Rush reported Maine's children's child abuse!

Rush Radio show | 2/27/03 | Rush

[netmilsmom]

Hey! He did it. Rush just reported the children of soldiers being abused by Maine teachers!!!!!

[shhrubbery!]

Yes, but he said he got a message that the Bangor paper that reported the harrassment printed a retraction a couple of days ago.

Have been viewing that paper's website to find the retraction, but I haven't found it yet.

[harpseal]

I really want to hear the detains. This was first reported on theBangor TV station and picked up by the newpaper. There have yet to have been names named but the State National Guard person in charge of family support did confirm that there had been reports of this from all over the state. I would suggest any Freepers from the State of Maine get on this and find out the names of the teachers, pricipals or guidance councilors who have harrassed the children of deployed troops nad make certain they never ever get to be another day in a school as an employee.

Actually riding these peoples out of town on rails with a fresh new coat of tar and feathers would be a more traditional approach but we need names.

[sonsofliberty2000]

Military sensitivity sought in schools
Reminder to aid kids with deployed parents

http://www.bangornews.com/editorialnews/article.cfm?ID=286565&CFID=6851039&CFTOKEN=55874651

Commissioner of Education J. Duke Albanese said Monday he plans to send e-mails to schools reminding them to be "sensitive" to children whose parents may be involved in the war on Iraq.Albanese said Maj. Gen. Joseph Tinkham, state adjutant general, told him Monday that the Army National Guard had received complaints from parents across the state who felt "people weren't as sensitive as they should be."


When he first heard about the complaints last week, he had been under the impression that parents were upset about teachers making anti-war statements in the classroom, Albanese said.

In fact, according to "anecdotal stories" told to him by Tinkham, the commissioner said only one complaint had to do with a classroom activity in which a child became upset after a teaching assistant "took up the anti-war" side.

Other complaints were from parents on two occasions who thought local school personnel "should have been more sensitive" when a student requested to leave early for a military-related activity and when a student was teased on a school bus because a parent was in the military.

The anecdotes were reported at family assistance centers, where relatives of deployed soldiers can get information and support.

Albanese said late Monday afternoon he would send out an advisory "reiterating the need to be sensitive to the times and to the children who might have a parent who's going to be potentially dispatched to war."

Maine teachers and schools have an "excellent track record" when it comes to supporting families, Albanese said.

"Often teachers act as surrogates ... in support of a child who's concerned about what's happening at home," he said.

Army National Guard spokesman Maj. Peter Rogers said late Monday he was pleased with the department's move.

"That's great news," he said. "I think a lot of it was probably that people weren't thinking and hopefully this will fix the problem," he said. "A lot of teachers may not have known children had parents who were deployed."

As of Friday, his department had received "no phone calls, e-mails or faxes," Albanese said. "Usually parents would come to us and let us know their concerns."

On Monday four e-mails arrived from people who had seen a television report that Maine Army National Guard officials were getting complaints from parents.

"That's not what we consider a huge response to the problem," Albanese said. "That's really minimal."

The e-mails "were about [people] wanting and encouraging us and me in particular to do something about this."

Rogers is hopeful things will be worked out.

"All we're looking for is for educators to be sensitive to the fact that we have family members in the classrooms and these kids have already suffered the trauma of having someone from their family deployed," he said.

"Everyone has the right to free speech, but if it's making kids uneasy and their separation harder, it's not something we're interested in at all."

[shhrubbery!]

Thanks. I saw that article but it didn't look like a 'retraction' to me. Looked more like the "education commissioner" is trying to downplay the damaging information.

Sounds like Rush's email informant was spinning a bit.

[RhoTheta]

I saw this on WND this morning attributed to a local TV station, WABI in Bangor, with a lot more detail. Sorry about the formatting, but this is my first post.

BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS Military: Teachers harassing soldiers' kids Maine parents report children told Iraq war illegal, immoral

Posted: February 26, 2003 6:48 p.m. Eastern

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Public-school teachers in Maine – at least 12 of them – have told children of recently called-up National Guard members that any attack on Iraq would be illegal and immoral, thus insinuating that the students' parents are equally immoral, according to reports by local Guard personnel.

WABI-TV in Bangor, Maine, first reported Friday that family members of two National Guard units recently deployed reported to the Guard's Family Assistance Program that teachers were making harassing comments to their children. The assistance program is designed to help families of Guard members who are called to active duty with information about various programs that can help them during deployments.

WABI reporter Alan Grover told WND that reports of the harassment had come in from 12 different schools across the state. Personnel from the Family Assistance Program collected the 12 reports after interviewing 80 Guard families. Since there are 600 such families affected, the number of actual incidents likely is higher.

State Education Commissioner Duke Albanese downplayed the matter, saying there were only "three anecdotal incidents," according to the Bangor Daily News.

Adjutant Gen. Joseph Tinkham of the Guard, however, confirmed that there were specific instances of harassment and that the names of the teachers, locations and dates have been recorded. The Guard has decided not to release those names for fear of repercussions for the students involved and instead will allow individual parents to decide if they want to confront the teachers publicly.

WABI also reported that Albanese has sent a letter to the state's teachers, encouraging them to be mindful of the children of military personnel and to be balanced in discussing various views about a potential war.

According to the TV station, principals and guidance counselors also have made disparaging remarks to students about their parents' participation in war preparations.

In a related matter, WABI reports that the National Guard instructed soldiers to meet with school personnel prior to deploying to inform them of the deployment and let them know that the children of soldiers may have some special emotional issues to deal with as a result. In response, according to the report, school personnel were less than cooperative, telling the soldiers, in effect, "That's your problem."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31252

[LurkedLongEnough]

There was a short story on the complaints about Maine teachers early last eve on Fox News Channel too.

[stumpy]

The schools involved should lose ALL FEDERAL school funding.

[Uncle Jaque]

We have been on this since Friday; check related topics for a fairly convoluted background of this whole thing.

Please, everybody; some of you may not appreciate just how close we may have come to a serious incident involving an enraged parent, relative, or some other concerned individual who might have been sufficiently outraged by this as to "snap" and confront somebody within the Public School or Teacher's Union - guilty or innocent; we're not at all sure at this point - in a way which we would probably all regret after the fact.

I think I'm just as fired up as anybody here, but I do NOT want to see anyone getting physically threatened or harmed over this! Investigated? Definitely. Prosecuted? If indicated by credible evidence; of course. Sued? If culpable of psychological child abuse, it wouldn't hurt my feelings in the least.

But rolled out of the classroom on a gurney in a zip-up vinyl bag? Not in this State - PLEASE!!!

Frequently comments about "Whooping a$$", "Tar and Feathers" and the like can be amusing, but I respectfully implore posters here to think responsibly before posting such sentiments - even in jest. This situation, IMHO, is still way to volitile to be safely throwing this sort of thing around. So can we just take a breath, count to ten, and cool it a little? Someone's health could really depend on it.

That's not to say that this issue should just go away; i have little doubt (and Rush's suspicions seem to now be aroused) that there has been an intense cover-up operation underway since Monday, and it is continuing.

Have you noticed how slow the FR has been today? There is a very organized organization up here in Maine who might have an interest in the outcome of this case (*ahem*). One of their more notorious tactics to shut down or isolate an opponent is to activate a massive telephone chain, whereby Web sites and phone lines can be taken down for hours at a time. Once it goes National, the NEA gets a call and they WILL raise hell with about anybody they want to.

This issue has now (as of this Morning) gone National.

FR "slowdown" a coincidence today? Could be.

Personally; I don't really think so. But let's all keep our shirts on, OK?

Uncle Jaque in Maine

[harpseal]

If you check my comments I was making an historical refference regarding the tar and feathers. All I was stating prior to that for direct consequences was firing the slimeballs involved once it is established they tried to inflict their views of those who serve our nation on the children of those serving our nation.

Now as to wheeling someone out in a body bag because they espoused these views, that is not something I am encouraging now. I expect most Freepers are law abiding and would go the fire their butts out of the school system route first. Clearly such is the minimum preferred course of action although the law suit and prosecution routes should also be encouraged.

I am also quite familiar with Maine although mostly the southern half of the state. I used to live there for a time and grew up on the NH Maine border.

[GailA]

This was posted with the Wash Times article on this.

J. Duke Albanese, state commissioner of education email addy

duke.albanese@state.me.us

This is the mental equivalent of the anti-war protestors spitting, throwing urine and feces on our Military when they returned from Viet Nam.

Many of these children are just 7 & 8 years old!

These teachers couldn't get at the parents of the children to degrade so they mentally abused the children of the military men and women just doing their job.

This is MENTAL CHILD ABUSE

[SerpentDove]

If this Maine story is true, and I suspect it is, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

[ofMagog]

See my post #9 here.

Governor confirms the abuse.

[ofMagog]

See my post above.

[leilani]

To: SerpentDove

SerpentDove said:"If this Maine story is true, and I suspect it is, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH." If this story is true, enough ISN'T enough. A huge class action lawsuit might cut it, however. What's good for the goose, etc. - folks should start hitting these freaks in their pocketbooks.

[SerpentDove]

What I meant is ENOUGH IS ENOUGH from these creeps.

Maddening.

[leilani]

Yes, maddening, but also GET EVEN-ing! I wonder if anyone has started a legal fund to bring these twisted 'teachers' to justice.Abuse is abuse and they need to be thrown in jail after they give up all of their worldy goods in compensatory damages. Seriously.

[FreedomPoster]

Heads up! Bill O'Reilly is going to be covering this on The Factor at 8PM EST on FNC.

This ought to be interesting.

This needs the national coverage. We need to be in the face of the Left on this BIG TIME.

[FreedomPoster]

Heads up! Bill O'Reilly is going to be covering this on The Factor at 8PM EST on FNC.

This ought to be interesting.

This needs the national coverage. We need to be in the face of the Left on this BIG TIME.

[FreedomPoster]

Arrrrgh! I can't take FreeRepublic being this slow!!!


There. I feel better. For now.