Posted on 05/25/2017 8:16:39 AM PDT by Perseverando
A lawsuit was filed today to stop the Islamization of students in San Diego public schools. Parents have been fighting this policy for months, to the school board’s deaf ears. This policy amounts to another step in the Islamization of our society. Here is the latest.
“Parents sue SD Unified over Islamophobia bullying policy,” by Gary Warth, San Diego Union Tribune, May 23, 2017:
San Diego Unified is facing a backlash after some people have assumed an anti-bullying policy to protect Muslim students might mean all students will study the Koran and celebrate Muslim holidays.
A legal group and six parents have filed a lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of a San Diego Unified School District plan to protect Muslim students from bullying.
“It’s our position that the anti-bullying policies should protect all students regardless of ethnicity and affiliation, and they shouldn’t be singling out any religious group for special treatment, as they seem to be doing here,” said Charles LiMandri, president and chief council for the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, which filed the lawsuit in federal court Tuesday on behalf of the parents.
In April, trustees in the districts voted to create a policy that would protect Muslim students from bullying by, among other steps, increasing lessons about Islam.
Students already learn about Islam and other religions as part of a social studies curriculum set by the state, but additional lessons could be added to create a better understanding of the religion, district staff members explained.
LiMandri and others who have objected to the policy said they are concerned the lessons could cross the line separating church and state.
The anti-bullying policy is part of a larger effort the district has adopted to make campuses safe for all students. Anti-bullying policies also have been created for LGBT students and students who are Native American and Latino.
The latest anti-bullying step was the first to focus on a religion and was sparked by a 2015 Council for American-Islamic Relations Report that found 55 percent of American Muslim students surveyed in California had said they were bullied because of their religion.
The district didn’t have data about how many of those incidents happened in its schools, but a report to the board in April did note that there were seven incidents of bullying between July 1 to Dec. 31, 2016, although it didn’t specify which religion was targeted.
“That’s a relatively small number and it does not warrant or justify a wholesale change in the school district or its curriculum,” LiMandri said.
“It appears to us that this is a politically correct type of solution looking for a problem,” he continued. “If Muslim students are being bullied, stop the bullying. But you don’t need to implement a program that is favoring Muslim students or one religion over another.”
LiMandri has been involved in other high-profile, cultural touchstone issues. He was vocal supporter of Proposition 8, the 2008 California initiative that banned same-sex marriage, which was later overturned in court. He’d also been defender of the cross on Mount Soledad.
No representative of the school district would comment on the lawsuit Tuesday, but others had previously addressed concerns with the policy some people had raised.
Stan Anjan, executive director of Family and Community Engagement at the district, has said the district is not favoring Muslim students, but trying to ensure they are given equal protection.
“San Diego Unified does not favor any religion over another,” he wrote in an e-mail to The San Diego Union-Tribune in February. “We welcome all students from all faiths within our school community.”
LiMandri said parents and his law firm have other problems with the district’s actions, including its partnership with the Council for American-Islamic Relations, which he said has a mission “to change American society and advance radical Islam.”
“Of particular concern is the School District’s active collaboration with CAIR, which has longstanding, verified ties to radical Islam,” LiMandri said in a statement released Tuesday.
LiMandri also wrote that several of CAIR’s top executives have been convicted of terror-related crimes.
Hanif Mohebi, CAIR San Diego executive director, said he had not seen the lawsuit and did not respond to a request to address LiMandri’s claims.
A CAIR website, however, did address what it referred to as a smear campaign against the organization.
“The short answer to this is guilt by association,” the site stated about claims that some members have been involved with terrorist groups. “CAIR has hundreds of board members and employees and thousands of supporters. It would be illogical and unfair to hold CAIR responsible for the personal activities of all these people.”
The CAIR website also argues that the organization repeatedly has condemned terrorism and is not associated with extremist, anti-American believes [sic]…..
7 incidents over the first half of the academic year in a school district of that size? Wow... either that means there is no problem with bullying or nobody is reporting it at all.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest the latter.
Get the DOJ to pursue criminal charges and no plea bargaining.
In elementary school, another kid threw a burdocks on my clothes and his gang called me a bumblebee.
Where’s my reparations?
what we need, our side needs- is an anti-ACLU group to sue the crap out of schools that push this nonsense- IF the ACLU can sue for ‘separation of church and state’ when it comes to the Christian faith in schools, then surely our side can sue to keep the Evil of Islam from being pushed on our kids?
Our schoolchildren should learn about Muslims in the same way as the Palestinian Authority forces its schoolchildren to learn about Jews.
WHAT'S A BURDOCKS??!!
In Catholic grade school, kids bullied me because my mom drove me across town to get there every morning in a Cadillac. “You’re nothing but a rich kid,” they’d shout with derision. Bewildered me and hurt my feelings. Really.
I DEMAND reparations from the Vatican.
Especially since I’m neither rich nor a kid any more. ALL THEIR FAULT.
Let me see if I can predict the future on this law suit:
Of course, I trust my prediction does not come true.
JoMa
particularly offensive is claims of ‘islamophobia’ being made towards the heart of Marineland. Marines and their families who lose loved ones to muslims and yet display the most astounding tolerance back home of ‘in your face’.
but anyway,
Fox news is picking this up:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/05/30/san-diego-school-district-sued-over-anti-islamophobia-campaign.html
“Along with protecting Muslim students from bullying by creating “safe spaces,” the district would provide more lessons about Islam to help students better understand the religion, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune . A district staff added that students already learned about Islam, but more resources would be beneficial.
The policy would ensure Muslim holidays would be recognized on staff calendars, but students would not be getting those days off. The district also planned to consider high school clubs that promote American Muslim culture and engage in partnerships with the Council on American Islamic Relations.
A letter outlining the plans was expected to be sent to staff and parents of the district’s 132,000 students before the school year ends.
District officials have vigorously defended the plan in recent weeks, saying bullying of Muslim students was pervasive and vastly underreported”
High school clubs. And, of course, the usual taqiyya from CAIR:
Hanif Mohebi, executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations’ San Diego chapter, said the lawsuit “seems to be an attempt to have the courts enforce growing Islamophobia in our state and nation, and to strip away much-needed protection for Muslim students who face increasing bullying.”
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