Arkansas school assignment: Gut the Bill of Rights

A parent in Bryant, Ark., claims her sixth-grade daughter brought home a history class assignment that asks students to “revise, omit two and add two amendments” to the “outdated” Bill of Rights. Her daughter is reportedly a student in the Bryant School District.

Lela Spears, the girl’s mother, told the Digital Journal that the worksheet requires students to take part in a theoretical special committee, the “National Revised Bill of Rights Task Force.” The committee is charged with the task of revising the Bill of Rights to “ensure that our personal civil liberties and the pursuit of happiness remains guarded in the 21st century.”

“Your task as a member of the NRBR Task Force is to prioritize, revise, prune two and add two amendments to the Bill of Rights,” the alleged assignment reads.

As you likely know, the Bill of Rights contains the first ten Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which include the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, protections against unreasonable search and seizure and many other vitally important rights.

The author of the assignment writes: “To gain some wonderful new insights and powerful arguments/viewpoints from the young people in America, I am requesting that at the end of your persuasive presentation, each of you submit you own proposals for the Revised Bill of Rights with your omissions and additions well supported with valid and rational arguments.”

Spears told the Digital Journal that the assignment made her “question exactly what she was being taught.”

“Where I can see a class using critical thinking skills to modernize the words, as to help them better understand the Amendments, giving an assignment to remove two then add two with little explanation as to why is upsetting,” she added. “When I asked my child what the assignment was to teach her she had no idea. Only that she was TOLD to do it. She didn’t even understand what the Amendments meant. How can she make an informed decision when she doesn’t understand what she is ‘throwing out’?”

The mother also said would “never” be willing to omit any portion of the Bill of Rights.

To be fair, it is also possible that the assignment was given with intentions to help students better understand how important the Bill of Rights are to the United States. Additionally, other than the mother’s claims and photos, there is no other evidence proving the assignment was handed down as an official school assignment.

TheBlaze is currently seeking additional information on the assignment from the Bryant School District and will bring you updates as they become available.

The Arkansas State Board of Education approved the controversial Common Core Curriculum for all Arkansas schools in 2010. The Bryant School District website embraces Common Core, claiming that “the standards will better prepare students for college and the workforce, making them nationally and internationally competitive graduates.”

It wasn’t immediately clear if the Bill of Rights assignment was in any way connected to Common Core.

“revise, omit two and add two amendments”

REVISE1:

2nd Amendment: " A well disciplined and trained citizenry, being necessary to the security of a free State, county, tribe, township, home, and self, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. Nothing in this Amendment would compel those that object on religious grounds from bearing arms.

Revise 2: 3rd Amendment: "No Soldier, peace officer, or agent of any government shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, trespass on private property, nor collect information upon any structure or property without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law".

Omit: Easy: Omit the 16th and 17th amendment (Income taxes and returns senators to state control).

New Amendments:: Make full state citizenship a right of birth, only applicable to native-born citizens who were children of native-born citizens, and subsections that allow immigrants to "buy" citizenship.

New amendment: "Congress pay is capped at $1 a day, can only meet for 30 days a year, have to repeal 1 law for each one passed until parity, and must be held accountable and tot he same standard as the citizens it pertains to you (no exemptions/subsidies)

Third new amendment: No welfare or foreign aid, and cap federal spending at 1% GDP.

Actually, knowing what we now know, there are a slew of changes that could be made to the Bill of Rights, with several express purposes:

1) To erase executive, legislative, and judicial evasions and perversions of various Rights. Each branch has, in its own way, reduced, reinterpreted, and ignored these Rights, and they need to be restored.

2) Some of the Rights need to be rewritten so that “enabling acts” flow from them. For instance, the 10th Amendment is generally ignored by the federal government because it has no natural enforcement mechanism.

3) Some of the Rights need to have natural expansions. For example, the 3rd Amendment needs the Posse Comitatus Act integrated into it.

4) Oddly enough, one of the greatest expansions of a Civil Right the SCOTUS has already foreshadowed, if in a wrongheaded way. They used the 9th Amendment to justify Roe v. Wade, supposedly creating a “right of privacy”. In truth, a “right of privacy” is desperately needed, for just about every other reason *but* abortion.

The problem began in earnest with the 16th Amendment, the Income Tax, and the 17th Amendment, the Direct Election of Senators. The 16th Amendment enabled the federal government to directly intervene in the lives of individual citizens, in a powerful way. Before then, it had to go through the states, and could not get into the lives of the citizens directly.

The 17th Amendment in effect stripped the states of the ability to *protect* their citizens from the federal government. Which is why today we have an intrusive federal government trying to involve itself in all aspects of our lives, whether we want them to or not.

So yes, if the 9th Amendment “right to privacy” protects the people from intrusive federal government, it *needs* to be interpreted that way. By doing so it may restore both the 4th and 5th Amendments.

5) A vast number of Democrats now see the Constitution, and especially the Bill of Rights, as just a “scrap of paper”, which they can ignore at whim. This is why we must strive to “give it teeth”, by systematically destroying over a hundred years of “progressive” abuses to it.

Challenge Accepted!

Amendment I Congress shall make no lawNo federal agency, institution, or organization shall make rules or regulation respecting an establishment of religion or philosophy, or prohibiting free religious exercise; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances — nor shall any law infringing these be valid in any way. Amendment II The right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall never be infringed or restricted in any manner. Amendment III No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. Fiscal Responsibility Amendment Section I The power of Congress to regulate the value of the dollar is hereby repealed. Section II The value of the Dollar shall be one fifteen-hundredth avoirdupois ounce of gold of which impurities do not exceed one part per thousand. Section III To guard against Congress using its authority over weights and measures to bypass Section I, the ounce in Section II is approximately 28.3495 grams (SI). Section IV The Secretary of the Treasury shall annually report the gold physically in its possession; this report shall be publicly available. Section V The power of the Congress to assume debt is hereby restricted: the congress shall assume no debt that shall cause the total obligations of the United States to exceed one hundred ten percent of the amount last reported by the Secretary of the Treasury. Section VI Any government agent, officer, judge, justice, employee, representative, or congressman causing gold to be confiscated from a private citizen shall be tried for theft and upon conviction shall: a. be removed from office (and fired, if an employee), b. forfeit all pension and retirement benefits, c. pay all legal costs, and d. restore to the bereaved twice the amount in controversy. Section VII The federal government shall assume no obligation lacking funding, neither shall it lay such obligation on any of the several States, any subdivision thereof, or any place under the jurisdiction of the United States. All unfunded liabilities heretofore assumed by the United States are void. Section VIII The federal government shall make all payments to its employees or the several states in physical gold. Misappropriation, malfeasance and/or misfeasance of funds shall be considered confiscation. Amendment IV No search or seizure, of person or property, shall be valid unless authorized by a warrant specifically and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Amendment V No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, unless properly convicted in a lawful court. Amendment VI In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the alleged crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense. Amendment VII In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States or any of the several States, than according to the rules of the common law. Amendment VIII Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted; nothing herein shall prevent capital punishment. To avoid cruel sentencing no single crime shall ever exceed ten years imprisonment and any collection of sentences exceeding twenty years shall be upgraded to the death penalty. No person, having served his sentence, shall be denied any right. Amendment IX The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. Tax Reform Amendment Section I No tax, federal or state, shall ever be withheld from the wages of a worker of any citizen of either. Section II No property shall be seized for failure to pay taxes until after conviction in a jury trial; the right of the jury to nullify (and thereby forgive) this debt shall never be questioned or denied. Section III The second amendment is hereby recognized as restricting the power of taxation, both federal and state, therefore no tax (or fine) shall be laid upon munitions or the sale thereof. Section IV The seventh amendment is also hereby recognized, and nothing in this amendment shall restrict the right of a citizen to seek civil redress. Section V No income tax levied by the federal government, the several States, or any subdivision of either shall ever exceed 10%. Section VI No income tax levied by the federal government, the several States, or any subdivision of either shall ever apply varying rates to those in its jurisdiction. Section VII No retroactive or ex post facto tax (or fee) shall ever be valid. Section VIII The congress may not delegate the creation of any tax or fine in any way. Section IX No federal employee, representative, senator, judge, justice or agent shall ever be exempt from any tax, fine, or fee by virtue of their position. Section X Any federal employee, representative, senator, judge, justice or agent applying, attempting to apply, or otherwise causing the application of an ex post facto or retroactive law shall, upon conviction, be evicted from office and all retirement benefits forfeit. Amendment X The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Section I The doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind. Section II All government is instituted for the common good, the protection of the weak from the abuse of the strong; therefore, the right of the Jury to try all matters of the law, including the law itself, shall never be questioned or denied, neither shall any power restricting the Grand Jury to investigate the government's proper operation or issue presentments ever be questioned, restricted, or denied.

Amendments not prioritized.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.