Freeper to be interviewed by Jay Sekulow about the Byron School District

Self and David Gold

[clamper1797]

My friends the following is my invitation to be interviewed by Jay Sekulow for his radio show. As some may know I have been involved in getting to the bottom of the allegations that the Byron School District has been forcing students to participate in Islamic faith studies.

The email from the American Center for Law and Justice is as follows ...

Thanks for the emails. The program is Jay Sekulow Live (also see our website at www.aclj.org. ) It is a nationally broadcast half hour (150 stations), usually live, but in this case is being pretaped for air on Tuesday, Jan 22. I will call you Monday at 6:30AM your time and will give you a brief rundown of what to expect and will identify you as an associate member of the Byron Town Council. Jay will probably talk with you up to 10-12 minutes, so have your notes ready. I appreciate that you are helping me out and that you have forwarded me the documents about the situation.

Sincerely,
Ken Hulme
American Center for
Law and Justice

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I have been working with KSFO 560 Radio talk show host on this problem and have had the following correspondence with him. I have asked for and been given permission to post these emails on free republic. Here are two emails from school principle Nancie Castro to David Gold ....

Dear KSFO, At the bottom of your web site, you ask listeners to email what they would like to see. I would like to see your "radio journalists" validate the truth of their stories before they go on air with false information, condemning people they don't know. Your show generated extreme hate mail, threats and phone calls to my school, my colleagues, my home and my family. All this from your "Christian" listeners and readers of this "Christian" publication to a fellow Christian. That does not seem very Christian to me, but I would not think to judge all Christians by the actions of these few. It is extremely disappointing to see this type of behavior from a reputable radio station. (Examples of these emails are at the bottom of this letter).

I would like you to understand that in our school system, principals do not determine what curriculum is taught. Standards come from the state, boards adopt them, and the principal's job is to make sure that we are teaching what we are supposed to and that students are achieving academic success, as well as maintaining an effective learning environment. The state tests our students on this information, and we are accountable for teaching it. Yet, all of this hate is directed at me as if I was the one who decided we would teach this. It has been taught for years throughout our State and many other states as well (Florida, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts to name a few).

I have no idea why Reverend Miles chose our school to further his agenda, whatever that may be, but let me be clear that we do not have "an intensive three week course on Islam". It is one unit in the World History class. And the unit did not start on September 11, but 10 days BEFORE that. Reverend Miles says in the article "when asked if she would ALLOW the teaching of Christianity Castro stated..." If I would have been asked this question, I would have explained that I don't have the power to allow it or not. I told him that Christianity is a part of the curriculum as well. I didn't stammer when answering his question.

This brings up the point of the way Reverend Austin Miles represented himself to me. He left me a phone message which I happily returned within a few hours. He never mentioned that he was a Reverend, he said he was interested in asking me some questions about how religion is taught in schools. He said that he was very interested in World Religion and had heard that colleges teach this course and was thinking of taking it. I gave him factual information on the few questions he asked. He never mentioned the quotes from the teacher and never asked to validate any of the information that he wrote in his article about the activities of this class. His article would have been factual had he allowed me to clarify.

Other points that are false in his article are that we forbid Christianity to be taught and when it is, it is taught as a myth and in a negative light and that kids can't even where crosses to school or speak the name of Jesus. Absolutely not true! He actually states "everything Christian is shown in a negative light". If you read it for yourself you would see this is not true. It is also not true that the teacher came to me with her concerns or that she asked me if she could teach a course on Christianity. Those conversations never happened and she agrees with this. It is not true that parents were ignored, there were three phone calls and I personally met with or talked at length with each of these parents about their concern. I'd like to know one name of a parent who says their concern about this went unanswered. There isn't one.

As far as the textbook goes, the same publisher has in its 6th grade text the Ten Commandments and the works of Apostle Paul and there is nothing negative about it. Both books cover all other major religions including Christianity and the various religions are brought up multiple times throughout the history program when applicable. This is evidenced by thorough reading of the material. World History is taught in 6th, 7th and 10th grades. The books are available at all County Office Of Education buildings for viewing if you are interested in knowing the factual presentation. All teaching that includes religion is done as historical perspective and how the beliefs have shaped the worlds' history. There is no recruitment, indoctrination, chanting, praying, forcing kids to dress like Muslims, take their names and memorize verses. All this information is false. I do understand that there are many opinions about what should be taught in public school, and I respect everyone's right to their opinion. If they have concerns about the curriculum, a constructive way to deal with them would be through the political system as the state determines what is taught and tested through a very comprehensive process, not through hate mail and talk shows where people discuss something that isn't even true.

Below are a just couple of examples of the 200 pieces of hate mail that I received. The mail doesn't bother me, as I know these people are uninformed. It makes me sad for them. My question for your station is, is it the intent of your show to rile people up to the point of attacking innocent people? Because that is exactly the outcome of the article and your show. Isn't that the same goal as the terrorists? If our educational system in this country has failed, it has failed in teaching people that everything they read or hear is not true, and they should carefully investigate and validate information before disseminating it. I deal with this type of behavior daily with middle school children when rumors are spread, kids feelings and self-esteem are hurt, and sometimes fights occur. I find it sad that there are so many adults who still exhibit this behavior of spreading hurtful rumors. Your talk show host did nothing but further this type of behavior. Does your host really believe that everything on the Internet is true? Does your radio station advocate that type of thinking?

I would appreciate a written response, as I am not a regular listener to your show, and I would also appreciate it if you would stop spreading this misinformation and slander as your misinformed host said many negative things about me on his show. I think your station has a responsibility to report the truth. We have a wonderful community here in Byron, of hard working students, staff and parents, and our time needs to be focused on providing the best education that we can for our children, not dealing with sensationalism like this. This hurts the children in the end. Lastly, I want to be clear that communication with our parents and community is a priority and our doors are open to discuss any ideas and concerns that they have. We encourage communication to prevent things like this from happening.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter
Sincerely,
Nancie Castro

here are 3 typical examples of the 200 emails I mentioned that came to our district:

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 12:11 AM
Subject: CASTRO - YOU ARE A PSYCHOTIC PIECE OF GARBAGE

YOU WILL BE SUED FOR YOUR PSYCHOTIC LEFTIST ISLAMIC INDOCTRINATION.
YOU ARE A BLATANT HYPOCRITE.
YOU BELONG IN A JAIL CELL.

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 7:38 PM
Subject: "evil doings"

Nancy Castro is a short-sited moron and she and whoever else is "teaching" our children about the "false God Allah" will regret their evil doings! The "True God", the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ is watching you and you can go-to-the-bank that He is not happy with what He see's! Why are you teaching our children about a "Blood- Thirsty" God and his "Blood-Thirsty" so-called "prophet" Mohammed? You are very, very sick people and there is a special place in Hell just waiting for you all!
Burn in Hell, el topo 8

My dear MS. Castro (cute last name),
Clearly you are anti-Christian... if ONE Muslim expressed concern about ANY textbook that required his student to even READ a Christian prayer, you and ALL of your left-wing anti-Christian Stalinists would burn the offending book and wave your Separation-of-Church-and-State ACLU cards. You are a waste of human flesh.

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David Gold offered to have Ms Castro on his show and this was her response ...

David, I appreciate your offer and thank you for your speedy reply, but I don't want to be involved in a "hearing", fair or not. My observation is that when we respond to the kind of fanaticism that I have been receiving by email, we feed it. You can read the materials for yourself (or at least the outline of the standards on the states web site www.cde.ca.gov and click on k-12 content standards) and make up your own mind.

I've been pretty clear on the fact that students did not chant or stage a Jihad. We don't teach Islam as the true religion and we do not teach students how to pray. We do not endorse or indoctrinate students to any religion. It is all presented as an historical perspective and related to how it shaped our cultures, and even the geography of our world. Teachers at our school work hard to present lessons that make the subject matter come alive and not be just a boring lecture. During one activity, they could wear Arabic clothing or go by a Muslim name if they chose, but they were not mandated to do so. The conversations Reverend Miles described between me and the teacher quoted in the article never happened and I did not ignore a single parent concern.

Christianity is very prevalent in the 6th and 7th grade curriculum as it appears in reference to many of the cultures and time periods studied. I have seen my teachers teach fantastic lessons on parables in the Bible, the Ten Commandments and other facts about Christianity as well as wonderful lessons on other various religions. None are portrayed in a negative light, just factual. I see no double standard as all religions are treated in the same manner, but please read the books for yourself. You can see them at your county office of education. As you can see, not much of what the article said was true. You may choose to share what you have learned with your listeners or not, that is your choice.

I, too, am happy to see parents looking into the curriculum, but 98% of my emails didn't ask any further questions about curriculum or the article, they were simply insults. They believed everything as truth without question. I find that frightening. We communicate with parents by sending home a copy of the standards and each student is given a copy of the book to keep at home, which provides parents an opportunity to read it as well.

The intent of my first email was to give you correct information and stop the flow of misinformation. My hope is that this will die down as soon as possible so I can go back to the job of educating kids and away from dealing with the media and all of the emails and phone calls.

Again, thank you for your offer.
Sincerely,
Nancie Castro

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This is my reply to David Gold ...
Hello David;
I wanted to update you on what is going in Byron. I met with a couple last night who's son is in the 7th grade at the Byron school and is taking these classes right now. There apparently at least three classes that are linked together history spelling and English. Students are required to take all three classes. There have been several students who have refused to do the Islam homework and are being given failing grades because of their refusal. I am meeting with the parents and their son again later today. I will be getting teachers names (they are all women) and copies of homework assignments. I will fax them to you if you are interested. I have had multiple contacts via free republic email from several attorneys and religious figures offering help and wishing to begin legal proceedings against the school and the school district. I heard part of your show and heard you say that you were becoming upset about people more interested about the hockey dad than the school issue. I will assure you that there are MANY of us out here that are far more concerned about this far more important issue than those two idiots in the hockey story. Bottom line ... we need your help very badly, if only to keep the public informed about what is going on out here. I will give you my personal word that I will not let this stand and that I will do EVERYTHING in my power to end this abomination in our schools. Thanks so much for what you have done

Clamper1797 ... (Substituted for my real name)

And finally ...

To: David Gold
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2002 7:45 PM
Subject: Re: Byron School District
Hello David; I met with the head of the town council today to discuss the situation. She said that she had not heard about it until I told her. To say the least she was not happy about it either. She mentioned that we should bring this matter up to a Margaret Green who is the superintendent of schools. She also said that she would look into it herself. I am delivering a copy of the WND news report to her tomorrow. I read Ms Castro's letter and found several inconsistencies in it as opposed to what these parents have told me. I am trying to organize a meeting with some of the other parents so that we can compare notes. I also have in hand three homework assignments from these classes. The boy who is taking these classes and called them "disgusting" (his word). he has refused to take part in the assignments and is subsequently failing the classes.

Clamper1797

As you all can see ... things are happening to eliminate this abomination. I met with the parents again last night in a social venue as we have since become friends. They have given me two teachers names and suspect that on is Muslim (that figures). I also saw on O'Reilly that a southern California based law firm is suing the state over this issue.

Let Freedom Ring

[Valin]

BUMP!