Posted on 11/04/2005 5:22:51 AM PST by lexfreedom
Letter: Public schools have to be welcoming to all Thursday, November 3, 2005
Your right to swing your fist ends at my nose. Your right to freedom of speech does not allow you to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater. Your right to drive as fast as your car will go is curtailed by speed limits which are set for public safety. In general, the right to do anything that has the potential to harm others, or to conflict with the rights of others, may be constrained for the common good.
I sympathize with the Parker family's (and every family's) desire to guide the moral and religious education of their children. However, they are asking to have their child shielded from any possible discussion of same-sex families by leaving the room before such discussion occurs. This request, is different in a very important way from a request, for example, to have a child excused from a Halloween party, or from saying the Pledge of Allegiance, or from receiving explicit sex education from anyone but the parents.
These latter examples affect only the child in question; the Parkers' request affects all the children in the classroom, because it sends an unmistakable message to all the children that there is something wrong with same-sex families. It is the Parkers' inalienable right to believe that same-sex marriage is immoral, and they are free to tell their child that in their belief system, it is wrong for a child to have two mommies or two daddies. However, it is not their right to insist that the public school accommodate that belief. Their child's walking out whenever the children of same-sex parents talk about their families would certainly humiliate those children and make them feel "different," and would also give other children in the class license to tease or bully them. Again, "your right to swing your fist ends at my nose."
The public school system serves all children. It is obligated to make school a safe and welcoming place for all children so that they can learn. Singling out the children of same-sex families for "shunning," which, in effect, is what the Parkers are asking, would be a violation of that trust.
Edith Sandy
North Emerson Road
No, the schools are singling out same-sex "families" for special treatment, promoting that lifestyle choice as normal and equally valid. They want to start brainwashing the children in kindergarten that this is true, in direct contradiction to what their parents want to communicate to their kids.
Support David Parker ! Visit:
--------------------------------------- http://townonline.com/lexington/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=360426
Clearing up Lexington school spending issues By Bethan L. Jones/ Staff Writer Thursday, November 3, 2005
With so many issues, there is much room for confusion.
Recently, questions regarding school spending have surfaced, leading to questions about past actions and future plans. For the record, the outstanding bills from fiscal 2005 have not been paid.
The school department is still sitting on approximately $528,000 of fiscal 2005 bills which are still not paid.
When the school department went to close out fiscal 2005, they discovered the deficit, some of which stemmed from the spending of $240,000 of fiscal 2005 money on fiscal 2004 bills.
At the end of fiscal 2004, then-Director of School Finance Susan Bottan was faced with $240,000 in bills with no money to pay them. Rather than going to a special Town Meeting for an appropriation, Bottan used fiscal 2005 appropriated funds to pay off the fiscal 2004 bills. This action left the fiscal 2005 budget without needed funds on July 1.
The school department is also going to Town Meeting to request more than $800,000 to close the anticipated gap in fiscal 2006 funding.
I wonder how the libs would react to a school lesson showing a household with firearms in it as normal?
Pure cowpie. The PS forcing their opinion on the Parker child is the infringement here. Using public funds to undermine the religious and moral education of the parents is the real violation of rights.
PS yhere is no guantee in the constitution of "freedom from humiliation"
In other words, this Edith Bunker believes that parents should lose their constitutionally protected freedom of speech in order to not make any child feel bad? Is she really that stupid?
Here's the giant hole in the argument that the ignorant letter writer is too blind to see: By her reasoning, the other examples also "send messages". The send the message that there is no God, that the United States and its flag are not worthy of respect, that American culture is something to be disdained. Oh, and by the way, same-sex families ARE abnormal. Wishful thinking can't change that.
I believe the 9th Circuit has ruled otherwise.
"9th Circuit"
Precisely my point
"I believe the 9th Circuit has ruled otherwise."
The rulings of the 9th Circuit are normally unmitigated nonsense and are not a basis for reasonable argument.
Thanks for posting a letter that pretty much undercuts your crusade. The writer was objective (saw both sides) and drew out the real issue for all to see, which was in essense a demand that could not have been met. Outside of that, you know my position on the actions taken by Mr. Parker.
"...it sends an unmistakable message to all the children that there is something wrong with same-sex families."
The term 'same-sex family' is an oxymoron. God instituted the first family as Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve.
"because it sends an unmistakable message to all the children that there is something wrong with same-sex families."
Uhhhh...thats because there is something wrong with same sex "families".
Yes. . .'the boy who had no nose'
The Lib noses are getting longer with their every distortion of truth (aka the 'Pinnochio effect'. . .);while the 'Conservative noses' seem to be just disappearing.
Which is why students are assigned to a school and forced to attend it.
Welcome to prison for having committed the crime of being born.
But sitting down during the pledge is a "neutral" act? What crap
Its hubris like this that will keep Republicans in power. Its outrageous brainwashing by selfish insular, arrogant people. Democracy be damned!
As usual, the liberals believe that THEY are so intellectually and morally superior that THEY know what is good for your children better than you do. The 9th Circus came out with an opinion just yesterday telling parents that they had NO RIGHTS when it came to determining what would be taught in public schools.
One has to laugh, just to keep from crying.
bump bump bump...
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