At least one Milwaukee mom won't be sending her child to school on 'Switch It Up Day'

EAG News ^ | May 23, 2013 | Ben Velderman

[Sopater]

MILWAUKEE – Deidri Hernandez’s seven-year-old son won’t be in school tomorrow, after officials at Tippecanoe School for the Arts and Humanities confirmed they’re still holding “Switch It Up Day” – a time for students to come dressed as members of the opposite sex. Hernandez tells EAGnews the day was originally billed as “Gender Bender Day,” but Tippecanoe officials made the name change after she called Principal Jeffrey Krupar to complain. The Milwaukee mother was not impressed. “I didn’t have a problem with the title. I had a problem with the activity taking place,” Hernandez says. She says it’s “ridiculous” and “creepy” to ask elementary boys to come to school dressed as girls, and vice versa, and predicts that having students dress as “transvestites” will distract from the learning process. Hernandez knows of at least one other parent who shares her concerns and plans to hold her child out of class, too. But it’s the motivation behind “Switch It Up Day” that has Hernandez most concerned. She wonders if it is being done to promote the acceptance of homosexuality to students in school, which runs from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. Hernandez thinks it’s inappropriate to expose young children to these issues, even in a light-hearted manner. “They might as well call it ‘Transgender Day,’” she says. Hernandez says young kids don’t need to know about these issues. According to Hernandez, when she called Krupar with her concerns, she was told the day was chosen by the school’s student council and is only meant to be fun. EAGnews left a message with Krupar's office late this afternoon, seeking his comments. Hernandez also complained to the superintendent’s office, but was told “by someone in the office” that the school wasn’t breaking any rules. Hernandez says she’s “never stepped out like this” to challenge school policy, but decided somebody had to. “Every time something’s bothering a liberal or an atheist, they come forward to complain. And somebody always has a problem with Easter or Christmas,” she explains. Hernandez says her son won’t mind the day off from school, but she regrets that he’s going to miss a day of learning because of the controversy.

[Axenolith]

It irks me to no end that on a subject like a prescription drug, you have to jump through 7 years of experimental and proving trial hoops, but for some starry eyed bullshit a teacher dreams up, with a few votes, it gets to get tested out on your KIDS.

My wife was, as a child, a straight “A” student, until some criminal moron in the Fremont CA school district decided that putting some star pupils in with the remedial/screwup classes would “rub off” on the losers. You can guess at the result of that, (though in spite of it, and not getting a college degree, she made it to corporate controller level in accounting).

ANYTHING other than how kids were taught the basics and problem solving along with shop skills 75+ years ago should be off limits until at LEAST ONE GENERATION of teachers and administrators children have had it “tested out” on them.

“Old School” worked, along with discipline in school. “New School” merely produces (for a large and increasing part) mindless consumers and statist voters...

[verga]

Gender Bender days are nothing new. We did it 8th grade the week before graduation and that was 39 years ago in a Catholic elementary school.

Same here but the Keyboard kammandos keep forgetting that. My father went to an All boys vocational school that had a "Beauty" contest which his best friend won. I am glad those yearbook pictures weren't in color.

[afraidfortherepublic]

This school looks like a magnet school on the southeast side of Milwaukee. I consider this lesson a form of child abuse.

Yes, in high school in the 1950s, we occasionally had “dress up” days, or Senior prank day, where some of the football team dressed up in sweaters, skirts, and strategically placed balloons with mops on their heads; but it was all in fun. Nobody was FORCED to participate.

[Axenolith]

Only once though, if the head is a shaped charge with a self-forging penetrator...

[Kozak]

No. It will suck your Teachers #### day...

[C. Edmund Wright]

homeschool indeed....my 3 were - instead of gender bender days of “learning” (cough cough) in the classroom, my kids learned by travel - multiple times to Africa for example - Europe, Carribean, etc, - and not the touristy places either - the real continents....great hands on experience. Just had coffee with my oldest yesterday, talking about her trip to Normandy on the 60th Anniversary of D Day.

But I digress....

[C. Edmund Wright]

Gender Bender days are nothing new. We did it 8th grade the week before graduation and that was 39 years ago in a Catholic elementary school.

Yes, but at that time, in that setting, it really could be looked at with a smile as good clean innocent fun. Nothing about gender in public schools now is innocent. Surely you know that.

[Gabz]

Nothing about gender in public schools now is innocent. Surely you know that.

Excuse me, but who do you think you are to tell me what I should know?

I actually find it rather amusing how all you homeschoolers like to come across as if you know everything there is to know about public schools and dismiss what those of us actually involved in public school know to be true.

I'm not buying it. You like to think you know what is going on, but in reality all you know is what you are told by those who agree with you.

[C. Edmund Wright]

I actually find it rather amusing how all you homeschoolers like to come across as if you know everything there is to know about public schools and dismiss what those of us actually involved in public school know to be true.

Well, I was just making a little flip comments, but since you've declared war:

The only discussion here is how badly do you want to be flamed and embarrassed...taking the public school side against homeschoolers here on FR. And BTW, I know exactly what the hell is going on in public schools...and of course have to continue to fund them. Their arrogant and ignorant teachers and administrators are everywhere, the pathetic work product is everywhere, stories about the bullsh-t that is taught in them goes on anywhere. They are, after all, PUBLIC Schools, and just because I didn't send my children there, does not mean I am no longer part of the public.

And while we're at it, you referenced a parochial school in your own background, so WTF are you doing now as the public school queen?

[C. Edmund Wright]

Nah, keyboard commandos well aware that a lot of things that were innocent back in the black and white photo days.....are not the same anymore.

[detective]

“We did it 8th grade the week before graduation and that was 39 years ago in a Catholic elementary school.”

Thirty nine years ago was 1974. I went to Catholic school in the 1960’s and 1970’s. My kids went to public school and graduated from high school 5 or so years ago. The difference is like night and day. Public schools today are nothing like Catholic schools in the 1960s.

[Gabz]

The only discussion here is how badly do you want to be flamed and embarrassed...taking the public school side against homeschoolers here on FR.

As I said you don't know me, if you did you would know I have nothing against home schooling and am very supportive of it. What I am not supportive of is the offensive attitude some FReeper home schoolers take toward those of us who have made different choices for our children.

And while we're at it, you referenced a parochial school in your own background, so WTF are you doing now as the public school queen?

Yup, 12 years in Catholic schools and I wouldn't change the education I received in high school for anything, however that was in the 70s and in NYC - 2 places I do not care to return nor take my daughter.

The way I see it is you made choices you felt in the best interest of your children, just as my husband and I did for our daughter and I really don't give a rat's rear end what you think of the choices we made. You don't have to agree, but that doesn't make our choice any less in the best interest of our child - because that is the point, she is our child, not yours.

[Gabz]

Public schools today are nothing like Catholic schools in the 1960s.

Catholic schools today are nothing like Catholic schools in the 1960s and 1970's. The world isn't anything like it was back then, either.

[Servant of the Cross]

You like to think you know what is going on, but in reality all you know is what you are told by those who agree with you.

Um, 'what is going on in the publicgovernment schools' is clear for ALL to see.

Homeschoolers FOREVER; government schools NEVER!

[DoughtyOne]

I agree. The new schools, or the schools today for the most part are psychological hell holes.

[Mad Dawgg]

Teachers on strike. Nothing more needs said.

[Servant of the Cross]

Yep. Liberals on the lose .... /s

[who knows what evil?]

And the rest of the parents don’t have a problem with this?

Apparently not...it's trendy and visionary...

[who knows what evil?]

Hernandez says her son won’t mind the day off from school, but she regrets that he’s going to miss a day of learning because of the controversy.

Yet another naive jack*ss...

[who knows what evil?]

Let's not forget...

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.