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Anti-homeschooling bigots strike again - Michelle Malkin
http://www.townhall.com

Posted on 09/22/2004 6:50:12 AM PDT by Spackidagoosh



Anti-homeschooling bigots strike again Michelle Malkin

September 22, 2004

The public school establishment hates homeschoolers. They've smeared the movement as a conspiracy of conservative Christian zealots. They've scoffed at homeschooled kids as social pariahs. They've painted homeschooling parents as uneducated and negligent.

And now, under the guise of preparing students for a violent terrorist attack, educators in one public school district are casting homeschoolers in the role of bomb-detonating militants.

The story about a mock terrorism drill involving a local school district in the Muskegon Chronicle starts out innocently enough:

"Local school district transportation directors instigated the exercise because they wanted to test their abilities to respond to emergencies, said Tom Spoelman, transportation consultant for the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District. They eventually hooked up with Muskegon County Emergency Services, and planning for the event has been under way for about a year, Spoelman said.

"The exercise will test not only school transportation directors, but also the Muskegon County Emergency Operations Plan, which involves many agencies throughout the county.

"About 60 middle and high school students from Reeths-Puffer and Whitehall public schools will be part of the exercise, according to Kristin Tank, public information coordinator for the MAISD. Local law enforcement agencies, fire departments, human service agencies, transportation services and medical services will participate.

"Students from Muskegon Community College and Reeths-Puffer will assist in applying makeup to add to the reality of the gruesome scene. Between 200 and 300 people will observe the exercise, including school bus drivers, school administrators, emergency personnel and evaluators from agencies across the state who will provide feedback."

What's jaw-droppingly unbelievable is the next paragraph describing the attackers in the simulation:

"The exercise will simulate an attack by a fictitious radical group called Wackos Against Schools and Education who believe everyone should be homeschooled. Under the scenario, a bomb is placed on the bus and is detonated while the bus is traveling on Durham, causing the bus to land on its side and fill with smoke."

This is not a joke. A taxpayer-funded drill is using public school students to enforce anti-homeschooling bigotry under the guise of preparing for terrorism. Terrorism by whom? By Islamic jihadists who hijack planes and incinerate kids headed to Disneyworld. Islamic terrorists who take hundreds of children hostage in Beslan, force them to drink their own urine and shoot babies in the back. Islamic terrorists who groom toddlers as suicide bombers.

Our enemies are Islamic extremist murderers. Except if you happen to attend the Muskegon County, Mich., schools, where the menacing faces of terrorism belong to parents who make untold sacrifices to give their children the best education they know how by schooling them in the loving environment of their own homes.

I recall the Islamist-sympathizing admonition included in the National Education Association's touchy-feely, post-Sept. 11 curriculum: "Do not suggest that any group is responsible" for the terrorist attacks, one tip for parents and teachers urged. Unless, it should be amended, you can work an anti-homeschooling hate angle into the lesson.

When President Bush's education secretary, Rod Paige, likened the NEA in jest to a "terrorist organization," teachers' union officials and the media became completely unhinged. How dare he make such an odious comparison, they gasped. How dare he make light of the real terrorists, they fumed.

"I can tell you what my first response was: Scary. That's really frightening," said Diana Garchow, a special-education teacher at Highland Elementary School in Bakersfield, Calif., to the Associated Press after Paige's remarks. "It's scary that you can't voice an opinion in this country without being called a terrorist. . . . I don't care if it was a joke or what it was, that was a totally inappropriate comment."

Paige was forced to apologize to teachers. What about the Muskegon County, Mich., school system? Will its public education militants apologize to homeschoolers for taking an intolerant swipe at their beliefs? Or will this politicized "Wackos Against Schools and Education" terror drill be coming to a classroom near you?

Michelle Malkin is a syndicated columnist and maintains her weblog at michellemalkin.com


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 09/22/2004 6:50:12 AM PDT by Spackidagoosh
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To: Spackidagoosh
The public school establishment hates homeschoolers

That's because they can't control them with liberal brainwashing...but, you all already knew that.

2 posted on 09/22/2004 6:53:07 AM PDT by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: Spackidagoosh

"The public school establishment hates homeschoolers"

They hate us for so many reasons.

First and foremost, they hate us because we do what they can't: educate our children.


3 posted on 09/22/2004 6:54:45 AM PDT by sitetest (Spitball Kerry for Collaborator-in-Chief!)
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To: Spackidagoosh

Yet another indication of the pure insanity of liberal ideas. Home schoolers want to be left alone for the most part. They are not particularly interested in engaging with the fascist public school indoctinators. It is insulting to be sure, but mostly just moronic. They do not get it because they "go" to public schools.

I guess if I think about it, in a way, it's a back-handed compliment to the home schoolers, most of whose students would never make such fools of themselves.

They are too well taught.


4 posted on 09/22/2004 6:57:41 AM PDT by sleepy_hollow
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To: Spackidagoosh

No doubt we'll soon see a "60 Minutes" documentary on "Homeschool Terrorists: New Danger to the Left!"

Produced by Michael Moore.


5 posted on 09/22/2004 7:00:17 AM PDT by Panzerlied
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To: Spackidagoosh

The Homeschool boards in MI are getting this apology.

Subject: Apology...Please forward


> Statement from the MAISD Superintendent
> Michael H. Bozym, Ph.D.
>
> September 21, 2004
>
> Contact:
> Kristin Tank
> Public Information Coordinator
> MAISD, (231) 767-7263
>
> The Muskegon Area Intermediate School District (MAISD) shared
> the disappointment of others when we learned the September
> 21, 2004, emergency preparedness drill referenced home
> schoolers as the fictitious group responsible for a mock
> disaster. We apologize. The MAISD and local districts were
> not aware of the scenario, and it was not shared with
> students or parents who took part in the exercise.
>
> According to Dan Stout, Chief Deputy, Emergency Services of
> Muskegon County, this scenario was constructed in his office.
> A sample scenario was required in order to receive the
> necessary funding to stage the event. The Muskegon Area
> Intermediate School District and our local schools did not
> construct the scenario, but participated with other county
> agencies, hospitals, and emergency responders in conducting
> the drill.
>
> This exercise was meant to sharpen the skills and response
> time of our emergency services personnel, but was
> unfortunately clouded by the choice of this fictional group.
> We believe this exercise had everything to do with testing
> emergency response time and the protection of our children.
> It had nothing to do with the home school population.
>
> As educators, we believe that the first and most important
> teacher is the parent, whether in home schools, public
> schools, or non-public schools. We all work together to
> ensure a safe and secure environment for our children to live
> and grow.
>
> We sincerely regret offending home school educators. We
> believe that all parents are educators and do important work
> at home with their children.
>
> # # #
>
> Please forward all additional questions and comments to the
> Public Information Coordinator at the Muskegon Area
> Intermediate School District at ktank@r... or
> (231) 767-7263.
>
>



>

> Apology from Emergency Services of Muskegon County
>
> Daniel Stout: (231) 724-6341
> stoutda@c...
>
>
> In the world today Homeland security is very a important
> issue. The training of our nation to respond to the many
> threats we face is of utmost importance. As part of a full
> scale homeland security exercise on September 21, 2004 in
> Muskegon, I wrote about a fictional group and fictional
> scenario for the exercise. This fictional group and scenario
> made reference to fictional people who are against schools.
> This fictional group and scenario was not meant to offend any
> home school students. It has nothing to do with any home
> school population. Home school students and former students
> are a very important part of our nation. This scenario will
> not be used again.
>
> Daniel Stout
> Muskegon County Emergency Services
>
> # # #
>
> Kristin Tank
> Public Information Coordinator
> MAISD
> 630 Harvey Street
> Muskegon, MI 49442-2398
> Phone: 231-767-7263
> Fax: 231-773-3498
> E-mail: ktank@r...
> Visit our Web Site: www.muskegonisd.org


6 posted on 09/22/2004 7:01:42 AM PDT by netmilsmom (Does a clean house indicate that there is a broken computer in it?)
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Comment #7 Removed by Moderator

To: Spackidagoosh

Someone needs to take those school district administrators from Muskegon out to the woodshed...


8 posted on 09/22/2004 7:03:30 AM PDT by Redbob
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To: Spackidagoosh

Does anyone still doubt that liberals are hate-mongers? They behave like spoiled children, but one a much more destructive level.


9 posted on 09/22/2004 7:04:03 AM PDT by truthseeker2
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To: Spackidagoosh

Bump


10 posted on 09/22/2004 7:08:27 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! NOV 2, 2004 is VETERANS DAY! VOTE!)
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To: netmilsmom

Too little, too late. You can almost sense the gritted teth through which this "apology" was issued.


11 posted on 09/22/2004 7:19:53 AM PDT by NCSteve
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To: netmilsmom

Maybe you should've printed the emails. I would like to ask why they just didn't use Al-Qaeda as the terrorist group. Would have been more believable.

Though I'm afraid I already know the answer.


12 posted on 09/22/2004 7:43:10 AM PDT by VeniVidiVici (Not Fonda Kerry in '04 // Vets Against Kerry)
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To: sitetest
They hate us for so many reasons.
First and foremost, they hate us because we do what they can't: educate our children.

Sadly, that's not really the main reason. Clearly, the NEA isn't terribly concerned whether children are educated or not. Their top priority has been, and always shall be, revenue. Home-schooled children "deprive" schools of precious dollars. State and federal funds are distributed by head-count-per-school. It is just that simple. The NEA is a union, and is driven to always seek more money, period. Everything else is secondary.

(Another point supporting the NEA-$-uber-alles argument: the proliferation of "special-needs" children is NOT because there are more kids needing help... it is because schools get about 30% more funding per labelled child, therefore they label anyone and everyone who can even marginally be said to exhibit a symptom or two... and if you've seen the symptoms list for most ailments, you'd know that most kids can be labelled with something. The staff approaches a worried parent, suggests testing and extra help for their child, and few argue to the contrary. Most school are hiring more specialists than new staff, because they can always cram 2-3 more kids per classroom. Non-scientific supporting fact: My school increased in population by 12% in 4 years, from 1600 to 1800, and we added 1 teaching position... and 8 specialists. The extra 200 kids were just scattered among the existing classrooms, increasing the average class size from 25 to 28. Those numbers aren't scary-looking in a report, so why bother hiring new staff? I can't wait until they go from 28 to 31. *sigh*)

13 posted on 09/22/2004 8:10:04 AM PDT by Teacher317
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To: netmilsmom
Fair enough....

Although IF Stout is that ignorant, then I wonder about his ability to manage an ice cream cone by himself...Let alone an emergency services department.

My guess is Stout is married to, or someone on his staff is married to an NEA member. And they thought they would just slip that HS'ing bit in....

FWIW-

14 posted on 09/22/2004 8:17:20 AM PDT by Osage Orange (I'm a man.............I can change.............If I have to..................I guess...........)
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To: Puppage

"That's because they can't control them with liberal brainwashing"

They also get funding based on the number of students. Homeschoolers cost them.


15 posted on 09/22/2004 8:18:57 AM PDT by bk1000 ("We will take things away from you for the common good.": -HRC)
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To: Spackidagoosh

We use a cyber charter school but for .02 I'd go back to traditional homeschooling. (This is PA where the law is very unfriendly to homeschoolers.) Putting homeschoolers in the role of terrorists is so low, it's probably an idea they got from PA's public ed officials.


16 posted on 09/22/2004 8:19:47 AM PDT by Graymatter
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To: Spackidagoosh

Thanks for posting this.
I doubt the liberal lefties are ever going to get it about anything. You'd think after the flap about SeeBS somebody would figure out just because we disagree with them we aren't the bad guys. Everything has to be PC!


17 posted on 09/22/2004 9:24:19 AM PDT by hoosierpearl (No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy, than a U.S. Marine.)
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To: NCSteve

They must have been shivering in fear, knowing that us pajama clad minions would broadcast their foolishness far and wide! YESSS!


18 posted on 09/22/2004 9:58:33 AM PDT by GOP_1900AD (Stomping on "PC," destroying the Left, and smoking out faux "conservatives" - Right makes right!)
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To: Teacher317

the state still gets the money and results in a net gain, not a net loss. If you lose lunch money and after school
program funding, you have only lost a portion of the total net. In MN for example, we have a complex formula to calculate this. Complex in order to confuse.Call your school
board admins some time and try to get an answer or printed info on what this per student amount is. You'd have a better
chance getting Rather to quit.If the school was spending $12K/year per student(as MPLS does here)and that student goes to homeschool next year, it doesn't "cost" the public school $12K in lost revenue) If it cost them $6k, they're still coming out ahead...


19 posted on 09/22/2004 10:08:01 AM PDT by Rakkasan1 (Justice of the piece:excuses are like forged Bush guard memos;everybody's got one.)
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