1999 Story That Proves We Live In Bizarro World Today (Old FR Thread w/Comments)

WayBack Machine ^ | 4/28/99 | Old FreeRepublic Post

[OneVike]

I believe we should rename the Democrat Party, the Bizarro party. Why not? After all, when you compare what the Democrat Party considers normal today compare to what was their normal was in 1999, we can clearly see they created a weird type of Bizarro World. Let us look at the evidence, what was racist yesterday is now acceptable, what was was evil is now righteous, what was illegal is now legal, what was child abuse is now a child's right, what was boy is now girl, and what was a girl is now a boy. An example of this bizarre change is thread below from April 28, 1999.

We have here an example of how far America's education system has devolved in the last 25 years. The topic of the post is of a boy who was suspended for wring a story about a planet called, "Poland Jewpiter". The boy was suspended after an administrator walked by and heard him read the story to the classroom. Due to the suspension the father filed a federal lawsuit claiming his son's free-speech rights were violated. You must understand the time was 1999, and the school considered the boy story was racist. yet here we are 25 years later and today the school would probably put the kid's name on the Honor Roll list.

Below is a Free Republic post with comments from 1999. Boy's Father Sues School For Sons' Suspension Over Innocuous Story"

4/28/99 -- 2:01 AM
Phuladelphia

The father of an eighth-grader suspended from school for writing a story about a planet named ``Poland Jewpiter'' has filed a federal lawsuit claiming his son's free-speech rights were violated.

The mythical planet 14-year-old Brad Herman described had air that smelled like sausages and people wearing ``funny hats'' who listened and danced to bar mitzvah music, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday. He also said the food tasted good.

He ended his paper with the words: ``I hope to never go to this planet.''

Teachers and administrative at the school did not return telephone calls Tuesday to explain why the story resulted in the boy's suspension.

Earlier this month, Brad and other students at Brandywine Heights Middle School in Topton were given an assignment in English class to make up a story about a planet, name it and describe its traits that relate to the five senses.

Brad, who is not of Jewish or Polish origin, said he got the idea for the fake planet from his Polish friend and from an MTV program that showed a bar mitzvah, said his attorney Daylin Leach.

The boy had no idea anyone would be offended, Leach said.

``He wrote an innocuous story. It contains no insults,'' Leach said. ``But even if it did offend people, you can't suspend a student because of the content of his story. Students have First Amendment rights, too.''

On April 19, Brad was suspended for a week from school after his teacher asked him to read his paper in class and an administrator later chastised and berated Brad in the halls in front of other children, court documents stated.

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The PC police are busy in PHILADELPHIA. Imagine if this boy would have written about Planet Gay Pride.Posted by: Buffalo Bob () *
04/28/99 04:40:32 PDT

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To: Buffalo Bob
On April 19, Brad was suspended for a week from school after his teacher asked him to read his paper in class and an administrator later chastised and berated Brad in the halls in front of other children, court documents stated.

Well, that was smart behavior, wasn't it? Now, the kid stands stained forever in the eyes of his peers. Hope they hustled him into 1,000 hours of sensitivity training.

I heard on Boston radio this morning that several Massachusetts high school students have refused to take state-mandated testing of literacy and basic skills...students in three grades throughout Massachusetts are being tested this week. These kids face suspension if they don't comply. The kids' excuse for not taking the tests is that teachers prepare only for the tests, depriving the students of "real learning". Real learning...probably recycling, diversity, and the mechanics of condom use.
From: Yikes () *
04/28/99 05:01:57 PDT

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To: Buffalo Bob
"Imagine if this boy would have written about Planet Gay Pride."

Planet Gay Pride. Now THAT paints a picture......yeeesh.
From: RightOnline (emailname) *
04/28/99 05:07:17 PDT

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To: Buffalo Bob
BAN PENCILS NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From: ParrotsUp (parrotsup@yahoo.com) *
04/28/99 05:08:53 PDT

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To: Buffalo Bob
Hey wait one minute... Certainly we must not have the entire story? This young man must have really offended someone, perhaps he implied the people on this planet believe in God?
From: monti8 (Toni) *
04/28/99 05:13:07 PDT

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To: Buffalo Bob
Sounds like it was a "creative writing" exercise. He just got a little "too creative."

From: scape32 (cquest@frontiernet.net) *
04/28/99 05:14:08 PDT

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To: Buffalo Bob
"Students have First Amendment rights, too.''

No they don't. They have the right to sit down, shut up and learn.

They also have the right not to be harrassed by preachy left wingers with their political correctness.

It wouldn't have been a problem if he wrote about Planet White Christian Male.
From: mrgolden () *
04/28/99 05:18:43 PDT

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To: Buffalo Bob

Did this boy also write about the planet Uranus too? That sounds like a good place to put the Gay Pride people. We could call it "Up Youranus"

From: SamAdams76 (kencook@tiac.net) *
04/28/99 05:22:02 PDT

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To: SamAdams76
Do you know how Charmin bathroom tissue and Captain Kirk are alike?  They both keep the Klingons off Uranus!
From: DH () *
04/28/99 05:30:19 PDT

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To: Buffalo Bob
"On April 19, Brad was suspended for a week from school after his teacher asked him to read his paper in class and an administrator later chastised and berated Brad in the halls in front of other children, court documents stated."

Let me get this straight. It is perfectly proper for school officials to ostracize a student, but when students in Littleton do it then entire nation wrings its collective hands.Welcome to Disney world.
From: monocle (emailname) *
04/28/99 05:33:52 PDT

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To: Yikes
The Massachusetts MCAS is THIRTEEN HOURS LONG and takes several weeks to administer.

In some schools, local businesses (burgeoning public/ private partnerships, setting up for school to work) bring in food, drinks, etc. for the children. Data collected includes info on personal background, attitudes, opinions, and behaviors. This data, part of every student's lifelong file, is transferred to the state and is shared with ALL-state and federal- government agencies.

The "assessments" arrive at the schools WITH THE STUDENTS' NAMES and NUMBERS already printed on them.

ALL assessments and scoring keys are NOT public documents. Masschusetts Public Records Law (our FOIA) was amended to exclude "assessments" with NO public hearing, with NO report to the legislature, with NO legislative debate. How was the law amended? A little amendment was attached to the FY'97 state budget just before the governor signed the bill.

From: capecodder (***) *
04/28/99 05:36:41 PDT

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To: monocle
There is no room in public schools for honest resolution of disputes. The public schools need to be abandoned.
From: Mmmike (impeach@team.hillbilly.org) *
04/28/99 05:44:03 PDT

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To: Buffalo Bob
Ah, the good life in bill klinton's amerika! This kid obviously didn't know a Jew from a tyranisaurous, else why wouldh e have had them eating sausages? Or. maybe that was the anti-semetic part. Ridiculous.
From: clews (clews@cct.infi.net) *
04/28/99 05:44:35 PDT

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To: monocle
The public schools have no time for honest resolution of disputes. Everything is sacrificed for the interests of the well-oiled machine. The public schools need to be abandoned.
From: Mmmike (impeach@team.hillbilly.org) *
04/28/99 05:45:40 PDT

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To: scape32
The real reason the boy was expelled from school is he forgot to state in the story how he "felt" about the plant and the assignment.
From: NCIAHAWK (emailname) *
04/28/99 05:45:44 PDT

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To: Buffalo Bob
Nobody would have said a word if he had written about Planet Gothic Homo Heil Hitler, even if he included detailed plans about how he would shoot his classmates and blow up the school.

The public schools won't suspend kids that are a clear and present danger to their classmates, but they'll toss a kid out daring to have a thought that didn't come right out of the NEA Little Red Book. One more reason my kids will never go to public schools.
From: g.i.joe (weare@winning) *
04/28/99 05:48:31 PDT

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To: all
The whole idea behind the liberal agenda is get in your face and take as many rights away as possible. They are trying to depict this as a hate speech and it just doesn't fly! Charley Reese wrote about this not long ago stating that the liberals were doing everything they could based on hate speech to remove the freedom of speech and this is exactly where they are going with this one. Not everyone in America sleeps and if it is necessary to clog the courts a little more then so be it - Liberty is worth it!
From: vetwife (emailname) *
04/28/99 05:58:34 PDT

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To: DH
ROLF! That's a good one DH.
From: Mr_Peter (emailname) *
04/28/99 06:05:24 PDT

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To: Buffalo Bob
They would have loved sausages on that planet!!!!!!!!
From: witch (travisw@ionet.net) *
04/28/99 06:05:58 PDT

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To: Mr_Peter
Make that ROFLMAO! My typing fingers don't want to work this early!-)
From: Mr_Peter (emailname) *
04/28/99 06:06:15 PDT

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To: Yikes
Ya'll just don't understand the problem here. It isn't the BOYS fault!

He probably thought he was spelling "Jupiter" correctly. After all, it IS a public school!
From: Budge (budge@seark.net) *
04/28/99 07:30:19 PDT

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To: ParrotsUp
People don't write stories. Pencils write stories.
From: whilom (emailname) *
04/28/99 07:35:22 PDT

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To: Buffalo Bob
The PC police are busy in PHILADELPHIA. Imagine if this boy would have written about Planet Gay Pride.

You know not the wisdom of which you speak.

In that "Teaching Tolerance" quarterly magazine that Morris Dees publishes through the Southern Poverty Law Center, there was an account written by a teacher (I can't remember what subject she taught) who said she violated her own rules in order to send a message about "homophobia."

She asked students to write an essay about what the perfect world would look like, with that "there are no wrong answers" rule in effect. Yeah, right. That was until two of the students collaborated on a paper in which one of the features of a perfect world was the elimination of homosexuality.

She could not actually confront the students about what they wrote, but she did, in a supplemental lesson, send the message to the entire class that it was folly to suggest that the world would be better without gays and lesbians, and that it might be worse. She said that she thought the boys got the message, and that she didn't fear reprisal because she was taking a sabbatical soon thereafter.

This account is not online at the "Teaching Tolerance" website, but this one is. Note the methods by which the teachers sneakily use "there are no wrong answers" to draw out students' use of anti-gay epithets, which, in turn, leads them to implement strategies to confront "homophobia".
From: L.N. Smithee (LNSimho@aol.com) *
04/28/99 08:03:50 PDT

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To: Buffalo Bob
This is an example why the public schools have completely failed; all public schools should be defunded and let the private sector and churches be involved in schooling.
From: Hot Dawg () *
04/28/99 09:26:45 PDT

[OneVike]

I have many old posts I will be sharing with everyone from time to time. The threads will be the type that shows how the left has changed from then to now. Like this one where we can clearly see that the left saw antisemitism everywhere. Where as today, the left has embraced antisemitism to the point the Democrats should start using the swastika (卐 or 卍) as the symbol of their party.

[Ronaldus Magnus III]

“”on Boston radio this morning that several Massachusetts high school students have refused to take state-mandated testing of literacy and basic skills””

Just a few weeks ago, Oregon announced there would no longer be a High School Exit Exam. Cannot read your diploma? Believe two plus two equals five?

No Worries!

[FreedomPoster]

Ping. I think you’ll appreciate this old thread. ARTH way back in the early days of FR.

[Fiji Hill]

I recall Bizarro from my grade school days when I read comic books. He was a character who looked and dressed just like Superman but acted like Superman on acid.

[OneVike]

Exactly, he was the anti-Superman.

[mythenjoseph]

Awesome...Please keep posting as often as you would like...the comments from Free Republic members are so consistent . Gods word never changes.

[sopo]

The day LNSmithee took on Bethanna and Jo Jo Jones was epic FR

[metmom]

What an example of how far public schools have fallen in some 20+ years.

[kiryandil]

L.N. Smithee - THERE’S a blast from the past.

[sopo]

yep

[sethro]

Thank you very much for this!

Liberals are Ruprecht. Just run and run and run in circles while banging on pots for attention. The heck...

I believe my PC tower had a “turbo” button back in 1999. The “good” ole days.

[OneVike]

I will do just that. Thanks

[OneVike]

Yes I remember those. Things we forget, then when reminded of they become classic moments.

[OneVike]

Oh yes, and not jus schools, but all of Society. I plan on working on an old thread from the 2020 primary race , when FReepers were divided between Bush and John McCain. To think we thought both were good guys. Here we are 24 years later and none of us have anything good to say about either of them.

[OneVike]

I meant the 2000 primary.

I need to slow down and read what I post, years get mixed up in my head so easily.

[OneVike]

Ogh gosh you are right.

I had a tower that when I started it up, the HD would click and make a spinning sound. It was like trying to crank up an old jalopy that turned and turned and sputtered and sputtered until it finally started.

Eventually the HD locked up. Luckily I had backed it up and loaded things onto a slave. But it was a real busy that I was running Windows 95 on.