Lawsuit Filed Against Texas School For Punishing Student Who Refused to Recite The Mexican Pledge of Allegiance

Because Texas had the audacity to refuse Obama’s Core Curriculum, along with the associated textbooks, they are under a major attack from the Progressive Commies who have flocked to Texas in an attempt to turn the state Blue. 

In the near future, expect to see more examples of teachers in Texas bullying students into compliance with Progressive ideals:

In one Texas School, Students have the Right to Opt-Out of Reciting the American Pledge of Allegiance . . . but Not the Mexican Pledge; Lawsuit Filed

ThomasMore.org

ANN ARBOR, MI – Just as the 2011 school year began, Brenda Brinsdon, then a 15 year-old sophomore at Achieve Early College High School (AECHS) in McAllen Texas, was thrust into the national spotlight after she refused to stand up, extend her arms straight out with palms down and recite the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance and sing the Mexican National Anthem.  Reyna Santos, the Spanish 3 teacher, required all her students to recite this allegiance to Mexico. Click here to see local news coverage.

When the time came for the students to stand up and recite the Mexican pledge, Brenda Brinsdon refused.   Brenda, born in the United States, is the daughter of a Mexican immigrant and an American father.  Brenda is fluent in Spanish and English and is proud of her Mexican heritage, but she is a true blooded American.  So to Brenda, the words of the pledge have a deep meaning. Her conscience and patriotism would not allow her to participate in the assignment.  She believed it was ‘un-American’ and she was exercising her constitutional right not to be forced to pledge allegiance to Mexico.  The school punished her for her refusal.

As a result, the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, along with local Texas attorney Jerad Najvar, filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Brenda and her father William Brinsdon claiming that school officials violated Brenda’s  constitutional rights. Click here to read the federal lawsuit.

Ironically, the assignment to recite the Mexican pledge was given during the school’s celebration of Freedom Week, marking the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks and also on U.S. Constitution Day.  According to the McAllen School District policy for Special Programs, social studies classes during Freedom Week were required to recite the text of the Declaration of Independence.  However, excusals from recitation are granted for students who have a conscientious objection.

The longstanding Supreme Court decision, West Virginia State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, (1943), and the school district’s own policy prohibit a school from compelling students to recite the American Pledge of Allegiance.  However, the School District ignored those rules when Brenda Brinsdon refused to recite the Mexican pledge.

Brenda’s refusal was not well received by her teacher, Reyna Santos, or the school principal, Yvette Cavasos.  Both tried to coerce her to recite the Mexican pledge, saying this was just an assignment.  Brenda attempted to discuss reasons for her refusal to pledge allegiance to a country other than the United States with both Santos and Cavasos. When Brenda did not back down, she was punished.

Mich: 8th Grade Students Receive Reply From Obama Concerning Fracking Letter

Never mind that the supposed documentary “Gasland” is an easily debunked piece of enviro-trash entertainment and should NEVER be confused with real science.  

Never mind that an 8th grade science teacher is indoctrinating her students with this tripe.  

Never mind that even the director of “Gasland,” Josh Fox, has admitted that there have been news reports of residents in Colorada igniting their tap water since the 1930’s—long before fracking was even invented!  

Nope.  

Never mind all that.  

The important thing, according to this so-called “journalist,” and others, is that Obama wrote back to some of his brainwashed minions and, they are absolutely  “stoked!”:

Lakeview Students Stoked About Receiving Letter From President

FOX17Online

LAKEVIEW, Mich. — Cari Scholtens teaches some very advanced 8th grade science students at Lakeview High School. Now one of them has a letter from the president of the United States.

When Scholtens was teaching the topic of hydrology, a fellow teacher suggested she educate the students about groundwater pollution. Scholtens had learned a bit about hydraulic fracturing while in college, so she too was interested in learning a bit more. Scholtens chose the documentary ‘Gasland’ by Josh Fox, in which Fox takes a journey across country uncovering what he calls as lies, secrets, and contamination.

“Them setting the tap water on fire, really made me upset,” student Mitchell Englund said. ”I did not realize you could do that with tap water.”

At the end of the movie, there is a call for action, and Scholtens’ students were fired up. They decided to write letters to top officials, and Mitchell wrote to President Obama.

Little by little, responses came back from U.S. senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin, followed by one from Governor Rick Snyder’s office. But on Monday, a big surprise showed up to Lakeview High School.

“I got called to the office and I thought I might be in trouble and I saw where the envelope was from and I started freaking out,” Mitchell said.

Along with the letter, there was an autographed picture of President Obama, too. All of the letters the class received are in frames, and Mitchell said he is going to hold onto his very tightly.

“They were celebrities here and they still are,” Scholtens said. “Kids are always asking Mitchell to see the letter and to see his picture, I mean to have those things, that’s something he’s going to have the rest of his life.”

Yeah…  Betcha’ a sawbuck that his signature, like so much of his presidency, was auto-penned.

Texas School Curriculum Calls For Designing Socialist Flags For a New Nation

Yup.  The great lone-star state of Texas refused to adopt Obama’s Common Core Standards.  So, the Progressive Communists are busy infiltrating and indoctrinating them;   Preparing them for the slaughter, as it were.   

UPDATE:  Yesterday, the yellowhammer state of Alabama passed a resolution rejecting Obama’s Common Core Standards for its schools.  Looks like the commies have some more work to do… 

Texas 6th graders assigned to design flag for new socialist nation

JOE NEWBY – Examiner.com

Sixth-grade children in many Texas public schools are being tasked with designing flags for a new socialist nation as part of the state’s curriculum, EAG News reported Monday.

“Notice socialist/communist nations use symbolism on their flags representing various aspects of their economic system. Imagine a new socialist nation is creating a flag and you have been put in charge of creating a flag,” says a lesson plan being used as part of CSCOPE, the curriculum being used by over 70 percent of Texas school districts.

“Use symbolism to represent aspects of socialism/communism on your flag. What kind of symbolism/colors would you use?” the lesson plan asks.

According to the Associated Press, witnesses told the Texas Senate Education Committee last week that the program promotes liberal values they described as “anti-Christian at best and openly socialist at worst.”

“Does that sound like we’re sympathizing with those types of countries?” Sen. Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood) asked regarding the flag assignment. He later said that he found it “very egregious as a Texas and an American.”

“Committee Chairman Dan Patrick, R-Houston, called it ‘a mess.’ One witness compared the system to ‘mind control,’ and an algebra teacher wept as he described quitting because he felt he was ‘aiding and abetting a crime’ by using CSCOPE in his classroom,” the AP reported.

An article at Texas CSCOPE Review was even harsher in its criticism, accusing Obama of “teaching our children how wonderful socialism is and that communism is even better.”

New York Public Schools Doling Out ‘Morning After Pills’ Like Candy

Welcome to Libtardsville, New York, where you can’t even freakin’ supersize your soda or carry a gun for protection, but your daughters are encouraged and assisted by the city in the killing of innocent babies without your knowledge or permission:

NYC schools giving out tens of thousands of doses of the ‘morning-after pill’

By SUSAN EDELMAN – NYPost

Plan B has become Plan A in the Bloomberg administration’s stealth war on teen pregnancy.

Handouts of the “morning-after pill” to sexually active students have skyrocketed under an unpublicized project in which health centers in public schools offer girls a full menu of free birth-control drugs and devices, records obtained by The Post show.

Last September, the city revealed it had started giving out Plan B and other birth control in the nurses’ offices of 13 high schools. At the time, officials said 567 girls had gotten Plan B.

But the birth-control blitz was much bigger than the city had acknowledged. About 40 separate “school-based health centers” doled out 12,721 doses of Plan B in 2011-12, up from 10,720 in 2010-11 and 5,039 in 2009-10, according to the newly released data.

About 22,400 students sought reproductive care from January 2009 through last school year, records show. Under state law, minors don’t need parental OKs to get contraceptives.

The revelations stunned Mona Davids, president of the NYC Parents Union, whose 14-year-old attends a Manhattan high school.

“I’m in shock,” she said. “What gives the mayor the right to decide, without adequate notice, to give our children drugs that will impact their bodies and their psyches? He has purposely kept the public and parents in the dark with his agenda.”

Davids, who is black, noted that most school-based health centers are in poor neighborhoods.

“This was population control on blacks and Latinos without our knowledge,” she said.

Students Recite Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic

Hey, if Muzzies demand the Qur’an be read in its original Arabic language to truly understand it, then I demand the Pledge of Allegiance be read in English!  Case closed!

Of course, I’m pretty darn sure they replaced “one nation under God” with “one nation under Allah.”  And, that’s the sticking point where I put my foot down!  After all, even Malaysian Muzzies know that the Allah of the Qur’an is not the same God of the Christians and Jews!  [LINK]:

Fort Collins students read Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic
Jan 30, 2013 – www.9news.com

FORT COLLINS – A Fort Collins principal stands by his decision to allow students from a multicultural group to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic on the school’s intercom.

“We do say the Pledge of Allegiance on Mondays at Rocky Mountain High School,” principal Tom Lopez said.

Students have always said it in English. This year, a group with about 30 students approached Lopez with a request to translate and recite the pledge in other languages.

“They had to go through me for approval, and I reviewed it pretty carefully,” Lopez said.

First, the students translated and read French. Then they recited the pledge in Spanish last fall. Monday, students read the pledge in Arabic.

“We have a tremendous amount of diversity in our school,” Lopez said. “This is very American, not un-American.”

The response has been mostly positive, said Lopez, though the calls and emails from upset parents have been very negative.

“I guess I’m getting worn down a little bit by how intense their sense of hate has been represented in some of the things they’ve written and said,” Lopez said on Tuesday.

Lopez says Rocky Mountain High School is a place of inclusion.

“When they pledge allegiance to United States, that’s exactly what they’re saying — they’re just using another language as their vehicle,” Lopez said.

He says it’s likely the group will have other opportunities to recite the pledge in other languages, though he concedes it’s a wise idea to recite the pledge in English that day as well.

Reason 1,000,001 to Get Your Children Out of Public Indoctrination Centers

Libtarded teachers just can’t help themselves:

More on this story HERE over at Neal Boortz’s website.

UK Textbook Erases Israel from the Map; Replaces it With ‘Occupied Palestine’

Given all the Progressivism shaping our maps and textbooks, I just can’t wait for California to get the politically correct label of  “Occupied Mexico” in some future Rand McNally…

/sarcasm:

UK Textbook Wipes Israel Off the Map
by Samuel Westrop – Gatestone Institute

Why is the British Council, sponsored by the British Foreign Office, endorsing a textbook that wipes Israel off the map and indoctrinates students with anti-Western material?

Ahmadinejad promised it. Now British textbooks are doing it. Israel has been wiped off the map by Garnet Education, an English-language teaching company in Britain, whose educational textbook ‘Skills in English Writing Level 1’, aimed at foreign students and immigrants to the UK, contains a map with “Occupied Palestine” in place of the Jewish State.

Speaking to the Algemeiner, the prominent American Jewish newspaper which broke the story, school teacher Liz Wiseman noted that the book is “one of the more popular and mainstream English language teaching (ELT) textbooks published by Garnet, which is quite popular and mainstream itself.”

A number of neoconservative publications, such as The Commentator, have picked up on the story. Crucially, however, they missed a vital detail: Garnet Education is controlled by a Lebanese media empire owned by pro-Syrian Arab nationalist Tahseen Khayat, whose daughter runs the UK subsidiary companies, including Garnet Education.

Connecticut School Massacre – Open Thread

Thought I’d give everyone a place to post links and chit-chat about the shooting.

Personally, I think if schools allowed teachers to carry guns, this wouldn’t have escalated into a massacre.  But, I digress.  Now is not the time.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends who have lost loved ones.  Having lost a child before, I can certainly empathize with what the parents are going through.  

May God be of comfort to them.

 

 

 

Obama Eliminating Traditional Fictional Literature, Classics, and Poetry in K -12 Schools

Uh, yeah.  That’ll really help ’em get a leg up when they take Our money and go off to college… /sarcasm:

Obama’s stealthy education takeover
Exclusive: Barbara Simpson exposes nationwide ‘dumbing down of America’s children’
WND

It’s amazing what you learn if you just pay a bit of attention and ask questions.

Because of my reporting on the sex-abuse problem at Joaquin Moraga Middle School in Moraga, Calif., I’ve spent a lot of time attending Board of Education meetings there.

Aside from addressing the sex-abuse issue, the main theme of the meetings has been the alleged lack of money.

That theme never ends. As soon as voters approve school money, there’s another plan to ask for more. They do it every time.

California used to be No. 1 nationally when it came to public education.

No more – despite the fact that hundreds of billions of dollars have been dumped into the system over the years and despite the fact that because of a voter-approved initiative, nearly 50 percent of the annual budget automatically goes to the schools.

Of course, the response of the unions and the teachers is that they need more money.

Of course.

Then, there was the Dec. 7 news story in the Contra Costa Times that in recent vocabulary tests, California’s national rank is fifth from the bottom.

Fourth graders were below every state except Arizona, Louisiana, New Mexico and the District of Columbia, which was dead last.

Eighth graders were also fifth from the bottom, only above Hawaii, Mississippi, Louisiana and D.C.

California did not volunteer to have the 12th graders tested.

I can’t imagine why.

The test, known as the Nation’s Report Card, also showed that California is doing worse than states spending less on education.

So much for lack of money being a problem.

Then there was the school-board meeting I attended where there was a complete computer presentation of a new method of teaching that is now being implemented in the schools.

I had no idea what they were talking about.

They explained classes would be reconfigured, curriculum content was being revised, teachers are being retrained on how to teach and what to teach, how every student would have a laptop, books were to be virtually phased out – but some new books would be created for this whole new education system.

We were told it would take a couple of years to get everything in place, but by the time that happens, it would be in every school and every grade in California.

There was no question of refusing because the governor had agreed to it. It’s happening, and no one is exempted. It’s called the “Common Core Curriculum,” and it’s a national program, courtesy of the Obama administration. In fact, it will affect all schools from K-12th grade.

Until that point, I’d never heard of it, and there had been nothing in local newspapers and only one column since. Parents have virtually no idea what’s being planned for their children, especially since practically no one attends board meetings.

But then there was Obama himself – during the debate moderated by Bob Schieffer – who was talking about that he’s accomplished, and he said: “You know, under my leadership, what we’ve done is reformed education, working with governors, 46 states.” He said bad schools were improving.

I couldn’t believe it! He said it! But no one called him on it. No media pursued what he was talking about. No one wondered why not all 50 states were involved. No one asked what it meant

I found out.

Most traditional “fictional” literature, classics and poetry are eliminated. Nothing long, only short pieces Children will read what’s described as “informational texts,” government reports, computer manuals and technical bulletins. There will be more “reading” in science and math classes. The focus will be on computer literacy with little, if any, actual “writing.” Cursive penmanship is already being phased out. Supposedly all this will make children more college ready.

North Carolina School Orders 6-Year-Old Girl to Remove God from Veterans Day Poem

Here’s a tip for all you brainwashed educators out there:   Just because a student is attending a federal indoctrination center does not mean that said student abdicates his/her religious rights once he/she walks through the doors:

School Orders 6-year-old to Remove ‘God’ From Poem

By Todd Starnes – Fox Radio News

A North Carolina community is embroiled in controversy after a school ordered a six-year-old girl to remove the word “God” from a poem that she was supposed to read during a Veteran’s Day ceremony.

The girl is a first-grader at West Marion Elementary School. She was supposed to read the poem during a school assembly marking Veteran’s Day. The poem honored her two grandfathers who had served during the Vietnam War.

“He prayed to God for peace, he prayed to God for strength,” the poem read.

A parent reportedly found out about the poem and expressed concern about mentioning the word God during a school event. The parent did not want the Almighty’s name mentioned anywhere in the program, according to one account.

“We wanted to make sure we were upholding the school district’s responsibility of separation of church and state from the Establishment Clause,” Supt. Gerri Martin told the McDowell News.

Martin told the newspaper she made the decision in consultation with the school’s principal and vice principal.

“We jointly decided that we must err on the side of caution to prevent crossing the line on the Establishment Clause of the Constitution,” Kirkpatrick told the newspaper. “As a principal of a public school, I must put aside my personal religious beliefs and follow the law — which upholds that we have freedom of speech and freedom of religion, but that we, as public schools, cannot endorse one single religion over another.”

Fox News contacted the parents of the child but they declined to comment on the controversy.

The incident has sparked widespread concern across this western North Carolina community — called by many the buckle of the Bible Belt.

“I’m reserving my opinion at this point – but I’m very concerned that the young lady’s First Amendment rights have been broken,” said Scott Hagaman, senior pastor of Marion’s First Baptist Church.

He told Fox News that ministers across the community are alarmed what happened and many are asking questions.

“It’s saturated the community,” he said. “I’m quite sure it will be handled appropriately and fairly but right now there is a lot of concern that this child was not treated appropriately.”

The issue is expected to be addressed by local residents at next week’s school board meeting.

“I am outraged that a school would deny a six year old child her First Amendment rights — especially during an assembly to honor our nation’s veterans,” Trudy Pascoe told Fox News. “It is unacceptable for schools to continue to deny students rights because of their Christian viewpoint.”

Chris Greene, who happens to be employed by the school district, spoke to board members earlier this week.

“My question is this, when do the rights of one outweigh the rights of another,” he asked in remarks covered by the local newspaper. “I believe that this little girl’s rights were violated and that those who worked so hard to prepare this program should receive an apology.”

Pastor Hagaman said it’s no surprise that the First Amendment debate has reached their small town.

“I don’t think there’s anywhere in the country where you can hide from these issues — with the culture changing so quickly,” he said.