Posted on 09/18/2010 10:08:54 PM PDT by STARWISE
Wellesley’s superintendent of schools apologized today after Wellesley Middle School students were allowed to pray at an Islamic mosque during a May field trip.
"It was not the intent for students to be able to participate in any of the religious practices,” Superintendent Bella Wong wrote in a letter being sent to parents later today. “I extend my sincere apologies for the error that occurred and regret the offense it may have caused.”
Wong said the field trip to the Roxbury-based Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center — which faced opposition during its construction — was part of a social studies course called “Enduring Beliefs and the World Today,” that includes introductions to a number of religions. During the course students visit a mosque, synagogue, attend a gospel performance, and meet with Hindus.
“These activities provide experiences for our students that enhance their understanding of the curriculum,” Wong wrote in the letter. “The purpose of the field trip was for students to observe a place of worship.”
In the letter, Wong said students required parental permission to go on the field trip during which “a representative of the Mosque told students they were welcome to join in the prayer that was occurring.”
What was wrong, the prayer or the apology?
The trip gained wider attention after the Boston-based group Americans for Peace and Tolerance released a video on Sept. 16 showing five middle school students praying during the trip. A parent who chaperoned the field trip allegedly shot the footage of the trip included in the video.
“Today, Americans for Peace and Tolerance
released a video showing 6th graders from Wellesley, MA as they rise from prostrating themselves alongside Muslim men in a prayer to Allah,” the group wrote on their website. “Teachers did not intervene. Parents have not been told.”
The video claims the permission form for the trip said that students would only observe and not participate in the prayer event. It also highlights male and female students separated during the prayer claims historical information presented during the visit by representatives of the mosque as inaccurate.
“In various parts of the country, public schools are allowing Muslim extremists to promote Islam to our children,” the Americans for Peace and Tolerance wrote on its site. “Something’s broken here. Our leadership is failing. It’s now up to ordinary citizens to fix it.”
Members of Wellesley’s school committee forwarded comment to School committee chair KC Kato who said she was supporting Wong’s position.
“I’m supportive of [Wong’s] letter and I’m supportive of the educational program which we provide,” she said.
Wong said prior to the video being released her department hadn’t received complaints regarding the field trip though one family declined to allow their child on the trip.
“Apparently someone wasn’t happy and it just took some time for it to come back to us," she said.
Following the incident, Wong said she teachers were told students shouldn’t have been allowed to pray.
“We’re giving better guidance to our teachers. I don’t know if they’ll do [the field trip] differently but it won’t necessarily be because of this,” she said. “I support the field trip, I support them being able to go to observe; I do think allowing kids to participate in the prayer crossed the line.”
No way. Why apologize for exposing a child to another culture in a safe environment?
Yes. Why would you allow a child to pray without their parents' permission at a mosque?
Undecided
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Thank you for voting!
No way. Why apologize for exposing a child to another culture in a safe environment? 39.47% (300 votes)
Yes. Why would you allow a child to pray without their parents' permission at a mosque? 58.68% (446 votes)
Undecided 1.84% (14 votes)
wonder how many christian students got to pray.
Complete title:
Wellesley superintendent apologizes for letting students on field trip pray at Islamic mosque
Those who haven’t seen it:
it’s worth seeing the video of the very questionable and deceitful event:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7-I9Qp3d4Y
“In various parts of the country, public schools are allowing Muslim extremists to promote Islam to our children,” the Americans for Peace and Tolerance wrote on its site.
“Something’s broken here. Our leadership is failing. It’s now up to ordinary citizens to fix it.”
Damn right .. parents really need to examine
school curricula .. microscopically ..question
with authority and demand answers.
This was despicable .. promoted under evil
and false cirumstances.
Ooops .. I misspelled the source.
It’s WICKED Local
Woooo .. that’s eerie good.
ya i know...this is going on all over.
And the left wonders why the Tea Party is surging?
These same teachers would probably have a fit if Silent Night were mentioned in their classrooms at Christmas time, but they have no problem with their kids celebrating diversity by having them segregated by sex then waving their asses in the air as they bow towards Mecca.
The leftist education system in this nation considers Islam to be on a par with Christianity, when it comes to deserved rights.
But when it comes to studying Islam, it’s tenets, and even participating in roll playing or actual worship, they don’t seem to equate it with church and state restrictions.
It’s clear we’re being gamed here. There’s no way this person could be stupid enough not to understand they dynamics of what happened here.
Number one, you don’t take a field trip to a religious institution. If our kids can’t pray to the Christian God during their school life, and they can’t, then they can’t pray to an Islamic god during their school life.
If they can’t study Christianity, can’t have a Bible on campus, can’t write essays about Jesus or God, why can they participate in the study of Islam?
This whole field trip was outside the accepted boundaries these educators live by. So don’t try to claim you are sorry, no praying was supposed to be involved. You should be taken to task for the whole thing.
Fire this pinhead.
Does that qualify as a picture of Moo ham id?
Or would that only get you beaten and left for dead, but not killed?
What’s the protocol on this?
Any chance you could quit posting every thread to FP?
One concern here is that it’s very easy to “accidentally” join Islam, just by repeating a common phrase that is probably often spoken by the Imam. Islam conveniently provides no way to leave it (and remain alive.)
I agree .. they’re despicably cunning.
Today’s been a heavy important news day,
but I’ll be aware of that. Thanks... ;)
How long have you been moderating today ?
We once learned to play “Hava Nagila” on recorders in music class. The horror!
Yes. If I had children in the public schools....(I wouldn’t allow it anymore)...but if I did, I would go through all curricula and examine it for the cultural Marxism that promotes moral relativism.
Code words for parents to look for: Values Clarification. (Goals 2000) Situational Ethics, Multiculturalism, Tolerance, Diversity. Feminism.
This curricula is designed with Skinner and Pavlov techniques to brainwash and condition—to erase logic and reason and science...to create cognitive dissonance. (Destroys logic so they will never be able to recognize truth.)
Multiculturalism is used to demonize American Founding Fathers, demonize Capitalism, Christianity, Adam Smith, etc. (why they changed Washington’s Birthday and Lincoln’s Birthday to Presidents Day....to diminish the Founders—notice they don’t call MLK day, Black Civil Rights Day.
This is all using psychology, you guys!!!! They humiliate (esp. the smart boys) to make them conform to the “proper way to think”. It is an anti-masculine, pro-homosexual mindset which leads to emasculated boys and no character.
I could write a book on this....but parents need to know HOW to protect your child’s mind. They are way to vulnerable to stranger’s indoctrination before the age of 10. Even later, the humiliation in front of peers is powerful and most teachers don’t give a damn about what happens to your children down this road.
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