Thursday, October 14, 2021



A School Horror Story That Didn’t Fit the Narrative. Loudoun County tried to cover up a rape

When the phone rang, it was every father’s worst nightmare. Come to campus, a school official said, your daughter has been assaulted. No one told Scott Smith that she had been sexually assaulted — that a boy wearing a skirt had walked into the girls’ restroom and raped his 15-year-old child. Then, imagine your anger as a parent to find out that the school wasn’t going to involve the police — that they’d decided to handle the matter (which ended up being two counts of forcible sodomy, one count of anal sodomy, and one count of forcible fellatio) “internally.”

For Scott Smith, it was unimaginable. Standing in the Stone Bridge High School office, blind with rage, he demanded they call the police. They finally did — on him. “I went nuts,” he remembers. “…Six cop cars showed up like a… SWAT team.” Later that night, after a hospital rape kit confirmed what his daughter had insisted all along, the school’s principal sent out an email explaining the incident with Scott — never mentioning what had happened to his daughter and where. Even when the attacker was formally charged, administrators kept quiet.

A month later, at a local school board meeting, Smith — like a lot of parents — sat in shock as the new superintendent responded to the fury over Loudoun County’s radical transgender policies by insisting that nothing harmful had ever come of them. “To my knowledge,” Scott Ziegler said, “we don’t have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms. It’s important to keep our perspective on this,” he went on. “We’ve heard it several times tonight from our public speakers, but the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist.” Smith was irate and tried to debate the point but was hauled out of the meeting by officers and charged with disorderly conduct. “I don’t care if he’s homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, transsexual. He’s a sexual predator,” he argued.

Afterward, Smith and his family tried to stay out of the public eye. That proved impossible last week when another bombshell dropped. Not only did the “predator transgender student” exist, he went on to attack again — this time at another school. Two and a half miles from the place where his daughter had been held and violated, a different girl was brutally victimized. “If someone would have sat and listened for 30 seconds to what Scott had to say,” the family attorney said, it could have been prevented. Instead, Loudoun County, whose extreme policies made the abuse possible, tried to cover up the rape — leaving thousands of daughters vulnerable to boys just like this one.

Scott Smith says it’s the most helpless he’s ever felt. “It has been so hard to keep my mouth shut and wait this out. It has been the most powerless thing I’ve ever been through,” he admitted. Other parents, aghast at the district’s negligence, have turned out in mass to blast the county leadership. “I’d rather save one girl from sexual assault than be politically correct,” one woman insisted.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration — sensing the national uprising is only growing — has decided to try to drive parents like Scott underground. Desperate to contain the uproar in local districts, the DOJ (egged on or in concert with the National School Board Association) is threatening to treat outspoken citizens like “domestic terrorists,” citing the arrest of Scott Smith for speaking out against the assault of his daughter as an example in their six page letter.

Outraged, 60 members of Congress pushed back, demanding an explanation from Attorney General Merrick Garland for how it could possibly be legal to treat concerned parents as criminals for exercising their constitutional rights. “While some of these meetings may get heated, most of the parents who have been attending these meetings have simply voiced their passions and concerns for their children and their futures,” they wrote. “While we agree with you that any threat of violence against these government officials should be condemned and investigated, no government official has the right to claim that a citizen may not speak out against government policies.” And yet, the NSBA in a letter to Garland, claims opposing the president’s wildly dangerous transgender agenda is tantamount to a public “hate crime.”

Politically diverse states like Louisiana and Virginia were horrified and publicly denounced the organization for “discouraging active participation in the governance process.” Separately, both chapters said they weren’t consulted about the letter to the DOJ and went out of their way to say the National School Board Association did not speak for them. Others have told news outlets that they’re even reconsidering their alignment with the national association. The debates taking place may be challenging, they agree, but they’re also necessary.

On what authority, Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) asked, is the federal government even intervening in the first place? They don’t have supervision over local school boards — and yet, the “Department of Justice is [going] into the local school districts to basically intimidate parents from getting involved in what their children are going to be taught? It’s very disturbing and troubling to me.” As it is to all parents, who are starting to see Washington’s heavy-handed education policy infused in their districts from the top down. When did it become the FBI’s job to investigate parents for speaking up at local board meetings, they want to know? It didn’t. This is just a desperate move by the Left to intimidate parents into silence so they can continue the indoctrination of children.

“From where I sit,” Rosendale said on Monday’s “Washington Watch,” “what this looks like is just another tactic of the Biden administration to completely silence those who might question what they’re trying to do. And I don’t think that there is a more important obligation for parents than to make sure that they are involved in how their children are being educated and what they’re being taught.”

So what can people do? Well, for starters, you can get your local school board on the record about whether they agree with the National School Board Association’s claims. (FRC Action even has a sample letter you can use.) Then, ask whether your state or community is a member of the NSBA. Is your district paying dues to the National School Board Association? Because if you are, you’re facilitating this type of attack on parents.

Maybe you don’t have children in the public schools, so you think this call to action doesn’t apply to you. But let’s face it: every one of us is a taxpayer, and organizations as radical as the NSBA shouldn’t have the ability to fight parents using our own dollars. Beyond that, this is an opportunity to hold the people we elected to represent us accountable. These school boards don’t just serve the families who have kids in school — they serve the entire community. So every one of us can — and should — show up to these meetings and demand the truth about what’s happening behind classroom doors.

Because, as Scott Smith will tell you, it might not spare his daughter — but it could spare someone else’s.

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Seattle elementary school cancels its annual Pumpkin Parade because it 'marginalizes students of color who don't celebrate Halloween'

A Seattle elementary school has canceled its upcoming Halloween parade and will be banning students from dressing in costumes on October 31, claiming that the annual event ‘marginalizes’ students of color who administrators claim do not celebrate the holiday.

Officials at the Benjamin Franklin Day Elementary School have discussed axing the annual Pumpkin Parade for five years, but first notified parents about the unilateral decision to cancel it in an October 8 newsletter, according to The Jason Rantz Show on local news station KTTH Radio.

‘As a school with foundational beliefs around equity for our students and families, we are moving away from our traditional ‘Pumpkin Parade’ event and requesting that students do not come to school in costumes,’ reads the newsletter, seen by the radio host.

The school in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood annually invites students to dress in costume and march through the school with their peers as part of its Pumpkin Parade.

However, it decided to cancel the event this year because it could be upsetting for children who can’t afford a Halloween costume and that the loud noise levels and crowds are triggering to some kids, according to the newsletter.

About 15 percent of the school is considered low-income, according to nonprofit GreatSchools. It’s not clear why the school didn’t opt for alternatives to cancelling the parade, such as hosting a community costume drive or a DIY costume-making activity.

The newsletter states that students will still recognize the fall season by participating in activities the school claims are ‘more inclusive,’ like a thematic study of the fall season and a lesson on autumnal artwork.

The newsletter concludes by thanking parents for their support, despite inviting no parental input in the decision. It explains that the decision was championed by the school’s Racial Equity Committee and invites parents to join it.

The school defended the decision, saying that a number of students of color opt out of the event each year and feel excluded because they don’t celebrate Halloween.

‘Historically, the Pumpkin Parade marginalizes students of color who do not celebrate the holiday,” a school spokesperson told Rantz.

‘Specifically, these students have requested to be isolated on campus while the event took place. In alliance with SPS’s unwavering commitment to students of color, specifically African American males, the staff is committed to supplanting the Pumpkin Parade with more inclusive and educational opportunities during the school day.’

School principal Stanley Jaskot also supported the Racial Equity Committee and confirmed that the parade was cancelled.

‘Halloween is a very complex issue for schools,’ she told Fox News. ‘Yes, I agree this event marginalized our students of color. Several of our students historically opted for an alternate activity in the library while the pumpkin parade took place.’

She added, ‘This was an isolating situation and not consistent with our values of being an inclusive and safe place for all our students – especially students of color and those with a sensitivity to all the noise and excitement of the parade.’

But at least one parent of a student of color has taken issue with the school’s decision, telling Rantz that parents should have been able to voice their opinions on the matter.

‘I don’t see any way in which this actually addresses any inequities to the extent that there are any inequities. You know, this just seems like grandstanding on behalf of the principal and the staff who are predominantly white,’ David Malkin, who is Asian, told Rantz.

Malkin has a 7-year-old son enrolled at the school and said the boy's favorite holiday is Halloween.

'I’m sure they don’t want to hear from anyone of any race or ethnicity that doesn’t really want to go along with them in lockstep,' he added.

Malkin hasn’t yet told his son about the parade’s cancellation and that he believes students won’t even understand why the school cancelled it.

'I hate to see these kinds of things slowly be whittled away and destroyed or being done away with because someone has some, you know, theory in their head that somehow this is exclusionary when, again, it’s quite the opposite,' he said.

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Defining America's education dumb down

What is the greatest threat to educating children today? Is it COVID-19 or ignorance? I’m going for number two. There is growing evidence to back me up.

In August, Oregon Governor Kate Brown privately signed a bill ending a requirement that high school students prove they are proficient in writing, reading, and math before graduating. The law lasts for three years. The pandemic was blamed for students falling behind, but the real motive was revealed by the governor’s spokesman, Charles Boyle, who said existing standards failed students who don’t test well and that the new standards would aid the state’s “Black, Latino, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal and students of color.” I’m surprised he didn’t include, as President Biden often does, the LGBTQI-plus demographic.

In New York, outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered the elimination of the city’s gifted and talented program. You can probably guess the reason. Critics of the program claim it is racist because white and Asian students are overwhelmingly represented. Mr. De Blasio will let children currently enrolled complete the program, but no new students will be accepted.

Instead, reports The New York Times, “The system will be replaced by a program that offers the possibility of accelerated learning to students in the later years of elementary school.” Who will qualify for that? And who gets to say? What if it is the same racial and ethnic imbalance as now?

Mr. De Blasio ludicrously claimed, “I bet you a lot of parents are going to look at this plan and say this is a reason to stay in public schools.” Quite the opposite. Enrollment in city public schools has fallen below 890,000 students — down from more than a million kids a decade ago, according to internal Department of Education (DOE) records viewed by The New York Post. COVID-19 is only part of the reason. Home-schooling and people moving out of New York are likely bigger contributors to the exodus. Over the past five years - starting before COVID-19 - New York City public schools shed at least 10 percent of their students, according to DOE figures.

The decline in American education is not a new trend, but it has been accelerated in recent years by certain politicians who allow their ideology and politics to replace outcomes.

I’ve written about the Children’s Scholarship Fund (CSF) in the past because it has a record of success, which ought to be the primary goal, not pleasing politicians and teachers’ unions. According to CSF’s website, “In New York City, 99.4 percent of CSF alumni responding to our alumni survey graduated high school on time in 2018, compared to the most recent average NYC public school graduation rate of 77.3 percent. Of the CSF alumni who graduated, 87 percent indicated they planned to enroll in college.” The same gap between CSF students and public schools exists in other cities where they are active.

What is - or ought to be - especially pleasing is the testimonies given by the mostly minority students who have been rescued from their failing public schools and given a chance at a real education, not to mention a moral framework for how to live a good life. Read some of these stories on the site.

Since its founding, CSF has provided $885 million in scholarships for 185,000 children. In the past school year, CSF and local partners distributed $46.9 million in scholarship awards. More children could be rescued if more politicians adopted school choice, which is a growing trend, along with homeschooling.

Cutting a gifted and talented program and not requiring kids to read, write or do basic math flunks the test of what education is supposed to mean and limits a child’s job and career opportunities. That is a form of child abuse.

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My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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