Gun control advocates and enemies of the 2nd Amendment notched their belts last week with the California school walkout protests calling for stricter gun controls. But now, the districts that encouraged students to leave the classroom to promote their demonstrably uninformed political views are coming under fire for the possible legal implications of their actions.
One week following the walkouts on March the 14th, school officials are being inundated with complaints from parents who are unhappy to see their children used as political tools in a push for legislation they do not necessarily support. The parents are calling foul, saying that students were baited with “get out of class free” cards.
“These kids are being told, ‘hold this sign and stand in front of these cameras, and you can get out of history class,'” one parent complained to reporters.
In addition to the apparent conflict of interest involved in the walkouts, there have also been many reports of criminal mischief being committed by these same students. To make matters worse, many school districts along the west coast have announced that they plan to do the same thing next month.
The teachers and school administrators who are planning and promoting these walkouts do not seem to see the conflict of interest problems involved. They have the responsibility of providing scholastic instruction to the children of the parents who trust them to do so. This is especially true of public schools.
Public schools are essentially government agencies. That means, we have a government agency that is advocating for alterations to the fundamental laws of our country while using pre-voting age citizens as emotional leverage.
Suppose the IRS did something similar. Imagine that the children of certain low-level IRS employees had contracted illnesses related to the relatively low incomes of their parents. Then, suppose the IRS began walking these students out on marches calling for higher taxes which would be used to pay their employees more.
This is essentially what these California school districts are doing. They are abandoning their mission of educating students for the purpose of using resources paid for by taxpayers to influence the laws that affect the lives of those same taxpayers.
If any other government agency did the same thing, it would be a national scandal.
The Chairman of the Chicago Republican Party, Chris Cleveland, says he is concerned that these protests will encourage left-wing advocates to use other public resources to push their agendas.
There is a strong general feeling that the schools belong to the communities that contain them. The truth is they belong to the taxpayer, and they have a duty to impart an unbiased education. This is a far and away different thing to using the children themselves as political pawns.
It’s instructive to consider the experience of some conservative-leaning students. There have been a number of reports concerning students who wished to support the 2nd Amendment during these same marches. Students supporting the right of Americans to possess the necessary tools of self-defense in the modern age have been escorted away from the protest areas. They have had detentions applied to them for skipping class, where the anti-gun-rights student sign-holders have not been punished equally.
The message to students in these cases is clear; ‘March with the signs we make for you, or stay in class.’
Mr. Cleveland said, “If they get away with this, they’ll be free to engage in any kind of political activity in the schools that they wish.”
Cleveland’s group is mounting a lawsuit to prevent left-wing advocates and school districts from hijacking the school system for use as an emotion-based political weapon. They argue that these schools districts have violated state law as well as their own policies by organizing these political demonstrations, and for doing so at the expense of the taxpayer.
The district that Mr. Cleveland’s legal action group is targeting, has yet to release any public statements on the issue, and any direct response is yet pending.
At present, the schools seem determined to punish students who don’t conform to their political views, to which Cleveland responds, “There will always be a few kids who don’t behave,” said Mr. Cleveland. “I’m a lot more concerned about the behavior of the adults.”
~ Conservative Zone
TAX PAYERS are being suckered by the left more times than not in every government agency, and you do not have to look any farther then the public schools system. RANKED 71 OUT OF 150 COUNTRIES ASSUMED AS LITERATE! Yet we have the highest per dollar spent per student in the world. Oregon is ranked 47 th OUT OF 50 in the U.S.A. with failure and school drop outs, and the legislature keeps throwing good money down the drain with corruption and failed fixes. That is ok, they the politicians seem to think money grows on trees, and the harvest will be bigger and better next year. Private schools are upward of 95 percent in success through out the country, and they wonder why parents are doing every thing possible to get their kids out of public schools. Even Obama’s had their kids enrolled in private schools. SHOULD IT BE AMERICA’S CHOICE TO DO BETTER FOR THEIR FAMILIES EDUCATION? Ever wonder how many private schools have stricter rules for entry, and how many private schools marched?
These are NOT “public schools” anymore, they are COMMUNIST INDOCTRINATION CENTERS staffed with RADICAL left-wing brain washers disguised as “teachers”. The time has come for PARENTS to take responsibility for their children’s education and rid theses “centers” of these fascists, intent on turning this country into their idea of a communist “utopia” full of mindless DRONES they can CONTROL Their “actions” are a page right of of the COMMUNIST MANIFESTO.
My feeling exactly! The only way to fight them is not vote for any more school levies! Once that happens you will see their horns come out and how they will threaten you by using your children as pawns.
We as tax payers have the right to see where they spend our tax dollars. They will try and fight but we are their employers.
I remember over 30 years ago an engineer, I worked with, done just that and found they had been spending, every year, 8% over their budget. He also found that the superintendent was making over 200 thousand per year and the 6 principals were making over 100 thousand, and that was a rural, high school.
What really needs to happen is a total revamping of our entire educational system. Any educator or educational administrator that promotes any political ideology needs to be immediately terminated.
Great thought Tom, How can we do that?
Bravo Tom Cook the sooner the better
Every student who marched instead of being in the class that day is a day that the school should not get paid for that student just as they would not get paid if the student was at home sick. If they enter the student as being in school they should be fined for lying and the Teacher and Principle be fired for lying.
It’s Fraud. Don’t ask for them to refund any money, that is not an acceptable solution.
In fact while we are on this subject, parents need to form an oversight committee for the schools. The schools are not teaching the children what parents want them to learn and they are not providing the children with any life skills or prompting individuality. They are prompting the children to look and act the same as every other kid. They are teaching the kids top think that they are no different from any other kid and they are forcing parents to follow along behind them. When one of my children pulled a little stunt to get herself placed in a special education class because the special ed kids were doing fun things that the other kids were not, I was forced to learn things about the education system because they were trying to hold me accountable for their short comings. There are special rules for special ed kids call the Composite of Laws that can be obtained free from the Department of Education in Sacramento. In those laws I discovered that the parents of special ed children had a lot more power and control over a child’s education then parents who didn’t have kids in special education. My daughter purposely got herself into special ed, but later on when she wanted to get out of special ed she discovered that getting out was not as easy as getting in, she had out smarted herself and at the same time caused me to educate myself on the education laws. As a result when I was required to attend a progress meeting where I was confronted by 4 or 5 school employees, including the teacher, principal, school physiologist and counselor who were all trying to shift the burden of educating my child from themselves to me. The first year of meetings I was overwhelmed and they made me feel like it was my fault that my daughter was having trouble in school. They wanted me to spend several hours a day teaching my child to read. For a single dad with 3 kids and a full time job it was impossible. I bought and offered to donate Hooked on Phonics to the school since I didn’t have the time to spend with it, but they said they could not use it without approval from the Department of Education. Shortly after I got a copy of the Composite of Laws they called another meeting. I brought the Laws (approx 500 pages) with me to the meeting and when they started telling me what they wanted me to do, I pulled the laws out and placed them on the table, asking them if they knew what it was, which they did not. Then I proceeded to educate them. The results were that they were now going to do their job. I told them that my child was not stupid but they were treating her like she was and that if they teach her how to read all the other subjects will fall into place. I instructed them to pull her out of every single class she had and do nothing else but teach her to read until she was brought up to her grade level. We ended up with a compromise and she ended up with 3 of her classes being reading classes. A few months later during an open house the teacher came up to me and told me that I scared her. When I asked her why she said because I was so smart. I came to the conclusion that I was not so smart but that she did not believe she was smart enough. In any event I think that parents need to get more involved and become more aware of what teachers are really teaching their children. In my opinion our educational system is doing more brain washing of the students and their parents then they are teaching.
The education system has it’s own agenda and it’s agenda has nothing to do with improving our educational system.
Once the federal government took over to “ensure equality” in education schools became nothing more than indoctrination centers they slowly moved from a place were parents had a voice in the school even the right to not send their children to any school without being hassled by the state over refusing to let their child be indoctrinated with foreign ideals or PC nonsense to centers where the government tries to stamp out individual thought rewrite history to fit the current PC climate and have all but abolished the basic teachings of reading, writing , and arithmetic. Blatantly obvious is their anti Christian, anti Constitution propaganda as they use students as nothing more than pawns in politics they do not even understand. Not one of those students holding those signs understands why the second amendment exists much less the fact they were already a victim of a 100% ban on civilians having guns because the school was already gun free zone.
To those that know history that sign the student is holding translates to ALLOW DEATH CAMPS give up your guns so the TYRANTS that want them are no longer in fear of the people defending their lives.
Spouting that COMPUTERS, and CALCULATORS somehow make these skills unnecessary as if these are flawless things that never make errors. So now we see newspaper stories that make no sense because despite having the words spelled correctly they are JUMBLED in such a way they make no sense and only got printed because the COMPUTER said it passed apparently no human read it before printing.
Used to if the power failed while people were shopping the check out counter still functioned as they did not rely on a computer to have to do math and inventory for them now everything stops until its fixed in some cases when it can not be fixed that day people who buying food are forced to go somewhere else or do without because of this indoctrination over actual skills that is being pushed in schools.
This has even reached into colleges and vocational technology schools as I went through training to be a component level consumer electronics technician I was in the last class that got the complete course as the school CHANGED the curriculum to fit with some deal they made for HIGH SCHOOL children who would attend part time. When I went through we taught everything they used to teach including how to calculate and MAKE our own power transformers by the time they finished revamping the curriculum for the new class that went through after me they barely even mentioned magnetic theory much less went into detail that would allow someone to design or engineer their own electronic circuits.
Government run schools: Great for indoctrination…..terrible for education!
It sickens me that the school system, as well as the left, are using school children, as their new shiny bauble, to spread their message of gun control — not just this month, but next month as well, and probably will continue until the end of the school year, then will come up with a Plan B, until the new school year starts!! In turn, they have turned these underage kids into activists who have no idea what the facts are, because they haven’t been TAUGHT anything about our Government, let alone about the Constitution, to be able to make an informed decision for themselves!! Some Parents have called them out on what they’ve done, while other Parents are either friends to their kids, or don’t take the time to give their kids the proper upbringing, so I’m sure some of them are proud of their kids, or don’t care. This is unfortunate, since they’re our future, and the future of our Country. Leave it to the loony libs of the West to pull a stunt like this, and I pray that someone puts a stop to what you’re doing!! What ever happened to a good-old education??
They stopped being about education when the government injected POLITICS into them turning them into indoctrination centers were students were harassed or even punished by the school for showing any form of independent thought regardless of if it was their religious beliefs or belief the constitution is the supreme law of the land not the word of some petty activist judge who created new laws from the bench to suit their personal agenda even if they violate the irrevocable rights of the people spelled out in the constitution.
If a student acts out in support of some Politically Correct nonsense no matter how disruptive they are to the class they are PRAISED if they reject the PC nonsense and follow logic, facts, reality, the constitution etc. instead they are harassed, punished, even expelled from school for nothing more than refusing to support ANTI CONSTITUTION PC nonsense promoted by the schools.
Remember when they first started this ZERO WEAPONS nonsense at schools (that made them prime targets for criminals) the first students to be punished HAD NO WEAPONS in fact one only had what the SCHOOL ITSELF told her to bring to biology class many of the rest had nothing more than PICTURES or WORDS on their shirts that promoted TRUE FACTS that contradicted the indoctrination they were starting against self defense.
In fact recently there was a story of child SUSPENDED when the school found out he posted a picture of his fun weekend at the gun range in social media while the school claims the photo was not the reason the fact is they called the student into the office OVER THAT PHOTO we have no idea what demand the school made but the student did not comply and was suspended. Based on the current PC climate we can assume they demanded he either remove the photo or change it to some anti gun message and he refused. After all the school has no authority to dictate how a student acts AT HOME OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL.
Children’s Crusades (1212) History
did not work out well for many of them…
I’m so disappointed in Calf. Schools are a place of learning not for politics. If God can’t inter a politician sure as hell should not.
All you liberals will wake up and there will not be an America. Then who is going to pay for the food stamps, the gov. checks, and the gov. housing. Schools should teach nothing but facts and how they made America. Guns played a large part in it from the very first right on up until today. Remember hollywood is full of actors, they live other peoples lives and can’t face their own. So we listen to them, you got to be kidding. Teaching morals, facts, and responsibility of ones actions is where we need to start.
If teachers are doing this their jobs must be terminated or they lose 2 weeks pay for every 1 day they allow these student to walk from their class.
The truth is our guns will “save” their lives.
I agree, lets send these hs students to north korea and they sure will be able to solve all of those problems too.
There was a time when the US had the best education system in the world and California was at the top of the list. Fifty years of liberalism has destroyed it.
The public schools need to be severely disciplined. Public administrators and state/government leaders should be identified and corrected within the full extent of the law. Students are young and are very impressionable. In short they are children. In the attempt by the adult left to change the 2nd Amendment the children are seen as a tool to be used. This happened in the historical sense. The Hitler youth, communist pioneers, Khmer rouge, just to name a few. The same can be seen for the attacks on the first amendment. The idea is for the left to legislate away freedoms that we cherish. One of the best ways is to control our children and to advance their righteous moral agenda through brainwashing and to feed propaganda to the innocents. This nation is in very dire straights. We are truly living at the end of this age. It’s almost unbelievable if all of this wasn’t so true. Oh yeah, by default I am a hated enemy of the left because I am white, male, and an evangelical.
Federal money NEVER comes without an agenda attached. If we are EVER to regain local control of our school districts, we can accomplish it ONLY by refusing to accept federal money for schools. It is nothing more than sugar-coated cyanide.
So sad that there are administrators who feel it is okay to indoctrinate students in their own beliefs instead of teaching the truth. Our country is in trouble and we need to wake-up.
How are schools getting away with this? It used to be that in order for students to go off campus and go on any sort of school sponsored field trip or outing they had to have written permission from their parents.
Now it appears that students are being allowed and in many cases being told to go to these anti-gun rallies and parents aren’t even informed. Some parents, upon finding out that their students didn’t attend schools and instead went to one of these rallies, were rightfully furious.
Isn’t the school responsible for the students’ safety while at school? And if the school organizes an off campus anti-gun rally, what happens if the student is injured?
Besides being totally wrong from the standpoint that the schools are using the students as a political tool to push their liberal, anti-gun agenda, it seems that it would be against the law to take kids off campus without the parents’ permission.
I’m guessing, but since they are classifying these events as walk outs, the school uses that terminology to say that it wasn’t something organized by the school but that the students were acting on their own, but that isn’t the case according to the news that I’ve seen. It’s been reported that schools and teachers are actually organizing and setting up these events.
California educators need to be educated and it is up to the parents to stand up and educate them. It would be a big help to replace the politicians in Sacramento with people who support the desires of the people they represent and will adhere to Federal Laws.
The American people must come to grips with the fact that liberals aka Democrats are not for our best interests…only their damn agenda. They need to be thrown out of heir jobs if necessary to win back our nation. California, New York, Massachusetts..all going bonkers with weird laws contrary to the Constitution and our freedoms. We must resist these fools and keep them from turning us into a socialistic nightmare!Obama was a bad influence. The Hollywood wackos are a bad influence. The gun grabbers do not care for your safety or security! Brainwashing our students is not in our best interests. Get them back into class and if their teachers still persist ..fire them!
We agree that public schools are indoctrination centers. Homeschool. Catholic schools seem to produce pretty good kids. I was in Catholic school until I went to a big pagan university. But Catholic schools charge you and you are already paying the taxes for the public schools. It is your kids. Teach them yourself. They will learn more in a week than they learn in a month at school. Get tutors. I tutor math at times. I taught Algebra and Geometry in high school but no more. Good luck raising kids now.
I will bet that is one of the reasons the Teachers Union is fighting back so hard at Charter Schools. They know they will lose their influence on the masses.
Anti-American morons teaching children to be Socialist puppets in school, not teaching them what they need to know. Many can’t not even make change at a restaurant they work or even use commonsense and still the states graduate them and they end up knowing nothing and can’t work.
The left has got to find someone who will believe their crap. What better group than the poorly educated highly indoctrinated students in our public schools. For an example look at the fall in rankings Americas education system world wide. Disgraceful. The undervaluing of life, education, religion and a growing disregard for our laws, what else should we expect.
Public schools are Democrat schools.At least that’s the case in California.Nothing new here.If you want your kids to have a non Democrat party school you have to choose that education.