, a Texas mother is outraged by a school quiz given to her son that blames the United States for the September 11, 2001, attacks that killed over 3,000 people.

Kara Sands posted the test her son received in fifth grade at the Flour Bluff Independent School District in September on her Facebook page, which attracted more than 1,600 users in support of her concerns.

She told KRISTV that she was completely dismayed by a question that asked why the U.S. may be a target for terrorism? 

Her son chose the correct answer to the test that covered material from a video students watched in class: “Decisions we made in the United States have had negative effects on people elsewhere.”

"I'm not going to justify radical terrorists by saying we did anything to deserve that; over 3,000 people died," Kara Sands told the station.

She later met with the school’s principal, her son’s teacher and contacted the video’s distributor, Safari Montage, whose representatives stand behind the video but have already changed the corresponding quiz.

She plans to bring up her concerns during the next school board meeting on March 28.

"When I teach my children that you have to work hard and you have to earn a living and they go to school and learn something different, I absolutely take issue with that," she said.

Then, earlier this month, there is the story about a Texas student who was disciplined for refusing to recite Mexico's Pledge of Allegiance and sing the Mexican National Anthem.

Imagine that!  A student refuses to recite the Mexican National Anthem and is disciplined for it. Talk about the height of liberal indoctrination and anti-American behavior by teachers and school officials.

A Texas couple claims their daughter’s school district tried to force her to sing the Mexican National Anthem and recite Mexico's pledge of allegiance against her will - then punished her for standing her ground.

When the teen refused to participate, arguing it was against her beliefs as an American, she was eventually thrown out of the class and then given a failing grade for that day’s assignment, the lawsuit says.

William Brinsdon filed the lawsuit on behalf of his daughter, Brenda.

The lawsuit was filed against the McAllen Independent School District as well as Yvette Cavazos, Brenda’s teacher, and Reyna Santos, the principal at Achieve Early College High School.

McAllen is a Texas city of around 130,000 people less than 10 miles from the Mexican border in a region known as the Rio Grande Valley, the deepest part of the Lone Star State with a Mexican-American and immigrant majority population.

According to the lawsuit, Brenda was a sophomore in 2011 when she was asked to recite the Mexican National Anthem during her Spanish class. Brenda, whose mother is Mexican, told Cavazos, her teacher, that it was un-American to pledge an oath to another country.

Yvette Cavazos then told her to instead write an essay on the history of the Mexican revolution for the following day.

Brenda, 15, claims in the lawsuit she failed the essay because of her refusal to recite the Mexican pledge of allegiance. Previously, her father said, she was an above-average student. Eventually, she was asked to drop out of the class, according to the lawsuit.

So was it a class assignment designed to show patriotism to a foreign country?

A school official says no, but why would it be done when there are all sorts of other things a student can do for a Spanish class? The official called it "a cultural awareness" assignment in an advanced Spanish-language class.

They are 10 miles from the U.S.-Mexican border, they already have cultural awareness of the Mexican people. How much more awareness can students have living there?

Now on the flipr side of the coin, this is not the first lawsuit involving how patriotism should be handled in the classroom.

In June of last year, a teenager and her mother, Carolyn Raja, along with the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), took on the Brownsville, Texas, school district after the student was forced to stand during the U.S. pledge of allegiance.

In that case, Judge Mark Hornak ruled that students have a constitutional right to pass on reciting the pledge.

So let's understand what is taking place here. In the McAllen case, the school allows students to opt out of reciting the American pledge of allegiance - but punishes students for not reciting the Mexican pledge of allegiance or singing the Mexican national Anthem.

Is this ass backwards or what?

Now as to whether the school retaliated against Brenda for opting out of the Mexican anthem is still unclear, but it certainly sounds like it.

Her father claimed in the lawsuit that Brenda was kicked out of the class and then given a failing grade. This was a violation of her constitutional right to free speech, according to the suit.

“She spent the class hour in the school’s office, even though she requested to return to the classroom,” the Thomas More Law Center, which is representing Brinsdon, argued in the lawsuit. “Brenda was also given a failing grade on her report card, which was later corrected.”

"While the initial intent of exposing students to the elements of a different culture was a noble and well intentioned one," said Francisco Martinez, an English teacher in McAllen.."The apparent retaliation seemed petty in nature."

So yes, those of you who want to keep your children out of public schools have just cause to want to do so. Fact is, the more I read about what's going on across the nation in public schools - the more I realize that they are more screwed up than most parents really know.

Would I take my kid out of public schools today? Yes, even if it meant Home Schooling.

But besides Home Schooling, I believe that there might be another answer. Parents need to get involved and take charge.

They need to get on school boards if they can. Or maybe, they need to set up watchdog groups to prevent teachers from imposing their own leftist ideology on your children.

I understand how hard it is while both parents have to work these days, but maybe there is a way to bond with other like-minded parents and do something that will help fix the problem.

And yes, it is a matter of trust. Schools, both teachers and officials, have proven that they cannot be trusted to educate American children properly and without liberal propaganda.

On school boards, curriculum can be examined and monitored. As for watchdog groups, it may be beneficial to set up monitors to sit in on classroom discussions and observe whether or not political correctness and liberal indoctrination is going too far.

It is a shame that parents can't trust public schools to furnish their children with a quality education while doing away with the political bias and liberal ideology.

It appears that all they are doing is making life harder on parents who have the job of fixing what the schools are screwing up - their children.

Story by Tom Correa