Category: Education

UNRWA again teaching jihad terror and Jew-hatred as Biden’s handlers resume taxpayer funding with no conditions

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/04/unrwa-again-teaching-jihad-terror-and-jew-hatred-as-bidens-handlers-resume-taxpayer-funding-with-no-conditions;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Already the most anti-Israel administration since the founding of the modern state of Israel, and Biden’s handlers are just getting started in their betrayal of our only reliable ally in the Middle East, a nation that stands on the front lines of the global jihad.

“UNRWA Caught Teaching Terrorism, Jew-Hatred as Biden Admin Resumes Taxpayer Funding,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, April 16, 2021 (thanks to Henry):

The United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency is promoting violence against Israel and using educational materials that call for the Jewish state’s destruction, according to video evidence and copies of lesson plans being taught to children before and during the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is in charge of providing education to scores of Palestinian children, has done little to root out anti-Semitism and the glorification of terrorism from its official lesson plans, although it has repeatedly pledged to do so.

The Biden administration moved almost immediately to restart U.S. funding for UNRWA despite underlying concerns about the agency’s radical educational materials—fears that have been raised by U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in recent years. After aid was resumed earlier this month, UNRWA promised the Biden administration it will root out violence and anti-Semitism, though officials could not explain precisely how the agency would do this after decades of using anti-Israel materials.

A State Department spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon that UNRWA uses the Palestinian Authority’s curriculum and works “to address the problematic content and provides instructions for its staff to educate students about why the content is problematic.” UNRWA, the official said, “must respect neutrality, exclude anti-Semitism, and oppose violence.”

“The United States is completely committed to working with UNRWA to ensure that any inappropriate material is identified and removed,” the spokesman said. ”Our resumption of assistance will allow us to serve as a partner to UNRWA to uphold the highest level of neutrality and commitment to tolerance in its educational materials.”

The State Department spokesman did not address UNRWA’s decades-long failure to better police its content despite the organization’s repeated promises to do so.

Undercover videos taken at several UNRWA facilities during the past year show children participating in militant displays and calling for Israel’s destruction. Teachers have also been documented over Zoom, which replaced in-classroom learning in the wake of the pandemic, using lesson plans that deem Israel illegitimate and brand Jews as “foreign settlers” who must be violently removed from the region.

The latest evidence, unearthed by the Center for Near East Policy Research, an Israeli watchdog group that has investigated UNRWA for years, was presented late last month to a bipartisan group of congressional staffers just before the Biden administration moved forward with a controversial plan to send $150 million in U.S. aid to UNRWA. Funding to the organization had been frozen since 2018 after the Trump administration determined UNRWA’s anti-Semitic and anti-Israel agenda was too toxic to support….

The latest UNRWA curriculums are “based on Jihad, martyrdom and the ‘right of return by force of arms,’” said David Bedein, the Center for Near East Policy Research’s director. The U.S. government, he said, must demand the aid agency “cease paramilitary training in all UNRWA schools” and “insist that UNRWA dismiss employees affiliated with Hamas”—calls that have been ignored for years as UNRWA continues to take U.S. and European funding….

The Biden administration’s decision to resume UNRWA funding without any strings attached drew a scathing and rare public rebuke from the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., and Jewish groups typically aligned with the Democratic White House.

“Israel is strongly opposed to the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activity happening in UNRWA’s facilities,” said Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United States. “In conversations with the U.S. State Department, I have expressed my disappointment and objection to the decision to renew UNRWA’s funding without first ensuring that certain reforms, including stopping the incitement and removing anti-Semitic content from its educational curriculum, are carried out.”…

Arizona community college must pay $155,000 to prof it forced to apologize for criticizing Islam

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/04/arizona-community-college-must-pay-155000-to-prof-it-forced-to-apologize-for-criticizing-islam;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

A slight pause on American academia’s out-of-control-freight-train rush to submit to Sharia. But the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is still flogging this case in court, hoping to use it to destroy the freedom of speech and criminalize criticism of Islam.

“Arizona community college to pay $155K settlement for directing professor to apologize for Islamic terrorism quiz question,” by Katlyn Patton, FIRE, April 13, 2021:

Maricopa County Community College District will pay professor Nicholas Damask $155,000 in exchange for his agreement not to sue district personnel, who last year violated his expressive rights in an attempt to quell criticism of his quiz questions on social media. The district also pledged to strengthen its commitment to academic freedom.

Damask, who teaches political science at Scottsdale Community College, came under fire on social media last May after a student complained that quiz questions in Damask’s world politics course were offensive to the student’s religious beliefs. Damask said the college suggested it would require him to meet with an Islamic religious leader to review the content of his course because a student complained that three of Damask’s quiz questions about Islamic terrorism were “in distaste of Islam.”

In response, the college directed Damask to issue an apology — pre-written for him by a communications staff member — and implied that he would be investigated. The college ultimately backed down after an urgent letter from FIRE.

Now, the district is finally paying for SCC’s unconstitutional knee-jerk reaction to online criticism….

A lawsuit brought by the Council on American-Islamic Relations remains pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. (A district court judge dismissed the lawsuit in August for failure to state a claim, and CAIR appealed.)…

CANADA: Rob Hoogland gets 6 MONTH prison sentence, $30,000 fine~judge rejects plea bargain

SEE: https://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen4/21b/Rob-Hoogland-given-prison-sentence-fined/index.html;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Hostile judge rejects Rob Hoogland’s plea agreement with BC Attorney General in “criminal contempt” case for breaking gag order. Sentences Rob to six months in prison and $30,000 fine!

Judge claims that a lesser punishment would “bring the administration of justice into disrepute.”

Bizarre 2-day court proceeding after Rob had pleaded guilty (per plea agreement).

Judge angrily berates Rob for giving MassResistance “banned” information.

April 16, 2021
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Rob Hoogland, a British Columbia father trying to protect his daughter from sex-change procedures, takes a last look outside of the Court building before turning himself in on March 16.

The radical transgender agenda targeting children has become a national nightmare in Canada. The education system, the medical establishment, and now the courts are brutally enforcing this lunatic movement.

As we reported earlier Rob Hoogland, a British Columbia father, has been jailed without bail since mid-March. He was to go on trial on April 13. His crime: violating a gag order intended to cover up the gruesome “sex-change” procedures his 15-year-old daughter was undergoing – against his will. The court is now the enforcer for those ghoulish medical practitioners.

Plea bargain announced last week!

However, several days before the trial Rob’s lawyer, Carey Linde, announced that he and the Crown (Attorney General) had reached a plea bargain. On April 13, Rob Hoogland would admit to willfully breaching certain orders of the Supreme Court. He would accept 18 months probation and one month for time spent in custody. Thus, Rob would be released from custody on that day!

When the Court convened on the morning of April 13, everyone figured it would all go pretty quickly. Rob’s friends showed up, and were planning to drive him home soon afterward and celebrate his freedom.

British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Michael Tammen got right to business. He put Rob on the stand, had the clerk read the charges, and asked, “How do you plead?” Rob answered, “Guilty.” The judge asked Rob if he understood that he is giving up his right to a trial. Rob answered, “Yes.”

… But then the judge rejected the deal!

Then, in a shocking (and frankly dishonest) move, Justice Tammen harshly announced that he was rejecting the plea bargain! He felt that Rob’s actions required much greater punishment – certainly more imprisonment – than the plea bargain called for. Otherwise, he said, “It would bring the administration of justice into dispute.” Rob’s friends in the courtroom were aghast.

Tammen clearly wanted to make an example of Hoogland, in case other parents got similar ideas of resisting if this happened to their children. So he opened up discussion between the two opposing lawyers to help him decide how much more punishment to give.

The “sentencing” debate begins

Over the next two days, the “sentencing” debate between the Crown, Carey Linde, and Justice Tammen went on. Tammen was clearly hostile toward Rob and Linde, and much of the time it seemed like the judge was playing the part of a second prosecutor.

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Justice Michael Tammen was unbelievably hostile and biased.
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Attorney Carey Linde, Rob's lawyer, fought hard for him.

The Crown lawyer, Daniel Pruim, spoke first. He was well prepared. It appeared that he had prior knowledge that the judge would do this.

Describing every breach. The Crown started out by describing in lengthy detail every article and interview that Rob had participated in, and every piece of information that Rob had given out. Tammen was very focused on this, following it closely, and took notes.

Denunciation and deterrence required. The Crown went on to cite numerous cases where a “just cause” didn’t justify breaching court orders. The principles of sentencing demand that “denunciation and deterrence” are needed, and that precedents supported this. A court must “uphold the Rule of Law.”

Victim impact statement. Then the Crown announced that he had a “victim impact statement” from Rob’s daughter about how her father’s actions have harmed her. Rob’s lawyer objected, saying that there is no way to determine if the statement was actually written by one of the LGBT lawyers “supporting” the girl’s case. The statement was not allowed to be read in court, but a quote from it appeared in the Toronto Star newspaper the following day. Many people have since observed that it is unlikely this was written by a 15-year-old:

I am out as transgender only in some parts of my life and it terrifies me that I might be outed as a result of my dad’s actions. It would be very embarrassing to be outed as trans to people who know me only as male. Over and over private stuff about me was published online because of my dad. I have lost my faith that the courts can protect me. That makes me feel really vulnerable.

Judge’s angry outburst against MassResistance. The daughter’s impact statement caused Justice Tammen to let loose an angry outburst against Rob and his lawyer over the fact that MassResistance had been given several key documents by Rob, including the original hospital consent form for sex-change procedures signed by the daughter and mother (but not Rob) – and that MassResistance stubbornly refused to take it down. The judge said that this information was hurting the child, and the fact that the doctors’ names were on it was also a major violation of the gag order.

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From the BC Children's Hospital "Gender Clinic" website. This is what Justice Tammen wants desperately to protect from being exposed!

This was a bit unnerving since Carey Linde had previously pointed out that all of this “personal” information was already known in the general community, and that the idea that it “harmed” her was an invention of the prior judge in collaboration with the LGBT lawyers. Moreover, the doctors have widely advertised that they do these procedures, so it is no secret.

Linde phones MassResistance. During the lunch break, Carey Linde telephoned MassResistance to get clarification as to why we weren’t taking down the material. We reminded him that Rob has specifically asked us to post it, and that he later said he was glad that it would be there to educate the world about what is really happening. And we obviously agree this needs to happen.

Rob’s fundraising for legal defense costs. After lunch, the Crown lit into Rob’s “GoGetFunding” page raising money for his legal defense. He noted that Rob has raised over $56,000, and had a photo of himself with his daughter (as a young girl) on that page. Thus, he said, that money was “ill-gotten gains” and should be confiscated in some way. Justice Tammen heartily agreed that Rob was “profiting” off his crime, and said that he would take that into consideration. (It is contemptible that Tammen and the Crown actually believe that an accused person should not be able to raise money to pay for lawyers or related expenses.)

Rob takes the stand. Next, Justice Tammen asked Rob to take the stand and explain why he ignored the court “gag orders.” He said he wanted to tell the world how his daughter was tricked by the school transgender program into deciding she should “transition” to a boy. He said his child was too immature and irresponsible to understand the dangers and risks of cardiovascular disease, bone decalcification, cervical cancer, sterility, botched surgery, and perpetual hormone imbalance - all side effects of experimental hormone therapy. He added that so-called transgender people do not find peace, but continue to contemplate suicide at an alarming rate. He knew it was too late to save his own child, but he felt he HAD to tell his story to save other families from this tragedy.

Justice Tammen was unsympathetic. He was angry that Rob’s full story was still displayed on the Mass Resistance website. He claimed Rob could have told his story without naming his daughter. (Actually, Rob did not ever name her; her name was written on a document).

Comparing Rob to Gandhi, etc. Rob’s lawyer ended the first day with an argument comparing Rob’s civil disobedience to Diogenes, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King. As one person there told us, “It was very unconvincing. We left the court very, very discouraged.”

What the hospital consent form warned about. The next day, Carey Linde wanted to discuss the hospital consent form for the sex-change procedures that the mother and the daughter had signed. The judge angrily said no, because Rob had given it to MassResistance to post. There was a heated exchange over that, and the judge finally relented.

Linde said that the consent form clearly states that the cause of gender dysphoria is unknown. And if the cause of gender dysphoria is unknown, how is the diagnosis and proper treatment determined? He said the consent form also states that the impact of puberty blockers and testosterone are unknown, and that reproductive organs may need to be removed in the future. “How can a child consent to this?” he asked.

Linde said it’s important that the judge understand why Rob did what he did. But Tammen responded by chastising Linde, basically questioning his ability as a lawyer.

Jenn Smith allowed to address the Court with bizarre rant. Near the end of the second day, Linde asked Jenn Smith, a left-wing transgender activist who has supported Rob Hoogland, to address the Court. Jenn Smith is a very strange cross-dresser – a man who wears women’s clothes in public but still refers to himself a man. Jenn Smith has befriended Rob and Carey Linde in this case. The Crown objected to his speaking, but the judge decided to allow it.

Jenn Smith stood up and gave a bizarre rant attempting to explain why Rob talked to MassResistance and other conservative groups. Smith said that Rob suffered “emotional trauma” and had nowhere to turn but to “right-wing grifters and nut jobs,” and that they’re “contaminating Rob’s brain with right-wing propaganda.” He said that this should be a mitigating factor in sentencing.

ALT TEXT 
Jenn Smith (right), a cross-dressing man, is interviewed outside the courthouse by Rebel Media reporter on April 14. Smith continued his rant against MassResistance, and even our Organization Director Arthur Schaper!

The judge seemed pleased to hear bad things about people helping to expose the case. But the Crown objected to that reasoning, saying that Rob has made it clear numerous times that he did this on his own, and is responsible for his actions.

Rob certainly hasn’t appeared to be “in trauma” up until now. In fact, Rob had been very outspoken and enthusiastic about MassResistance and other groups getting the word out for him. In our March 11 video, he said:

We’ve all got to get behind this. I want to thank MassResistance. You guys are one of the leading examples of how we need to fight this. We’re beyond diplomacy on this matter. We’re at war. And people have to wake up. You can’t negotiate with terrorists who are experimenting with our children. That’s why I love what you do at MassResistance because you recognize that.

As Rob was going into the courthouse on March 16 to turn himself in, he was interviewed by Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson and said:

I’m definitely getting the word out in the United States, because that’s where word travels fast. And I can be more candid there than I can be here in Canada, for obvious reasons. I don’t want Canadians to get in trouble. So let the Americans help me in that way.

ALT TEXT 
Robert Hoogland gives an interview with MassResistance via Skype in early 2020.

Rob responds to Jenn Smith’s remarks – even more bizarre! Then the judge asked Rob if he wanted to respond to what Jenn Smith had said. It was really weird to hear how Rob responded this time. It was completely different than what he had testified the previous day.

Rob said that the first day he was incarcerated he was able to reflect on what he’d done, and that he’s regretting his civil disobedience. He said that he had just wanted to help his daughter, not hurt her. He thinks children should have to wait until they’re eighteen. He acknowledges what he did, and regrets it deeply. He said that “in hindsight" he would "navigate things differently." He wants to close this chapter and move on with his life, he said.

Someone who was there wrote, “This feels like a prisoner confessing under duress.” It certainly looks that way to us – and many others. It was surreal. (People who were there have said all this did more harm than good, in their opinion, given Rob’s sudden switch from the day before.)

At that point, the judge concluded the court proceedings and said he would announce the sentence on Friday, April 16.

The sentencing

Judge goes over the “history.” On Friday morning, Judge Tammen started off by going through the history of the case and the various breaches. He mentioned that the previous judge in the case had stated that if Rob referred to his daughter as a girl that it would constitute “family violence” – and Tammen seemed to agree with that.

MassResistance helping expose the horror is “most serious.” Tammen also recounted that Rob stated in interviews that he felt it was important to break the gag order. And Rob “instructed Americans to keep the story alive.” But in particular, Tammen insisted that the “most serious breech and gross violation” was Rob giving MassResistance the hospital “gender clinic” consent form and the hospital’s memo to Rob where they claim the daughter is “mature enough” to decide to have sex-change procedures. (That’s because these documents reveal how horrible all of this really is – something the government wants covered up.)

Thus, more punishment required. Judge Tammen said that agreeing to the plea bargain and merely giving Rob 45 days in prison is inadequate, and would “bring the administration of justice into disrepute.”

Shocking sentence. Tammen sentenced Rob to six months in prison. In addition, he fined Rob $30,000 (from his GoGetFunding legal defense) which Tammen said he is giving to the Ronald McDonald House. The courtroom was stunned. (With time served and other factors, Rob is expected to serve about 4½ months in prison. But one never knows for sure.)

From what we’re already hearing it’s likely that the activism in British Columbia on Rob’s behalf is only just beginning. We’ll keep you informed!

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Activists across Canada - in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario - are prepared to post thousands of these stickers in public areas to keep Rob's fight alive while he is in jail.
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Harvard Medicine’s Anti-White Apartheid

Rumble — The morally-deficient leftists of higher education are seeking to bring South African style apartheid to the United States. At Harvard Medical school, a scheme is being launched to implement a genocidal policy of delaying critical medical therapies to white patients, while forcing those languishing patients to pay for the treatments of patients who are artificially sent to the front of the line via brown privilege. The proponents of these disgraceful policies state that this will obtain "racial justice". As to be expected, Harvard Medical School apparently approves of this genocidal and racist policy recommendation, which is already being implemented at one of its medical facilities.

SARAH CORRIHER REPORTS: 

CATHOLIC JESUIT Fordham University Letter to the Editor: We Can’t Whitewash SJP Violence

SEE: https://fordhamobserver.com/62532/opinions/letter-to-the-editor-we-cant-whitewash-sjp-violence/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

April 12, 2021

There’s a violent history that follows Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). 

The Jewish community is all too familiar with the 250+ chapter organization: Nazi posters, cartoons of hook-nosed Jewish caricatures, defenses of swastika memes, harassment of Holocaust survivors. The Fordham SJP chapter has shared conspiracist doctored images of organ-harvesting (blood libel conspiracy), videos with cartoons of Orthodox Jewish men taping the world’s “mouth” closed using yellow tape labeled “anti-Semitism” (representing ”false” accusations and world control), and a speaker who said (in the Ram Café Atrium), “The Jews…the Zionists are using you as the token brown guy.”

Fordham SJP driving force and co-founder Gunar Olsen also promotes conspiracy theories, with posts that “leftists should take a break from the feminist culture wars,” frequent dismissals of Black Lives Matter as a “bulwark to the neoliberal project” and tool of the ruling class and a tweeted podcast of anti-masker, anti-vaxxer Trumpian conspiracist Mark Crispin Miller. He also retweeted Glenn Greenwald’s defense of Parler and Max Blumenthal’s assertions that anti-Semitism is “manufactured” with apologies “compelled” by the Israel lobby.

Fordham’s status as a private institution hasn’t been legally contested. Only Instagram meme account LC Sinners questioned this in posts critiquing the SJP and Austin Tong controversies. Treating all federally funded organizations as if they’re governmental bodies would require a massive legislative overhaul. 

However, I’m troubled by the Observer article’s characterization of SJP as “non-discriminatory” based on “a wide array” of popular support. It lists numbers of followers and “hundreds of likes,” unsurprising data at a predominantly white Christian university. Many historical atrocities had white and Christian populist support. 

The aforementioned political cartoon on Fordham SJP’s Facebook page came from a Holocaust denial competition. It also appeared on David Duke’s social media. SJP did inspire immense “fear and condemnation” within the Jewish community. Vetoing an organization like SJP is much like the removal of Robert Moses statues, the introduction of gender-neutral housing and bathrooms, and the investigation into Jaworski: a hopeful consequence of marginalized students finally getting heard.

For a quick demonstration of SJP violence, please view the Benedictine SJP controversy with Harold Kasimov (the gaslighting toward him can be triggering). We can’t commit to social justice and then whitewash populist violence toward the Jewish community. Let’s cherish Jewish students instead of playing political football with their lives.

-Brandon Satz-Jacobowitz, FCLC ’19

Woke Kindergarten-Brainwashing Very Young Children

Anti-American brainwashing starts early.

BY MATTHEW VADUM

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/04/woke-kindergarten-matthew-vadum/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

The Left’s unceasing efforts to turn the young against America will be supercharged with your tax dollars if a radical new plan devoting $6 billion to leftist educational indoctrination becomes law.

The proposed “Civics Secures Democracy Act,” introduced in Congress last month would authorize $1 billion per year in federal grants over six years for K–12 curriculum development, teacher training, and research on the teaching of history and civics.

It would also subsidize left-wing political agitation for course credit.

“These Alinskyite proposals seek to normalize in children radical leftist political activism disguised as public service,” said Pete Hutchison, president of Landmark Legal Foundation.

“Patterned after the environmental movement’s co-opting of children in the 1970s, we face both the bogus critical race theory and phony civic action programs that are fundamental challenges to our very way of life.”

U.S. taxpayers have indeed been funding subversive left-wing groups like the now-defunct Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and Saul Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation since at least the Johnson administration. Radicals advance their objectives, erode civil society, and send you the bill.

The Biden administration is fully behind this push to further entrench an ahistorical, politically slanted interpretation of American history and civics into the nation’s classrooms, where, in many cases, the writings of dead communist scholar Howard Zinn, along with nonsensical pabulum from the 1619 Project and the Southern Poverty Law Center, are already taught as objective truth.

Remember that in Executive Order 13985, the first executive order of POTUS 46*, the newly installed placeholder president rescinded President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 13950, which wisely banned the Marxist-invented Critical Race Theory in federal training, and Trump’s Executive Order 13958, which created the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission that urged U.S. education be moved away from a radical curriculum that hyped race-related injustices of the past.

The 1776 Commission’s final report described Critical Race Theory as “a variation of critical theory applied to the American context that stresses racial divisions and sees society in terms of minority racial groups oppressed by the white majority.”

“Equally significant to its intellectual content is the role Critical Race Theory plays in promoting fundamental social transformation,” it stated, “to impart an oppressor-victim narrative upon generations of Americans. This work of cultural revolution has been going on for decades, and its first political reverberations can be seen in 1960s America.”

Astonishingly, at least two Republicans in Congress who ought to know better are onboard.

The legislation, known in a previous iteration as the proposed “Educating for Democracy Act,” was introduced in the House as HR 1814 by Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), and Tom Cole (R-Okla.). The Senate version of the bill was introduced by Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas).

“The events of recent weeks have illustrated how fragile the democratic process is. We need to help train young people to appreciate how our democracy works,” said Blumenauer, referring to the endlessly overhyped security breach during the congressional certification of the presidential election at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 and its aftermath.

“This effort has never been more important, and our legislation is an opportunity for the federal government to place money behind efforts to supercharge civics education,” he said.

Left-wingers, by the way, rarely fail to refer to the events of that day incorrectly as an “insurrection,” which, if it is an accurate description, would make it one of the few rebellions in modern history in which the participants never got around to arming themselves.

It is unclear how Blumenauer resisted the urge here to sensationalize January 6 by using the I-word.

Much of the money in the proposal will go toward encouraging and supporting student political activism.

This is called “Action Civics” in the parlance of today’s media-savvy radicals and it means students will receive course credit for protesting and lobbying for political causes. The education bureaucrats holding the purse strings will overwhelmingly be left-wingers and so will almost all the recipients.

Conservative organizations that make the mistake of supporting the proposed “Civics Secures Democracy Act” because they think they might actually receive federal money will be “terribly disappointed,” said David Randall, director of research for the National Association of Scholars (NAS).

NAS has launched a new project called The Civics Alliance that aims to unite Americans to promote authentic civics education that teaches the nation’s founding principles and documents, key events of American history, the structure of our self-governing federal republic, and the spirit of liberty and tolerance.

In the legislation, the way the “bureaucratic hoops are being set up” means conservative and even moderate groups will likely be shut out of the grants process, he said. “It’s not until you look in the footnotes that you see it includes Action Civics.”

“A bill putatively open to progressive and conservative civics, will, because they have Action Civics as one of the bureaucratic prerequisites to apply for a grant, be overwhelmingly steered to radical civics organizations.”

Underwritten by federal grants, the left-wing activists want to promote activities outside the classroom, usually in connection with a nonprofit organization, and “what this does is it gets rids of actual education in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights,” Randall told this writer in a recent interview.

They want to substitute “collective action overwhelmingly for radical progressive causes … habituating students to being organized and learning how to organize.” It’s “vocational training for left-wing activism.”

“Action Civics really has to be removed from the curriculum. It shouldn’t even be an option,” he said.

“It’s a peculiarly effective pedagogy,” Randall admitted.

“This is actually really good psychology, when you get people to become active in something, that makes them loyal to it. … You’re supposed to be having a disengaged education so that you can make mature decisions. This is short-circuiting that process to get minors committed to political activism early on.”

Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, was the first to raise the alarm about the pending legislation.

The money disbursed under the legislation will benefit so-called woke education, including Critical Race Theory and Action Civics, in the nation’s classrooms, merging “the culture war [and] … K–12 education-policy disputes to a degree never before seen.”

The new legislation “is a backdoor effort to impose a de facto national curriculum in the politically charged subject areas of history and civics,” Kurtz wrote at National Review.

“All around us, the culture war has broken the bounds of the university and spilled into our day-to-day lives. Conservatives and traditional liberals are rightly up in arms about the woke assault on our most fundamental freedoms, extending to inculcating guilt and shame in elementary-school students for the color of their skin. The Democrats in Congress, in league with the Biden administration and the leftist Action Civics movement, are about to supercharge this culture war by injecting it into the heart of federal education policy. Whether sooner or later, this is destined to become the greatest education battle of our lifetimes.”

Randall agrees.

“This civics education is part of a broader ideological assault on the American republic,” he said.

“The basic point is you are supposed to be learning affection for the republic you’re a part of,” Randall said.

“A republic cannot continue if nobody loves it.”

 

U.S. military extremism ‘stand down’ agenda released seminar centered around liberal ideologies

Rumble — Details from the recent "all hands" stand-down across the U.S. military are raising concerns about political bias among the brass. One America's Christina Howitson has more.

School Districts Are Hiding Information About Children From Their Parents

Parents

BY SARAH PARSHALL PERRY

SEE: https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/03/24/school-districts-are-hiding-information-about-gender-transitioning-children-from-their-parents-this-is-unconstitutional;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

American law has long recognized the importance of parental rights. A parent’s right to oversee the care, education, and control of his or her child is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment and was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 1923, in Meyer v. Nebraska, and as recently as 2000, in Troxel v. Granville.

To raise and educate a child as parents see fit is—and always has been—on a par with the other fundamental, constitutionally guaranteed rights.

Worryingly, one school district in Maryland is acting like parental rights are no longer valid.

In Montgomery County, Maryland, educators are actively keeping information about something as critical as a student’s gender identity preference hidden from parents—an action in direct contravention of legally guaranteed parental rights, and in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

In response, two families have sued the Montgomery County Board of Education. The suit aims to enforce their rights to access information about their children’s gender identity, which is generated and retained by Montgomery County schools pursuant to a 2019 policy.

This policy enables Montgomery County Board of Education personnel to evaluate minors about sexual matters, allows minors of any age to transition socially to a different gender identity at school without parental notice or consent, and requires personnel to facilitate the transition with the use of the child’s “preferred pronouns.”

It also permits students to use the restroom that aligns with their “gender identity,” stating that while “[s]ome students may feel uncomfortable with a transgender student using the same sex-specific facility,” that “discomfort is not a reason to deny access to the transgender student.

School administrators and counseling staff members, the policy states, should work with students to “address their discomfort to foster understanding of gender identity and to create a school culture that respects and values all students.”

Certainly, the parents of students made to share sex-specific spaces with students of the opposite sex would want to know this information. But the Montgomery County Board of Education policy forbids it.

Stunningly, the policy prohibits personnel from communicating with parents on any of the above actions and goes so far as to direct teachers and staff to deceive parents by reverting to a child’s birth name and corresponding pronouns whenever a child’s parents are present.

According to court filings, the Montgomery County Board of Education claims it is acting in the best interests of the minors involved by protecting them from the “unsupportive” parents of those children.

In its motion to dismiss, the Montgomery County Board of Education represented that disclosure to parents who are “not supportive … might expose the student to harm” and that “gender-nonconforming students face significant dangers of abuse at home from unsupportive families.”

The Montgomery County Board of Education policy requires that “the principal or identified staff member should speak with the student to ascertain the level of support the student either receives or anticipates receiving from home.”

By cloaking critically important information about one’s child under the guise that unsupportive parents are “dangerous” to their children, schools are given license to effectively label “gender critical” parents as abusive without the benefit of due process protections.

Under some cock-eyed theory of “harm at home,” the Montgomery County Board of Education substitutes schools for parents and deprives all parents in the county school system of their fundamental right to vital information based on nothing but a hunch.

Montgomery County parents not only have the U.S. Constitution and the Maryland Constitution on their side, they have the protections of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act as well. Specifically, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act gives parents of minors rights regarding their children’s education records, with the only exceptions being a court order or specific state law to the contrary.

These rights include a right to access their children’s education records, to seek amendment of those education records, and to consent to disclosure of personally identifiable information. Parents whose Family Education Rights and Privacy Act rights are violated can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education (in addition to any private legal action).

Montgomery County is not alone in bypassing parental consent and notification when it comes to students’ gender transitions. It’s quite possible the gender transition nightmare that Jay Keck experienced with his autistic daughter—facilitated and concealed by school officials in a Chicago suburb—could happen to other parents who are not informed of their rights.

With full awareness of her mental health challenges, school officials helped Keck’s daughter socially transition by using her preferred pronouns, giving her access to a gender-neutral restroom, and keeping it all from her parents.

When Keck and his wife discovered their child’s secondary identity and requested school officials treat her in accordance with her biological sex, they were continually defied.

For proof of school districts’ increasingly cavalier attitudes toward parental rights, see the Metropolitan School District policy in Madison, Wisconsin, that requires staff to keep a student’s gender identity “confidential” from parents if the student does not consent to the information being shared.

Or, see the New Jersey Department of Education’s guidelines, which instruct teachers how to avoid “inadvertently disclos[ing] the transgender student’s status” to parents.

Or, see the guide on the Los Angeles Unified School District’s website, which instructs teachers to provide whatever “services” they can for transitioning students with unsupportive parents.

Even the National Education Association, a labor union for teachers across the nation, encourages teachers to hide a student’s gender identity from parents unless they are “required to [reveal it] by law.”

While the public school districts and their unions may foolishly assume they know better than parents about what to do when it comes to a child’s “gender identity,” the Constitution and other federal law do not grant them the authority to circumvent parental consent or notification in these matters.

Despite the whims of the board of education, a parent’s rights do not end at the schoolhouse door. But if not eliminated, the unconscionable policy of the Montgomery County Board of Education will be the beginning of a steep and precipitous decline in protections for those rights.

Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email letters@DailySignal.com and we will consider publishing your remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature.  

SCOTUS to Decide if Public Schools May Regulate Off-campus Speech

Brandi Levy, then 14, was suspended from her cheerleading squad by the Mahanoy Area School District in Pennsylvania back in 2017 after she sent the Snapchat to her friends on a weekend

ABOVE: Brandi Levy, then 14, was suspended from her cheerleading squad by the Mahanoy Area School District in Pennsylvania back in 2017 after she sent the Snapchat to her friends on a weekend

BY ELAD HAKIM

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/scotus-to-decide-if-public-schools-may-regulate-off-campus-speech/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

When Brandi Levy, a high school freshman, issued an F-bomb-laden Snapchat post to some of her followers, she probably didn’t expect any pushback from the school district. To her dismay, Levy, who had unsuccessfully tried out for the school cheerleading team, was suspended from cheerleading for an entire year by the school district as a result of her post. After prevailing in several lower courts, Levy has asked the Supreme Court to intervene, and arguments in front of the Supreme Court are scheduled for later this month. In essence, the Supreme Court will decide whether a school may regulate speech that occurs off-campus in the same manner that it does with speech that occurs on-campus.

As reported by the Morning Call:

Frustrated at not making the varsity cheerleading squad or getting the softball position she wanted and worried about final exams, the Schuylkill County teen posted a picture of herself and a friend with middle fingers extended and the text, “F— school f— softball f— cheer f— everything.”

Levy sent the post on her own personal cellphone, away from school property, and on a Saturday. Despite these important facts, the school district suspended her after a coach from the school informed the district about her post.

Given the suspension, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments about whether the school board exceeded its authority when it suspended Levy. Since, as stated above, Levy’s post was made on her personal device, away from school grounds, and on a Saturday, at issue is whether the school was permitted to “police” such posts and to take remedial action under such circumstances?

In the 1969 case of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the U.S. Supreme Court addressed the question of student speech and the First Amendment. As the Supreme Court explained:

In December, 1965, a group of adults and students in Des Moines held a meeting at the Eckhardt home. The group determined to publicize their objections to the hostilities in Vietnam and their support for a truce by wearing black armbands during the holiday season and by fasting on December 16 and New Year’s Eve. Petitioners and their parents had previously engaged in similar activities, and they decided to participate in the program.

The principals of the Des Moines schools became aware of the plan to wear armbands. On December 14, 1965, they met and adopted a policy that any student wearing an armband to school would be asked to remove it, and, if he refused, he would be suspended until he returned without the armband. Petitioners were aware of the regulation that the school authorities adopted.

On December 16, Mary Beth and Christopher wore black armbands to their schools. John Tinker wore his armband the next day. They were all sent home and suspended from school until they would come back without their armbands. They did not return to school until after the planned period for wearing armbands had expired — that is, until after New Year’s Day.

The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that public-school officials could not censor student speech/expression unless they could forecast that the expression would result in “substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities” or “intrude in the school affairs or the lives of others.” As the Supreme Court noted:

As we have discussed, the record does not demonstrate any facts which might reasonably have led school authorities to forecast substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities, and no disturbances or disorders on the school premises in fact occurred. These petitioners merely went about their ordained rounds in school. Their deviation consisted only in wearing on their sleeve a band of black cloth, not more than two inches wide. They wore it to exhibit their disapproval of the Vietnam hostilities and their advocacy of a truce, to make their views known, and, by their example, to influence others to adopt them. They neither interrupted school activities nor sought to intrude in the school affairs or the lives of others. They caused discussion outside of the classrooms, but no interference with work and no disorder. In the circumstances, our Constitution does not permit officials of the State to deny their form of expression.

Since the Tinker decision, the Supreme Court has created several exceptions to such protection, which are discussed here, here, and here. One obvious question, however, is whether these exceptions should be applied to speech/expression that occurs away from school property, on a personal device, and not during school hours.

A ruling against Levy could have far-reaching implications due to the possible chilling effect it could have on First Amendment-guaranteed rights. Clearly, there are times when schools must take remedial action against students for certain forms/types of expression, including such cases where threats or incitements are made (such speech/expression is generally not protected under the First Amendment). However, if students can be disciplined for merely “venting” on their own personal devices, where will the line be drawn between protected speech and unprotected speech? More to the point, how much power will school administrators/officials have to police what students say? Finally, if such broad police powers exist, who will police those who are doing the “policing?” Are students merely at the whim of the school administrators/officials? Could this result in instances of selective enforcement? Will the students’ First Amendment-protected rights outside of the school be equivalent to those inside of the school?

Our First Amendment rights are vital. Sadly, they are already being eroded. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will provide some additional guidance in this context.

 

EPOCH TIMES, AMERICAN THOUGHT LEADERS: Peter Boghossian on Woke Ideology: ‘A Recipe for Cultural Suicide’; Case for Defunding Universities

New Data Shows Homeschooling Explosion!

New Data Shows Homeschooling Explosion!

BY GARY BENOIT

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/new-data-shows-homeschooling-explosion/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau confirm earlier polling results showing an unprecedented explosion in the number of families choosing to educate their children at home, free from government indoctrination, sexualization, forced masking, and dangerous dumbing down. Homeschooling rates grew fastest among black Americans.

The shift has been enormous. By the fall of 2020, the overall number of homeschooling families doubled, Census data show. In the Spring of 2020, just over 5 percent of families were educating children at home. By the fall, homeschoolers grew to represent over 11 percent of all American households with school-age children.

According to Census.gov, the number of homeschooling families grew rapidly from 1999 to 2012 but remained relatively steady at around 3.3 percent for years. “However, the global COVID-19 pandemic has sparked new interest in homeschooling and the appeal of alternative school arrangements has suddenly exploded,” wrote the bureaucracy, which tracks population data and more.

Using a nationally representative sample of American households, the Census Bureau’s “Household Pulse Survey” compared data from the spring of the 2019-2020 school year with results from the fall of 2020-2021. In late April and early May, about 5.4 percent of U.S. households with school-aged children reported homeschooling. By late September and early October, that number surged to 11.1 percent.

That enormous growth was an increase of 5.6 percentage points and a doubling in the number of U.S. households that were homeschooling compared with the previous school year. Because homeschool families are often larger on average than government-schooled families, the percent of school-age children being educated at home is estimated to now be well over 11.1 percent — potentially 5 million children or more.

Just to be sure that families doing government school at home did not misreport, the Census included a clarification making clear that virtual learning through a public or private school was not to be considered “true homeschooling.” Experts said that means the surge in homeschooling may have been even larger than reported. Unfortunately, no data from the bureau was available from before the pandemic.

In some states the population of homeschoolers became almost 10 times larger. Massachusetts, for instance, went from having just 1.5 percent of children being homeschooled to more than 12 percent in that short period. In Alaska, the number went from 10 percent to almost 28 percent. And in Oklahoma, the numbers went from about 8 percent to over 20 percent. Florida’s numbers also grew to almost 20 percent of families choosing to educate at home.

Self-described black Americans were far more likely to pull their children from government schools than any other group measured in the data. “In households where respondents identified as Black or African American, the proportion homeschooling increased by five times, from 3.3% (April 23-May 5) to 16.1% in the fall (Sept. 30-Oct. 12),” the Census Bureau revealed. Lower-income Americans were also more likely to pull their children out.

Analysts said more research would be helpful to understand the changes. “Future research will likely reveal what portion of those families who began homeschooling during the past year will continue on with it into the future,” wrote Dr. Brian Ray, who leads the National Home Education Research Institute. “If a significant portion stays with homeschooling, more noticeable changes lie ahead regarding public favor toward homeschooling and parent-led home-based education’s impact on individual children, families, and society.”

The news is not new. In fact, The Newman Report noted in September of 2020 that survey data from Gallup revealed a doubling in homeschool numbers. At the same time, this blog also reported in December that government-school districts across America were seeing catastrophic declines in the number of victims enrolled in their indoctrination centers, with some districts losing over 10 percent or more in one year.

Of course, government and government-school proponents want Americans to believe that the surge in home education is solely due to COVID-19. The reality is far more complex. One of the many things COVID did was expose for parents the madness and child abuse taking place in government schools, while at the same time showing parents the benefits and possibilities of homeschooling.

________________________________________________________

In a Rebuke to Unions, School Choice Going Gangbusters in the States

BY LINDSEY BURKE

SEE: https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/03/30/in-a-rebuke-to-teachers-unions-school-choice-is-going-gangbusters-in-the-states

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

School districts are slowly beginning to reopen in-person instruction after being closed for nearly a year—or, in many places, for over a year. While this is a wonderful development, it will never erase what parents experienced last year: uncertainty, inconsistency, and, in some cases, ineptitude from public schools.

The events of the last year have demonstrated to many families that public schools are not always the reliable institutions many thought they were. It also opened their eyes to just how powerful the teachers' unions are, and revealed what many already suspected: that their modus operandi is not to support teachers who want to teach but to score political wins.

Thankfully, in response to these disappointments, multiple state legislatures are undertaking one of the biggest expansions of school choice in history. Here are some states to watch:

West Virginia. On March 29, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed into law the most expansive school choice program in the country, a nearly universal option for education savings accounts.

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This is monumental. It is the nation’s first universal education savings account program open to all children in the state. Students who choose to participate in the education savings account option will receive 100% of what the state would have spent on their education in their prior public school—or approximately $4,600 per year—which they can then use to pay for private school tuition, online learning, private tutoring, and a variety of other education services, products, and providers.

All incoming kindergarteners will be eligible for an education savings account, as will all first through 12th graders, with the condition that they have previously been enrolled in a West Virginia public school for 45 days.

Kentucky. Kentucky followed suit this week with the Legislature overriding Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill to create the Bluegrass State’s first school choice program—a tax credit-funded education savings account.

Known as Education Opportunity Accounts, students from families with incomes below 175% of the federal poverty line will have access to education savings accounts. The program is available to students living in counties with more than 90,000 residents and will initially be capped at $25 million.

South Dakota. On March 18, Gov. Kristi Noem signed into law an expansion of South Dakota’s tax credit scholarship program, which provides tax credits to insurance companies that provide donations to scholarship-granting organizations, which in turn provide scholarships to eligible students to offset the cost of private school tuition.

Students from families whose income does not exceed 150% of the qualifying amount for free and reduced-price lunch eligibility (approximately $73,000 for a family of four) are eligible. The Legislature expanded the program to now include students who already attend private school.

Georgia. Gov. Brian Kemp will soon have on his desk a bill that expands eligibility for the state’s existing voucher program for students with special needs. The proposal would expand eligibility to students in public schools with 504 plans (meaning they may need additional help in school due to learning impediments).

Approximately 58,000 Georgia students currently have 504 plans and would be eligible for the expanded voucher program.

Florida. The Florida Legislature is considering a proposal to consolidate the state’s five existing school choice programs into two streamlined education savings account options. One of the education savings account programs would be geared toward students with special needs, and the other would be available to the broader student population.

This proposal would fold the McKay Scholarship Program, a voucher program for children with special needs; the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, which provides scholarships to income-eligible students; the Hope Scholarship, which allows individuals to redirect their car sales tax to private school scholarships; and the Family Empowerment Scholarship, which provides scholarships to students to attend a private school of choice who were on the waitlist for the state’s popular tax credit scholarship program, into the existing education savings account structure.

The proposal would bring the flexibility and customization of education savings accounts to the existing voucher and tax credit scholarship programs, updating the current school choice programs.

The proposal also grows program eligibility by eliminating the prior public school attendance requirements and opening the education savings account program to low-income homeschooled students in the state.

Arizona. In Arizona, the Legislature is considering an expansion of the state’s existing (first-in-the-nation) education savings account program to include students who attend a low-income school.

It would also make students who live in the attendance zone boundary of a Title I school eligible for the accounts. An estimated 65% of school districts in Arizona are home to Title I schools.

Missouri. Missouri lawmakers have introduced a bill to create a tax credit-funded education savings account program with broad eligibility. The program would be open to all students who previously attended public school in Missouri, or are entering kindergarteners, or who have an active-duty military parent. The program would initially be capped at $50 million.

New Hampshire. New Hampshire officials are likewise considering an education savings account program that would provide eligible families with $4,500 per year. The education savings accounts would be available to students from families earning less than $77,000 per year for a family of four.

Indiana. In Indiana, policymakers have introduced a measure that would expand eligibility for the state’s existing school voucher program and would create education savings accounts.

Children with special needs, from military families, or from foster families would be eligible for an education savings account worth 90% of what the state would have spent on that child in their public school.

In addition to these nine states, dozens of others are considering measures to expand education freedom and opportunity to students. An unprecedented 29 states have already introduced similar measures this year that will create or expand vouchers, tax-credit scholarships, and education savings accounts, according to the Educational Freedom Institute.

According to EdChoice, more than 20 of those states have introduced education savings account options specifically. For families, these proposals represent lifelines to opportunities previously unavailable to them in their public school.

These measures are a swift rebuke to the teachers' unions, who have not only stood in the way of education access during the pandemic but have been the primary obstacles to education choice for decades.

Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email letters@DailySignal.com and we will consider publishing your remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature.  

Illegal Children Now Have Teachers But Americans Do Not

Teachers SNUB Own Students to Teach MIGRANT Kids as Homeschooling SURGES 300%!!!

★★★ YOUR PATRIOT PATH TO FREEDOM! ★★★

San Diego Public School Teachers are SNUBBING Their Own Students to Teach MIGRANT Kids at the border, all as Homeschooling SURGES over 300%! In this video, we’re going to take a look at the glaring disparity in the way illegal immigrant children are being treated by teachers and how American students are getting treated, how such a glaring disparity is awakening a populist backlash like never before, and how we can see that backlash already happening in a mass exodus of students from our nation’s public schools; you are NOT going to want to miss this!

SEE ALSO: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/bryan-preston/2021/03/31/wh-spox-jen-psaki-struggles-to-explain-why-illegal-migrants-get-in-person-school-in-san-diego-when-american-kids-cant-gets-ratioed-on-youtube-again-n1436455

San Diego prioritizing teaching detained migrant minors over children within school district

Rumble — Illegal immigrants in California are receiving in-person education before hundreds-of-thousands of American students will re-enter the classroom. One America's Jasmin Hovey has more.

WH Spox Jen Psaki Struggles to Explain Why Illegal Migrants Get In-Person School in San Diego When American Kids Can't, Gets Ratioed on YouTube Again

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/bryan-preston/2021/03/31/wh-spox-jen-psaki-struggles-to-explain-why-illegal-migrants-get-in-person-school-in-san-diego-when-american-kids-cant-gets-ratioed-on-youtube-again-n1436455

A British School Caves to the Muslim Mob A society on its knees.

BY KATIE HOPKINS

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/british-school-caves-intolerant-muslim-mob-katie-hopkins/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

A Religious Studies teacher from a school in Batley, England is now in hiding under police protection because he used an illustration of the Muslim prophet Muhammad as part of his learning materials in class. His family has also been forced into hiding with him for their safety.

The Muslim mob braying for his blood have blockaded the school gates, are actively inciting violence against the teacher in question, forcing the school to close and children to miss out on their education. A few of their number have posted a petition to have the teacher reinstated because they saw — first hand — that he was simply trying to teach them, not what to think, but how.

In response, the School Headmaster has prostrated himself on the ground in deference to the mob swarming at the gates, the police are reading and re-reading his endless apologies, and the teacher has been suspended pending investigation. Work will be the least of his concerns right now. His life and the lives of all those who are close face immediate threat.

Predictably, the British media are largely silent on the matter, preferring to prioritize other stories, or reporting with the kind of painful neutrality observed by Switzerland. And those who grift a living from "defending free speech" are mute, knowing their future income relies on their silence. They will try to protect what they have for just one more day — even though they will pay for their complicity in the end.

If pushed, you will hear supposedly Conservative politicians talking about "avoiding offense" or asking for "calm." These are the most centrist positions you can take when trying to say nothing and avoid the wrath of everyone.

Naturally, the left-wing politicians from the area are siding with the Muslim mob (because their power depends on these votes) and every Islamic organization from here to Mecca is piling on with their condemnation and demands for reparations. This is an Islamic show of strength in the heart of Britain.       

It is not as if it needed reinforcing.

In October 2020, Samuel Paty was beheaded close to his school after showing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad to his students. His killer, 18-year-old Abdullakh Anzorov, was shot dead by police shortly after the attack but seven other people, including two students and a parent of one of Mr. Paty's pupils, were detained in the days following the killing. This community works together to silence dissent.

And this evil will stop at nothing. The British teacher at the center of this nightmare will never have a life again. He will never leave his front door without wondering if he will be jumped, and he will live carrying the fear that one day one of his children will not get off the school bus at the end of the day, or that his partner will have acid thrown at her on the street.

I say this with certainty because I have lived it. It has been my truth also, every day for ten years since I became an outspoken critic of this religion of brutality. For some reason, I even feel grateful the two jihadists who plotted and practiced beheading me are in prison. I am never certain gratitude is what I should be feeling, but anger and indignation are not healthy bedfellows and are best left lie alone.

The cursory commentariat references the events at this one school in Batley with dispassion. But all of them are missing the more meaningful points of what is actually going on at this school and in the UK more generally.

Firstly, it is never about the individual involved. This is not about one school teacher or one illustration of Muhammad. When you want to make fundamental change against that which is reasonable, you make unreasonable demands and rush "status quo" with full force. You will not gain all the ground you were fighting for, but you make progress in a direction that is contra-normal or against freedoms of the many; for example, creating blasphemy laws in a secular country.

Britain badges itself as a secular society, but the reality is completely at odds with this thin veneer. The Muslim majority in our major cities are the most powerful influence in the UK today. De facto blasphemy laws are already in place; even reasonable observers on my social media feeds are questioning, "Why would you deliberately cause offense?" failing to see the error of their logic. What happens when being LGBT is an unreasonable offense? Should the UK only have single-story buildings erected for the future faced by the gay community here?

Fundamentally, Britain is being groomed to tolerate the intolerance of others. Because neither Islam nor those who practice it can be criticized, the intolerant beliefs held by many (both blockading the school gates in Batley and in wider British society) are also protected. When Muslim parents mounted an "It’s Not OK to be GAY" protest outside a school, replete with banners, loud hailers, and a truck bearing these words, nothing was said.

Eventually, the leftist lizard must eat its own tail. It will have to pick a side. Will the left choose the LGBT minority or the Muslim majority who hold the power? We know the answer to this already.

The UK is not a safe country for my Jewish friends or my LGBT peers. Demographics alone confirm this where Muslim births outnumber births to all other religions by 2035. But everyday events are highlighting the speed of our descent. De facto blasphemy laws already exist and are actively policed; soon they will be scribed into law.

No school teacher will ever go near this subject in any way ever again, not as part of a teaching exercise or discussion. The mob has achieved a direct victory by threatening the life of the man involved, and the country has accepted that violence dictates what can be taught in British schools in a supposedly secular country.

And yet again, white Christians have been forced to recognize their place in their own country, which is much diminished. If white Christian parents blockaded a school and demanded death to a teacher, I imagine the time between these utterances and a prison cell could be counted in mere minutes. At the school in question, the Muslim mob has a police force to protect them, and a society on its knees begging forgiveness for the offence caused. It is shaming to us all.

WARNING: New Sesame Street Muppets Brainwash Infants and Toddlers about Racism (Video)

BY AMY MEK

SEE: https://rairfoundation.com/warning-new-sesame-street-muppets-brainwash-infants-and-toddlers-about-racism-video/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

US left-wing run children’s television show “Sesame Street” has released videos featuring two new muppets to brainwash children as young as infants about race and racism.

African-American dad Elijah and his son Wes are featured in one of the videos, talking to red muppet Elmo about differences in skin color due to melanin.

 

The new muppets were introduced as part of the “ABCs of Racial Literacy” video resources, produced by non-profit Sesame Workshop as part of its commitment to “social justice”, or better known as communism.

The concept of “social justice” is a smokescreen for the old-fashioned divide-and-conquer weapon deployed by communists. From a young age, these social justice warriors exploit differences to evoke hostilities among children in order to indoctrinate them.

Sesame Workshop, the non-profit behind Sesame Street, said it wants to “provide families with the tools they need to build racial literacy, to have open conversations with young children.”

“The work to dismantle racism begins by helping children understand what racism is and how it hurts and impacts people,” Kay Wilson Stallings, Sesame Workshop’s executive vice president of creation and production explained.

The group also provides activities for kids as well as tutorials for parents to teach children as young as infants about the dangers of racism.

The muppets have long been accused of pushing a communist agenda. In 2011, a national debate erupted after a commentator on Fox News stated that the new Muppets movie sends a clear, anti-corporate message to kids and adults who watch. The movie centered around an oil baron conflict and a subversive anti-capitalism message.
Support our work at RAIR Foundation USA! We are a grassroots activist team and we need your help! Please consider making a donation here: https://rairfoundation.com/donate/

Top High Schools Scrap Merit-Based Admission

BY LARRY ELDER

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/top-high-schools-scrap-merit-based-admissionwill-larry-elder/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

San Francisco's Lowell High School is one of the top public high schools in California. Beginning with its 2021 freshman class, Lowell plans to switch from a merit-based admission system to that of a lottery.

How good is Lowell? It ranked 68th nationwide by U.S. News last year.

About the school's reputation for academic excellence, The San Francisco Unified School District website says: "(Lowell) has been recognized 4 times as a National Blue Ribbon School, 8 times as a California Distinguished School, and one time as a Gold Ribbon School. Lowell has been consistently ranked #1 in the Western Region for the number of Advanced Placement Exams given."

How did students get admitted to Lowell? The SFUSD website still says: "Admission to Lowell is competitive and merit-based, serving students from throughout the city who demonstrate academic excellence and are motivated to pursue a rigorous college preparatory program."

About 60% of the student body is Asian, 18% white and1.8% Black. This is apparently a problem and explains why the SFUSD recently unanimously voted to admit students via this lottery system.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the "problem" is Asian American excellence: "One school board commissioner, Alison Collins, has called merit-based admissions 'racist.' The real problem progressives have with Lowell is that too many Asian-Americans are passing the entrance exam."

This brings us to Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology in Fairfax, Virginia, often the top-rated public high school in the country. TJ also plans to drop their admissions test and are debating on how to replace it. The problem? Over 70% of the student body is Asian American. Fairfax County Public School Board Superintendent Scott Brabrand proposed a "merit-based" lottery for 400 of the 500 spots in the school's classes. About that alternative, The Washington Post said: "The lottery proposal spurred controversy from the moment Brabrand introduced it on Sept. 15. He promised it would cause TJ's student body — which is more than 70% Asian and about 20% white, with single-digit percentages of Black and Hispanic students — to more closely resemble the demographics of Fairfax County."

So much for merit. So much for a colorblind society.

Let's assume that Lowell and TJ's competitive merit-based admissions policy resulted in a student-body population that is predominately Black, as is the case with the National Basketball Association. In 2020, the league that prides itself on its racial "wokeness" consisted of 81% Black players and 18% white players. In the NFL, in 2019, approximately 59% of players were Black. As to Major League Baseball, UPI, in 2019, wrote: "By 2017, 27.4 percent of MLB players were Latinos, according to the date compiled by the Society of American Baseball Research." This is roughly 50% more than percentage of the population of Latinos in America.

To correct for these "racial imbalances " and the "underrepresentation" of some groups, suppose professional sports organizations decided, like Lowell High, to use a lottery system? The new rules would prevent the Black player-heavy NBA, the Black player-heavy NFL and the Latino-heavy MLB from drafting the best college players, provided, of course, they had the misfortune of being born Black or Latino.

In 2012, Pew Research Center polled Asian Americans and asked their reaction to the statement, "Most people who want to get ahead can make it if they're willing to work hard." Sixty-nine percent of Asian Americans agreed, as opposed to 58% of the general population. Pew explained: "Compared with the general public, Asian Americans stand out for their success in education and career. Most also believe that the U.S. offers more opportunities and freedoms than their countries of origin. A large majority of Asian Americans believe that hard work pays off and most place a strong emphasis on higher education, career and family."

Why punish the best college players because "too many" Blacks excel in sports? Why punish Asian American students for the crime of working hard and outperforming others academically?

Ask the San Francisco Unified School District and Fairfax County Public School Board.

Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk show host.

 

Wheaton College Removes Monument to Martyrs Over Political Correctness… 1,050 views•Mar 26, 2021

MISSIONARY SPENCER SMITH:

Wheaton College removes a plaque to commemorate Jim Elliot and Ed McCully because of the word "Savage" being shown on the plaque. Political correctness is an enemy to Christianity.

The reason? The school wants to get rid of "pejorative" language on the memorial that refers to the attacking tribe members as "savage."

"Specifically, the word 'savage' is regarded as pejorative and has been used historically to dehumanize and mistreat indigenous peoples around the world," Ryken wrote, according to the Post, which obtained a copy of the letter.

wheaton plaque

Wheaton College Removes Plaque Honoring Martyred Missionaries Because it Offends the Killers

BY JEFF MAPLES

SEE: https://reformationcharlotte.org/2021/03/22/wheaton-college-removes-plaque-honoring-martyred-missionaries-because-it-offends-the-killers/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Wheaton College, which has ties to the Southern Baptist Convention and other mainstream Evangelical denominations, is home to many new woke faces of the Evangelical social justice movement, including Ed McGoatBeard Stetzer and Esau McCauley, who says that English Bible translations are untrustworthy because not enough black people were on the translation teams.

To say that either of these men has been given over to a false gospel would be an understatement–they are the false gospel and the heresy they propagate continues to invade Evangelical churches and institutions around the nation at an alarming rate.

Now, Wheaton College removing a plaque that’s been standing for 72 years which commemorates the deaths of a group of martyrs, including James Elliot and Ed McCully, two missionaries who were part of a group working to spread the Gospel to indigenous peoples in Ecuador, according to The Spectator.

“Recently, students, faculty, and staff have expressed concern about language on the plaque that is now recognized as offensive,” president Philip Ryken said in an email sent out to staff and students last week. “Specifically, the word “savage” is regarded as pejorative and has been used historically to dehumanize and mistreat indigenous peoples around the world.”

The move is indicative of just how far-reaching the tentacles of the insane left are, that such foolishness could have such an effect on the minds of young students seeking a career in ministry. Instead of destroying arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God–as we are taught to do in 2 Corinthians 10:5–Wheaton is complicit in the illicit takeover of minds as students are being taken captive by vain philosophy and empty deceit (Colossians 2:8).

If Wheaton were honest, biblically speaking, these murderers would be described as far worse than “savage”–they would be described as lost, idolaters, devoid of conscience and haters of God and God’s people, enemies of the Church and enemies of God who have perverted the grace of God beyond all comparison. Instead, Wheaton coddles them and treats them like victims like any good, woke institution should do.

___________________________________________________

SEE ALSO: https://www.theblaze.com/news/wheaton-college-removes-martyrs-memorial

 

Canadian judge jails father for opposing ‘trans’ procedures on daughter, threatens MassResistance

COMPLETELY CENSORED!

SEE: https://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen4/21a/Rob-Hoogland-bail-hearing-Mar2021/index.html

What to Do (and Not Do) If You Care About Israel Getting a Fair Shake at a University

BY HUGH FITZGERALD

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/03/what-to-do-and-not-do-if-you-care-about-israel-getting-a-fair-shake-at-a-university;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

In recent years, American universities have reached new depths in their insensate desire to be with it. Their arts and humanities curricula are comical. In history departments, Europe is slowly fading away as a subject, to be replaced by African history, Islamic history, and race, gender, and queer studies. In literature courses, it’s the same dreary blend of race, gender, and queer studies; sometimes it’s Mix-‘n-Match, as in the faculty searches for professors of Black Queer Studies. Diversity and inclusion are essential in choosing which writers to study. Dead white European males had their day; you can pay less attention to them now. A sign of the times: You can major in English at Harvard, and never take a course on Shakespeare. But don’t leave for class these days without Edward Said, or Homi Bhabha, or Judith Butler, or Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in your backpack or book bag. Good god, there are even places where the clownish Cornel West is taken seriously. That’s how bad things have become.

And, of course, there is the Jewish Problem. Many universities have become safe havens for BDSers. Pro-Israel speakers are seldom invited on campus, while those ready to denounce the Jewish state seldom fail to find an audience. In History or Middle Eastern departments, the anti-Israel brigade makes sure that if there is a token Jew – or even better, a token Israeli — on the faculty, that person will belong to the Peter Beinart or Noam Chomsky school of anti-Zionism. A staunch defender of Israel has little chance of obtaining tenure in such places.

Here is a report on the dilemma faced by Jewish donors who leave a legacy, or who donate while alive, to institutions that turn out to be grotesquely anti-Israel: “Planning for Antisemitism in Planned Giving to Universities,” by Yael Lerman, Algemeiner, March 22, 2021:

A few years ago, a woman contacted the pro-Israel organization where I work, StandWithUs, worried about her late husband’s legacy. He had spent his career as a professor at a University of California (UC) school, and was devoted to both his university and the Jewish community. Upon his death, he left a considerable and irrevocable gift to this UC school. Yet today, the school no longer serves as a consistently welcoming place for Jewish or Zionist students and faculty.

Campus buildings there have been defaced with antisemitic vandalism; anti-Israel classes and events now permeate campus life, including in the professor’s former academic department. His wife said that he would be horrified if he knew what had become of his school, and what he was now financially supporting in perpetuity.

After reviewing the matter, we concluded that there was nothing that could be done legally. This pro-Israel, proudly Jewish, and generous donor had given an unconditional gift to a university where support of Zionist students has become conditional on their denunciation of Israel.

If you care about Israel getting a fair shake at a university, whether you are Jewish or non-Jewish, do not ever give a donation, or leave a legacy, unless it is clearly conditioned on behavior by that university that is spelled out in the deed of gift. The judges of that behavior will be the donor (as long as he or she is alive) or the donor’s family (if it’s a legacy). What kind of behavior would cause the principal of the gift to be revoked? An “anti-semitic or anti-Zionist atmosphere” on campus can be characterized by one or more of the following:

1) a refusal to invite pro-Israel speakers to the campus.

2) the shouting down of pro-Israel speakers when they are allowed to visit the campus.

3) permitting BDS, an organization that the U.S. government (and many others, including Germany, Austria, Spain, Canada), as well as the ADL, have declared to be antisemitic, to operate on campus.

4) a student government inviting pro-Palestinian speakers and “activists” but not pro-Israel speakers, or inviting just a handful of the latter compared to many pro-Palestinian “activists.”

5) a refusal to take antisemitic statements into account in making tenure decisions, as with Marc Lamont Hill and Cornel West.

6) creating an atmosphere in which Jewish faculty and students feel unsafe.

7) anti-Zionist curricula.

8) a series of campus events celebrating “Palestine” and attacking the Jewish state.

…Around the same time, Temple University was courting a different donor to give a seven-figure gift. The donor loved the institution, but was appalled by a particular tenured professor, Marc Lamont Hill, who frequently uses his position to espouse virulent, anti-Zionist rhetoric that meets the IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism.

The university refused to address Lamont Hill’s conduct, but was open to other ideas. It agreed to a major gift given entirely through Israel Bonds, and to be renewed only through Israel Bonds in perpetuity. This was a compromise approach: the donor wanted to make a gift, but knew the university would not budge on addressing the professor’s antisemitic rants. So she compromised by funding a gift in a way that financially benefited the State of Israel.

This was not really a compromise. Marc Lamont Hill still spews his anti-Israel venom and antisemitic rants, without the university moving a finger to discipline him or, ideally, to fire him, as would surely happen were he a white professor who repeatedly engaged in public anti-black rants. Continuing to pay the “major gift” through Israel Bonds because it “financially benefits” Israel – quite modestly – has done nothing to curb Marc Lamont Hill or to discourage the university from hiring, or retaining, or giving tenure to, known and publicly assertive antisemites.

Given what terrible places most American universities have become, especially in the arts and humanities, and in the woke atmospherics of college campuses, why donate to any of them? If you must do so, then specify that the money is to go for a science building, or science faculty, the least likely part of the university to be politically unsavory. Or donate to the university with a specific purpose spelled out, to expand the number of faculty members teaching Jewish or Israeli studies or Yiddish literature. Make clear that the gift is to encourage not only knowledge of, but sympathetic understanding for, the subject being studied. You want to prevent the maddening possibility that someone appointed to one of those chairs you have paid for is a far-left Jewish supporter of the Palestinians. The donor should always make such a gift revocable, if, in his estimation, or after his death, in that of his family, the university has violated its commitment.

Better still, don’t give to an American university. Instead, donate to the Technion, or the Weizmann Institute, or Tel Aviv University, or Hebrew University. Then there will be little need for a donor to worry about his or her intent being violated; the gift will be in good hands.

Will the Pandemic Break the Government School Monopoly? Data Says Homeschooling Is Skyrocketing

BY STACEY LENNOX

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/stacey-lennox/2021/03/24/will-the-pandemic-break-the-government-school-monopoly-data-says-homeschooling-is-skyrocketing-n1434680;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Homeschooling rates increased significantly in the fall of 2020, according to a Household Pulse Survey from the Census Bureau. Previous estimates had shown that parents had selected this option at increasing rates between 1999 and 2012, when homeschooling plateaued and remained steady at about 3.3% of children. The pandemic, school closures nationwide, and some parents seeing the racialized and sexualized classroom curricula have changed this statistic significantly.

According to the Census Bureau:

In the first week (April 23-May 5) of Phase 1 of the Household Pulse Survey, about 5.4% of U.S. households with school-aged children reported homeschooling .

By fall, 11.1% of households with school-age children reported homeschooling (Sept. 30-Oct. 12). A clarification was added to the school enrollment question to make sure households were reporting true homeschooling rather than virtual learning through a public or private school.

That change represents an increase of 5.6 percentage points and a doubling of U.S. households that were homeschooling at the start of the 2020-2021 school year compared to the prior year.

While the Census Bureau found an increase across all racial groups, it saw the most significant increase in households that identified as black or African American by a factor of five.

homeschooling

Across the nation, 28 out of 50 states had an increase in homeschooling that was statistically significant, and so did eight of the largest metropolitan statistical areas. States with the most significant increases varied between open ones, like Florida with a 13.1% increase, and those with longer lockdowns, like Massachusetts, at 10.6%. The large metros that saw increases usually suffered the longest lockdowns, such as Detroit, Michigan, and the greater New York area.

As schools resume, it is not clear how many parents intend to continue homeschooling. According to Education Week in November, parents showing an interest in public school alternatives has increased:

Homeschooling in response to the pandemic is driving enrollment declines in schools and districts across the country, according to a majority of principals and superintendents surveyed by the EdWeek Research Center. Fifty-eight percent in a mid-October survey listed homeschooling as being a major contributor to enrollment declines caused by COVID-19—more than any other single reason, such as losing students to charter schools, private schools, or “pandemic pods” in which families band together to hire instructors who teach their children at home.

In North Carolina, notices of intent to homeschool tripled during the enrollment period. In Wisconsin, they nearly doubled. There was also a marked decline of 15-20% in parents opting to enroll their children in kindergarten in one Wisconsin school district. At least one professor believes the pandemic will cause a lasting increase in the number of parents who choose to homeschool:

But for some districts, per-pupil declines, coupled with cutbacks from the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic, may be a “double whammy” for their finances, said Christopher Lubienski, a professor of education policy at Indiana University.

Lubienski, who studies homeschooling, said the pandemic could give a long-lasting boost to the movement. While he believes many families that opted to home school this year will eventually return to public school, he thinks the United States will see a permanent increase in the number of homeschoolers even after the pandemic ends.

That’s “partly because people who haven’t really thought about it before suddenly saw themselves forced into [home schooling], and then realizing that it’s something they can see themselves doing,” he said.

Contrary to what you may think, parents with less income and education were more likely to say they were homeschooling:

According to Education Week’s survey, which was conducted at the beginning of the academic year, the less education and income parents had, the more likely they were to say they were homeschooling this year. Twelve percent of parents whose highest level of education is less than a bachelor’s degree said they are homeschooling their children at least some of the time this school year, compared to 5 percent of those with a bachelor’s degree or more.

Twelve percent of parents whose children qualify for free or reduced-price lunch said they are homeschooling, compared to 5 percent of parents whose children do not qualify for reduced meals.

Individual parents interviewed cited the increased time for interest-based learning in the homeschool environment and more control over who their children socialize with when they connect with other homeschooling parents. With the increase in remote work that is likely to accompany the end of the pandemic, parents may find they can balance working virtually with engaging in a homeschool curriculum. If parents keep moving toward homeschooling, city and state leaders who kept schools closed, and teachers’ unions who made ridiculous and never-ending demands, have no one to blame but themselves for playing politics with the pandemic.

While the press likes to portray women as victims of the pandemic because workforce participation has dropped to 57%, its lowest since 1988, employers may need to take another look. At least two out of five considered leaving or downsizing their career during COVID-19. Many noted that while working remotely, their children came first. Perhaps some of them noticed how much their presence during the day benefits their children. While some may like to return to flexible or project-based work, it would not be surprising to find some do not return at all because they choose not to.

Equality Act Could Become Classroom Bully With Unscientific Curriculum

How Equality Act Could Become Classroom Bully With Biased, Unscientific Curriculum

BY Sarah Parshall Perry 

SEE: https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/03/17/how-equality-act-could-become-classroom-bully-with-biased-unscientific-curriculum;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

The Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings Wednesday on the so-called Equality Act, a piece of legislation unparalleled in its hostility to religious liberty and that elevates sexual orientation and gender identity to a protected-class status alongside race, sex, and national origin in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Equality Act also expands the definition of “public accommodation” under federal law, and recipients of any federal funding—such as schools—would be directly affected by the act if it becomes law. It has already passed the House of Representatives.

Plenty of ink has been spilled on the disastrous consequences the Equality Act would have on the administration of school sports, locker rooms, and bathrooms.

But what of the curriculum the Equality Act might force schools to teach? Could it compel teachers to peddle unscientific notions that gender is “fluid,” or that a student’s subjective self-identity is superior to the biological reality of his or her chromosomal makeup?

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Unfortunately, due to some legal sleight of hand, the answer is very likely “yes.”

As a general matter, the federal government is prohibited from meddling with school curriculums, something better left to local and state education associations as part of the 10th Amendment’s assurance that the powers not specifically delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states.

The federal Department of Education Organization Act states:

No provision of a program administered by the Secretary or by any other officer of the Department shall be construed to authorize the Secretary or any such officer to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system … except to the extent authorized by law.

However, federal courts have recognized that in certain circumstances, federal involvement in education is warranted. To remedy past segregation, for example, some federal courts have required schools to remove educational materials considered racially-biased, or to expand curricula to include black history. Both are reasonable means to meet the congressional goal of eliminating discrimination against blacks as articulated in the Civil Rights Act.

Those cases stem from a body of law focused on “equity jurisdiction.” Under this principle, once the legal right of an individual (or class of individuals) and a violation of that right have been proven, a federal court’s power to remedy past wrongs is quite broad.

It can include (and has included) changes to curriculums and teaching materials in order to eliminate both actual (“de facto”) and legal (“de jure”) segregation of school students.

In United States v. School District 151 (1968), a federal district court concluded it had the power to decide all issues concerning alleged discrimination in public education, including school board policies, the allocation of faculty and staff, the location and construction of schools, the transportation of students, and the general educational structure and process.

In order to remedy ongoing discrimination, another federal district court judge in Hoots v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (2000) “ordered that remedies for the constitutional violation proceed along several fronts … [and] ordered a comprehensive redesign of curriculum and testing, so that the curriculum would be appropriate for heterogeneous, multicultural, sidetracked classrooms and that the effectiveness of [the] redesigned curriculum would be carefully monitored through proper assessments.”

While—thus far—federal courts have yet to flex their “equity” muscle within the context of LGBTQ students and rectifying ongoing discrimination, the Equality Act would amend Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to give sexual orientation and gender identity the same legal protections as immutable characteristics like race, sex, or national origin. Those have been historically recognized as nothing more than due to an accident of birth, and therefore deserving of heightened protection and stricter analysis.

Now substitute the words “gender identity” for “race,” and there’s nothing to prevent a court from ordering the same kind of equitable remedy—curricular or otherwise—with respect to what a student might argue is a discriminatory educational setting.

Neutral education policies don’t always cut it, either. In Adams v. United States (1980), the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sitting en banc held that a “racially neutral” assignment plan proposed by school authorities was inadequate because it failed to “counteract the continuing effects of past school segregation.”  

Organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign have cleverly drawn unflinching parallels between LGBTQ and black youths, using the buzzwords of American jurisprudence on anti-discrimination law, likening the struggle of pre-Civil Rights Act segregated blacks to LGBTQ individuals who are themselves segregated and denied equal protection under the law.

In so doing, they’ve teed up a post-Equality Act legal challenge for students whose educational environment isn’t sufficiently desegregated. (That is, it still teaches the “discriminatory” scientific notion that male and female are unchanging biological distinctions.)

In a pre-Equality Act era, educational dissenters—who, like millions of Americans holding faiths that dictate a gender binary and heterosexual marriage as a societal ideal—would have had the right to object to forced action or offensive curriculum pursuant to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. 

Indeed, Congress expressly applied the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to all federal law, statutory or otherwise, whether adopted before or after its enactment—including all laws governing education programs, such as Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, and the Higher Education Act. 

However, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act contains a critical exception: It does not apply if the statute explicitly excludes its application.

As is all too evident now, the Democratic drafters of the Equality Act took careful measures to make sure that under the bill, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act could not be used as a shield by the millions of individuals—whether teachers, students, parents, or school administrators—holding sincere objections of conscience based on their religious beliefs.

How about religious schools? Surely, students in parochial schools won’t be subjected to dogma eliminating any recognition of male and female, right?

Wrong again. The Equality Act could very well steamroll propaganda touting the political agenda of sexual orientation and gender identity advocates through the schoolhouse doors if the religious schools accept any funding under federal law.

Take, for example, free and reduced-price lunch programs for low-income students, or admission of students on federally funded scholarships according to Title VI.

Therein lies another Equality Act “gotcha.”  

Liberal University of Virginia law professor Douglas Laycock (in whose class I once sat) has recognized the breathlessly slim religious liberty exemptions that could still be maintained by religious schools post-Equality Act:

Schools would still have the ministerial exception … which should protect them with respect to teachers teaching a religion class, or leading chapel services, but courts have generally held that other teachers are not ministers for purposes of the exception.

Think a federalized sexual orientation and gender identity curriculum would be too hard to implement?

Arne Duncan, secretary of education under President Barack Obama, used a carrot-and-stick funding approach to incentivize states to adopt the Common Core state standards and oversaw development of two testing consortia to assess whether uniform standards were being met. The result? Equivalent teaching geared toward the same outcomes across the country.

The Equality Act doesn’t just rewrite the entire canon of American law on discrimination. It takes a swing at long-standing protections for religious liberty and local control of education.

Just like the bully it is.

Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email letters@DailySignal.com and we will consider publishing your remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature.      

Read the Shocking Pentagon Training Materials Targeting Conservatives in the Military

BY J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2021/03/22/read-the-pentagon-training-materials-targeting-conservatives-in-the-military-n1434071;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

I have obtained a copy of all the materials regarding the sudden new threat of “Extremism” used for training in the United States military. Throughout the services, service members have been shocked at the Biden blitz to root out ideas and people who stand in the way of the administration’s transformative agenda.

One individual in the training told me, “The military is one of the last institutions left that hasn’t been radicalized by the progressives. That’s why it is being targeted now.”

All personnel are being subjected to a PowerPoint presentation packed with progressive ideology and misstatements of the Constitution. Designated officers are conducting the training on bases, stations, and ships at sea. The slides contain misstatements of the law and warped characterizations of fellow citizens who believe in constitutional principles.

The document crafted by the Pentagon for the Navy is called “Extremism Stand Down – Commander Engagements With All Service Members. Discussion Guide 19FEB21.” I have obtained both the slides shown to service members and the training guide for the officers presenting the training.

“Extremism in the Ranks” is a capitalized proper noun in the document.

“The Navy’s leadership plays a significant role in preventing Extremism in the Ranks, particularly in the creation and sustainment of command climates which discourage and hold accountable such behavior and promote a culture of respect, trust and professionalism in the Force.”

Pentagon military training materials.
Pentagon military training materials.

And if there was any doubt, the presentation makes it clear the armed forces are to be integrated into the Biden administration’s racialist agenda. “If we don’t eliminate extremist behaviors from our Navy, then racism, injustice, indignity and disrespect will grow and keep us from reaching our potential.” The materials do not cite a single instance of racism, injustice, indignity, or disrespect. Those are left to the imagination.

Pentagon military training materials.
Pentagon military training materials.

The scripted training tells officers what precisely to say and forces all participants to watch a video featuring the Secretary of Defense.

Pentagon military training materials.
Pentagon military training materials.
Biden SecDef Issues Military-Wide Stand-Down Order to Fight ‘Extremism’

“Note, if video cannot be shown during stand down, a link must be provided to All-Hands for viewing video in advance of training.”

The “Dos and Don’ts of Facilitation” ensure that dissent will not be welcomed. “Do be alert to statements about Prohibited Behavior (Extremism in the Ranks) which [sic] rely on inaccurate or misleading assumptions, misperception or myth. … Do Not allow only a few participants to dominate the conversation.”

Pentagon military training materials.
Pentagon military training materials.

After all, one or two officers familiar with the actual words in the Constitution or the principles that animated the nation’s founding might spoil the show.

What might that myth or prohibited behavior be? The Pentagon provides helpful talking points for officers forced to do the training. “Anti-government extremists” are the focus, as proven by “recent events.”

In other words, Trump supporters. Political foes of the administration.

Service members have a “duty to reject” these ideas. And if you don’t, “the full range of administrative and disciplinary actions” await, including being discharged.

Pentagon military training materials.
Pentagon military training materials.
Biden DHS Issues Domestic Terror Alert Warning of ‘Objections’ to ‘Governmental Authority’

The training materials then incorrectly detail other prohibited activity.

Pentagon military training materials.
Pentagon military training materials.

“Speech that incites violence or criminal activity that threatens to undermine our government and Constitution is not protected by the First Amendment.”

Actually, it is. Secretary of Defense Austin is flat wrong. Speech cannot incite criminal activity. The closest one can get to this idea is a criminal conspiracy. But even a conspiracy requires an act and speech standing alone cannot be criminal.

Worse still, speech that “threatens to undermine our government” is completely protected by the First Amendment. The Pentagon’s grotesque characterization of the law is borrowed from the criminal codes of dictatorships.

In fact, the First Amendment would allow a person to stand in the town square and over and over again give a speech undermining the government. The whole concept of “undermining” is the flimsy legal standard that sent millions to the Gulags and guillotine. Shame on you, Secretary Austin, for not knowing that’s what makes America different.

Naturally, all the villains in the hypotheticals in the materials are neo-Nazis, right-wing extremists or domestic terrorists. No mention is made of the hyper-funded effort by the Chinese communists to infiltrate and turn service members.

Nor is one single mention of ANTIFA activities to be found in the document despite ongoing acts of violence from that group for almost a year. What’s that matter when you want Justice?

EXCLUSIVE: Biden Admin Halts Navy Operations, Orders Sailors to Undergo ‘Chilling’ Stand-Down Training

The materials make sure to leave room for sharing. “Has anyone witnessed a Supremacist or Extremist Activity while serving in the Navy? How did it make you feel? (Allow time for open sharing if sailor /DON Civilian is willing.” Once upon a time the Navy was full of veterans of Bataan, Okinawa, and prison camps across Japan. Boy, would they have tales to tell.

Pentagon military training materials.
Pentagon military training materials.

The materials are careful to list those activities that servicemembers can enjoy that are constitutional rights, with a catch. In detailing them, such as “registering to vote” and “Signing petitions,” the Pentagon warns service members that “expressing personal opinions” or “a personal social media posting” comes with a big red “CAUTION.”

Pentagon military training materials.
Pentagon military training materials.

When it comes to social media, the Pentagon brass really don’t want people to exercise their rights. A whole section is devoted to banning behavior such as “liking any material that promotes discrimination based on … gender identity.” In other words, if you believe in biological sex, you might be involuntarily separated or court-martialed. Never mind that Congress has never passed any such law.

The slides used to accompany the presentation are full of legal errors. Again, the Fourteenth Amendment says nothing about biological males who consider themselves to be women, yet the training says otherwise.

Pentagon military training materials.
Pentagon military training materials.

If you are in the military and enduring this politicized training, be assured the materials are imaginary bunk. It is a part of a radicalized political agenda to undermine the basic principles of the nation – equality before law regardless of race, and treating people impartially in tribunals or day-to-day affairs. This politicization is aimed at your ability to be promoted unless you toe the line, but you already knew that. It is designed to create a more politicized military culture where adherence to prevailing political ideology is more important than performance. It is the sort of rotten behavior that permeated other militaries in other ages.

Pentagon military training materials.
Pentagon military training materials.

But the United States military has been the model of professionalism, competence, and impartiality for centuries – a model which the Biden administration and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin seek to undermine and replace. Your allegiance is to the nation and the Constitution. Go through the motions of watching these ridiculous politicized videos, but stay true to what brought you to the military in the first place.

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