Brave New Schools–What’s going on at your local public school?: According to the Manchester, NH, Union Leader of Tue., Jun. 12, 2007, the city school board voted for an investigation into a field trip that brought middle school students to a Planned Parenthood office in Manchester. The previous Wednesday, students in the STAY program, a program for at-risk middle school students that is operated by the YMCA, visited the Planned Parenthood offices as part of a field trip to social service agencies throughout the city. The school board instructed school administrators to investigate the matter, recommend any changes needed to school policies and decide if any disciplinary action needs to be taken. Mayor Frank Guinta said about the investigation, "It needs to happen immediately." He said it shouldn’t take more than a few days. School board member Doug Kruse yesterday said the field trip violated the trust of parents. "The STAY program must go because they have not demonstrated they are responsible for our children," Kruse said. He also pointed out that Dawn Michaud, the principal at Parkside Middle School, told the New Hampshire Union Leader that she was aware if the visit, but told her supervisors she had no knowledge of the stop. "Somebody doesn’t have their story straight," Kruse said. Assistant Superintendent Frank Bass defended Michaud saying that she was flustered by a call from a reporter and was not sure what was happening. If that is the case, do we really want people who are this incompetent in charge of our children in our schools? Keep your kids at home where they will be safe from such obvious indoctrination. And be thankful for people like Kruse and Guinta.
What Our Kids Are Missing Out On Dept.: In The Imperfect Homeschooler e-mail newsletter, June, 2007, homeschool mom and author Barb Frank wrote, "When I was in high school, some of the ‘bad kids’ would go into Chicago to buy marijuana. We thought that was awful, but who could have imagined this? Read the third and fourth paragraphs for the shocking list of what’s being sold in schools these days and who’s doing the selling." She was referring to a Seattle Times article headlines "Cops posing as Federal Way students buy drugs in schools by David Bowermaster, a Seattle Times staff reporter, on Friday, June 1, 2007. The last two sentences of this excerpt constitute the third and fourth paragraphs. "For four months, Federal Way police sent two undercover detectives — a 29-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man — to infiltrate an area of increasing drug use: High schools. Officials provided few details Thursday on how the detectives, well out of their teens, were able to pass themselves off as students, but their undercover operation succeeded to an alarming extent. With little difficulty, they purchased a cornucopia of illicit drugs — including marijuana, Ecstasy, cocaine and the prescription drug oxycodone — as well as rifles and semiautomatic handguns. The investigation culminated Thursday with criminal charges filed against 12 students, ranging in age from 13 to 18, and against two adults not associated with Federal Way schools." Another reminder to keep you children home where you can keep them safe!
And another reason to keep your kids home where they will be safe from unnecessary embarrasment: Indianapolis, IN, sixth-grader Matt Porter received the "Most Likely Not To Have Children" and "Sir Clowns-a-Lot" awards from two teachers at his school in front of classmates during a ceremony at the Decatur Intermediate Learning Center at the end of the recently finished school year. His parents aren’t pleased, either; they have asked the Decatur Township school system to reprimand the teachers, and they want an apology. Matt recalled what the ceremony was like. "I was standing in the middle of (the two teachers), and they (were) reading them off," he said. "Everyone was laughing." Matt felt humiliated. "They (were) putting us down and everything," he said. "That is not what their job is for, to put kids down. They are supposed to teach us." His stepfather, Joseph Sims, said, "Words cut deeper than any knife could. They hurt. When you hurt a child like that, you not only hurt him mentally, but it does hurt physically because you withdraw within yourself. That is what Matthew has done." The certificates were signed by the teachers who distributed them. Amy Sims, Matt’s mother, said she met with a school official over the matter but was not satisfied with the response. "She just told me that the teachers would call and apologize to him, and we’ve not heard anything at all," Amy Sims said. Gary Pellico, spokesman for the school system, said system officials regret the incident but declined to say whether the teachers have been disciplined.
Something you may want to be aware of: This is not a "homeschooling" issue per se, but many of us have chosen to homeschool because we oppose the homosexual rights agenda being pushed in public schools. On June 14, 2007, Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association reported that a bill in Congress would make it a crime for ministers and churches to speak against homosexuality. According to the Alliance Defense Fund’s summary of this proposed law, House bill H.R. 1592 and Senate bill S. 1105 would make negative statements concerning homosexuality, such as calling the practice of homosexuality a sin from the pulpit, a "hate crime" punishable by law. This dangerous legislation would take away our freedom of speech and our freedom of religion. The proposed law would make it a crime to preach on Romans Chapter 1 or I Corinthians Chapter 6. Or even to discuss them in a Sunday School class (and maybe even for parents to teach them to their children at home). If churches and individuals want to keep the government from telling them what they can and cannot preach and teach about homosexuality, they better get involved now! Consider what has already happened. A California lawsuit which is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court would make the use of the words "natural family," "marriage" and "union of a man and a woman" a "hate speech" crime in government workplaces. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has already ruled in favor of the plaintiffs! CNN and The Washington Post both reported that General Peter Pace, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was fired because he publicly expressed moral opposition to homosexual behavior. If pastors and other Christians don’t aggressively oppose a bill now in Congress, in the near future they will be subject to huge fines and prison terms if they say anything negative about homosexuality. Otherwise, the message to ministers and other Christians is, just keep your mouth shut.
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