“Emperor Superintendent Deems a Dog’s Tail a Leg”
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The following column appeared in The Ridgewood News on March 30, 2018.
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The other day a request came in to include information on the League of Women Voters’ upcoming Candidates Night in our district enews. Now, since the League is non-partisan, non-profit and local, the flyer easily passed our requirements for publishing. But the notice got me thinking in general about the important mandate that public school districts be strictly non-partisan while still encouraging our students’ intellectual curiosity and passions. It can be a delicate balance on occasion.
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A great example of successfully walking this line occurred at Ridgewood High School on March 14, when we permitted our students to organize a 17-minute walkout in conjunction with the national anti-gun violence event commemorating victims of the Parkland school shooting and raising awareness for violence-free schools. Simultaneous to this event another group of our students staged a sit-in in our Campus Center to highlight Second Amendment rights. [So is this how it goes? Two political wrongs make an apolitical right?]
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Intellectual and emotional passion energized a large body of our students that day. Of varying political views, those who either walked out or sat in paid respectful tribute to the Parkland shooting victims while raising their voices for change. RHS Principal Tom Gorman and staff helped guide our students’ planning to assure that in addition to a feel-good moment they would be enriched by a living civics lesson on the process of peaceable assembly and its value and power to effect non-violent change in a democratic society. At Ridgewood High School that day, our students lived out their textbook lessons on the meaning of freedom of speech. They also learned, as Dr. Gorman summarized aptly in a letter to the RHS community, that change is not a 17-minute event but takes a lifetime of work. In his words, Your strength and purpose happens in what you do in the 18th minute and beyond. I commend Tom’s letter to you, found in the Communications section of the RHS web pages at https://www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us.
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March 14 was a historic day for the Ridgewood Public Schools. We had never done anything like it in recent history, and while other districts chose to disallow their students’ request to participate in the national walkout, I am pleased and proud of our decision to endorse this event and also proud of and thankful for all who were involved on many levels to ensure its success as a meaningful day of memorial, awareness raising and civics in action, while remaining strictly non-partisan.
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In particular, I am proud of our students for their interest and passion to make a difference, and their desire to grapple intellectually and respectfully with contemporary societal issues. [What’s next, Dan? Dueling Pro-Life/Pro-Abortion protests? An excellent case can be made for a convenient “tie-in” that pro-life students are protesting the gravest kind of violence done to the youngest of children, whom had they not been killed, would have become their fellow RHS students. Or, are you, by this self-congratulatory letter, simply trying to head such an eventuality off at the pass? You are not the judge of your own case, Dan. Superintendent or not, if you, in fact, stepped in it by personally fomenting one or more political protests by students during the school day and on school property, no amount of after-the-fact whitewashing on your part will transform wrongdoing into inspired charity.]
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I am equally proud of, and thankful, too, for our very professional staff and for their expertise and attention, not just to the curricular matters but also for their personal commitment, and for their ability to focus on the common ground we all share on the importance of safe schools that are free of violence.
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I am further proud to be living and working in a community that supports [Not so fast, Dan!] the efforts of its public school administrators in navigating the sometimes tricky terrain [Much as all this tickles your fancy, Dan, you and your administrator friends are not paid to help students explore a career in Obama-inspired community organizing. Please get back to doing your real job.]. These past few weeks have seen a more than a flurry of snow and the tight grip of winter; there’ve been many spirited conversations and a number of district communications* about safety, security and students’ rights to assemble on school property without repercussions. [Without repercussions! Ah yes, there’s where you went wrong. The real world is not so forgiving, Dan. You’ve deprived your charges of the best lesson you might have taught them! No letter from a Birmingham jail is possible in the scenario you’ve created…] These are real issues, real concerns. [Ooh..that’s a pithy little gem. We can tell you’re just dying to get your first entry into Bartlett’s Quotations. Keep trying.]
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It’s a community’s desire to put politics aside on occasion and walk the line with us that makes a difference in achieving our mission of excellence in a safe, non-violent school setting. I am so very appreciative of that willingness to engage. [Quite a slippery slope you’ve erected here, Dan. Enthusiasm may be your strong suit. But foresight? Not so much.]
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As always, please feel free to get in touch with any questions or concerns. [Who are you kidding…]
Daniel Fishbein, Ed.D.
District Superintendent
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* Please see my March 1, 2018 letter on school safety, found on the Superintendent’s page of the district website at https://www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us.
Daniel Fishbein, Ed.D., is Superintendent of the Ridgewood Public Schools. Dr. Fishbein can be reached at 201-670-2700, ext. 10530, or via e-mail at dfishbein@ridgewood.k12.nj.us. For more information on the Ridgewood Public Schools visit the district website at https://www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us, the district Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/RidgewoodPublicSchools, or follow us on Twitter @RwdPubSchools.
The term non-partisan isn’t really strong enough when it comes to the school district. Politics must end at the edge of school property when school is in session. It is not as hard as the Superintendent suggests to “strike the right balance”. These children are starving for substance in their educational diet. Politics is almost substance-free. Nothing but tactics and demonization.
The problem with modern progressives is their tendency to fetishize civil disobedience. For example, they are bound and determined for society to regard the plight of individuals suffering from same sex attraction today as similar to that of African Americans during the middle of last century. The analogy doesn’t hold, of course, but piddling concerns like logic and consistency are of no moment once the order goes forth to attack and tear down a societal norm. In 2018, the hot-button issue, once again, is gun control, meaning drastic (read: unconstitutional) restrictions on ownership and use of firearms by law-abiding private citizens. But veterans of the culture wars in this country are not distracted or lulled to sleep by the progressives’ cloying use of the passive-voice term “gun violence.” Guns are not violent. Violence only arises around guns when antisocial, violent people have access to them where others don’t. Regardless of what the progressives say, or how loud they howl, these socially marginalized people will almost always be deterred by a “good guy with a gun.” A healthy mix of open carry and concealed carry on the part of peace-loving private citizens in public places in all U.S. states and territories is so obviously called for that continued debate is doing nothing but costing innocent human lives. And discretely arming a select few qualified teachers is the obvious answer in public schools.
Discreetly!
The district is just softening residents up for the next round of teacher protests and threatened walkouts. It’s like the solar sunspot cycle except it’s only three years in length rather than eleven. And the chaos will begin soon enough…
8.24AM. Well said sir, well said. However smart people like you are out of fashion nowadays. Sadly.
Fishbein = useless feckless tool doubling down on stupidity.
Witness to YouTube Headquarters Shooting Says He Wished He Had a Gun
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freebeacon
April 3, 2018
Jack Heretik
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A witness to Tuesday’s shooting at YouTube’s headquarters told the media he wished he had a gun as he heard the gunshots firing nearby.
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The man was being interviewed by a reporter from KTVU, Fox’s station in the San Francisco Bay area, when he recounted how he wished he was armed for his own sake.
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The witness was saying how he heard the series of shots and helped tend to a victim who was able to get across the street to a Carl Jr.’s restaurant and then back out to try to figure out what was going on.
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The KTVU reporter asked the man what was going through his mind during the chaos. He said that he knew he had to be “smart” so he wouldn’t be harmed himself, but ***he wished he had a gun on him***.
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“I didn’t have a gun on me, but wish I did,” the man said to a crowd of reporters.
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The shooter, a woman, injured three others at YouTube’s headquarters before she killed herself.
Dr. Fishbein should concern himself on the deplorable state of education in the district, drug incidents and liberal teachers having run of the show. Time for leadership, not pandering.
Rolling Stone Crows about Using Emotion and Children to Push Irrational Agenda
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Ammoland
30 March, 2018
Dean Weingarten
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Rolling Stone magazine crows about what is “different” about this iteration of the anti-Second Amendment movement. It isn’t because students are involved. That has been tried before. What is different this time is those anti-Second Amendment billionaires built up a network across the nation. A network of paid activists that was ready to spring into action when the “right” emotional moment presented itself.
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From rollingstone.com:
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Everyone wants to know why Parkland was different. And the reason, says Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, is how quickly the community coalesced around a clear purpose: “Within hours of the shooting. We had never seen that before.”
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“Typically, you see a survivor here or there or a family or a community member coming out and saying, ‘Stronger gun laws are needed,’ but in this case, it was almost as though it was all the survivors, all the families, all of the community, and they were very, very clear in their call to action and it has helped keep this issue in the spotlight,” Watts says.
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The other thing that has helped keep the issue in the spotlight is infrastructure Moms Demand Action, its parent organization, Everytown, and Giffords have spent the last several years putting into place – a vast network of supporters, legislative experts, PR professionals and large amounts of money available to put behind the students’ spontaneous efforts.
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The Rolling Stone shows that the “student movement” is only a foil for the anti-Second Amendment movement.
TOWN BYPASSES CONSTITUTION, US CITIZENS GIVEN 60 DAYS TO TURN IN GUNS OR BECOME CRIMINALS
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As the state promises gun rights activists they’re not coming for their guns, behind the scenes they’re pleading for it to happen. And now the feared gun grab is occurring. Residents in Deerfield, Illinois have 60 days to surrender their “assault weapons” or face fines of $1000 per day per gun.
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The gun ban ordinance was passed on April 2nd with residents left with few choices of how to dispose of their valuable “assault weapons.” Upon careful reading of the ordinance, residents will be left with revolvers, .22 caliber “plinking” rifles, and double barrel shotguns to defend their homes and families from criminals who could care less about the law.
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Fines for not disposing of the weapons range from $250 to $1000 per day per gun for those who choose not to comply with the city’s ordinance. While a fine may seem reasonable to some, as TFTP has reported on multiple occasions, failure to pay fines always results in police action. It is not far-fetched to predict major turmoil and arrests in the event of non-compliance.
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One example of the so-called “assault weapon” is the Ruger 10/22 which can accept magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. Even though the 10/22 is not listed in the list of guns the village wants to see banned, the gun cannot legally be possessed in the village.
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Residents have been instructed to either sell their guns, transfer the ownership to someone who lives outside the village, surrender their guns to Deerfield’s sheriff, or begin paying the fines.
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Deerfield mentioned a number of cities where mass shootings took place, including Sutherland Springs, TX where 26 people were killed in the First Baptist Church. That shooting was actually stopped by a man who used the very gun Deerfield voted to ban. No mention was made of that fact in the ordinance.
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Also included in the gun ban were semi-automatic pistols which can accept higher than 10 round magazines. That’s virtually all full size semi-automatic pistols.
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Even though the village trustees ignored the pleas of residents to leave their guns alone, and passed the ordinance anyway, many residents were encouraged to ignore the gun ban and engage in civil disobedience.
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Joel Siegel, a resident of Lincolnwood, warned the village’s residents that governments all across the world have moved to confiscate guns then turned around and ran roughshod over the people. He said, “There’s an ancient and honored American tradition called disobeying an unjust law…I have urged (people) to listen to their conscience and if so moved do not obey this law.”
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Deerfield Mayor Harriet Rosenthal implied the students from the local high school helped sway her decision to bring about the ordinance. “Enough is enough,” Rosenthal said adding, “Those students are so articulate just like our students. There is no place here for assault weapons.”
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The statement mirrors the knee jerk reaction to ban guns following a nationwide public outcry of students who supposedly feared for their own lives following the recent mass shooting in Florida.
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Opponents of the gun grab vow to fight the action in court while others praised the trustees decision to ban semiautomatic rifles, pistols and shotguns. Ariella Kharasch, a Deerfield High School senior said she wants more action to be taken on both a local and national level.
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“This is our fight…This is our generation’s fight. We’re going to keep fighting and this is part of it. Change happens gradually step by step. The fight does not end at the borders of our village.,” Kharasch said.
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Predictably, law enforcement and retired law enforcement members of the community are exempted from the ban. Currently, in the U.S., law enforcement kills around 1,200 citizens per year. Ironically, that number is actually four times higher than those who die from rifles.
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As TFTP has reported, cops have killed 450 percent more people than have died in the past forty years of mass shootings.
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Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
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Contributed by Jack Burns ofthefreethoughtproject.com
Florida Students Hold Walkout to Support 2A, Constitution
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by S.H. BLANNELBERRY
APRIL 3, 2018
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Funny how certain stories slip through the cracks and don’t garner the constant, 24/7 media attention that other stories do, right?
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Part of it, sure, is money. Certain stories are stickier than others and will generate more clicks and attract more eyeballs. (Stormy Daniels is a cash cow that has CNN laughing straight to the bank. Do you know over 22 million people watched that Anderson Cooper interview on “60 Minutes”? Crazy.) Of course, another part of it is agenda. Certain stories don’t fit the mainstream media’s progressive agenda. They are flat out ignored or underreported.
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Take, for instance, the 75 students at Rockledge High School in Brevard County who walked out of class last Friday in support of the Second Amendment and the Consitution. Why weren’t these intelligent young activists given the David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez treatment?
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They may not have witnessed a school shooting but they are students, and what we do or don’t do as a country to address spree killers affects them as well. Moreover, they represent the other side of the debate. Isn’t it the media’s job to be fair and balanced, to tell both sides?
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“It’s all over the news right now that all students hate guns. I wanted to show that not all students feel that way,” Zachary Schneider, a junior at Rockledge and one of the participants in the walkout, told Florida Today.
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Sophmore Chloe Deaton and Junior Anna Delaney organized the 20-minute demonstration. They made it clear that it wasn’t a partisan event, rather it was simply a pro-Constitution rally.
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“We were built on certain rights and that was one of the original rights, that we should have the right to bear arms,” Deaton told the group via loudspeakers.
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“The Constitution does not say that government shall decree the right to keep and bear arms. The Constitution says ‘… the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,’” Deaton added, repeating a quote President Reagan gave at an NRA banquet in 1983.
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Deaton and Delaney expressed disappointment when the original school walkout on March 14 was framed as an anti-gun event. It was supposed to be a showing of solidarity for Parkland students, not a referendum on gun control.
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“In the beginning, it started as a memorial to the Parkland students. And that’s how it should have stayed,” Deaton said.
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No doubt that the mainstream media helped to reinforce the narrative that students were “walking out” for gun control last month. But these students at Rockledge prove that not every young person is on board with the notion that public safety is maximized through chipping away at the 2A to ultimately deny good people the right to defend themselves in the manner they see fit. It’s a great story. Too bad it won’t see the light of day.
WALKOUT TO PROTEST ‘PORNOGRAPHIC’ SEX ED
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Letters tell principals ‘indoctrination’ into ‘sexual rights’ not acceptable
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BOB UNRUH
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Principals at schools across the country already have exhibited various levels of support for students who have walked out of class to protest guns.
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The protests culminated recently in an anti-Second Amendment rally in Washington attended by tens of thousands.
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Soon, school officials will be notified of another walk-out demonstration.
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This one is to object to the “pornographic” curriculum used by many schools in “anti-bullying” programs that many parents don’t even know about.
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It’s being organized online at Sex Ed Sit Out, and it’s already gone international.
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Through the campaign, parents can send a letter informing their local principal that their child will not attend school on April 23.
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“This date has been set aside by parents and concerned citizens in America, Canada, and Australia to stand against the sexualization of our children. Pornographic sex ed is being implemented across our globe in an attempt to indoctrinate our children with ‘sexual rights,’” the letter explains.
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“This is unacceptable and I/we am/are joining others both nationally and globally in taking a stand to say ‘enough!’ Our children are our most precious gift and deserve to be protected against the evils of big corporations and radical activists who desire to instill a disturbing sexual ideology in the name of ‘Comprehensive Sexuality Education.’”
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The letter says parents “are oftentimes not being informed by the school of the controversial, graphic, gender-bending sex education programs in our schools.”
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“Administrators are hiding behind frequent name changes of sex education programs (Welcoming Schools, Safe Schools, Reducing the Risk, Making Proud Choices) and deceptive denials in order to get the funding that comes attached to these dangerous programs. We don’t believe our children’s innocence should be expendable for school funding. We believe there should be transparency with parents at all times concerning what is being taught.”
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The campaign’s website explains the movement began with a few mothers on social media who were outraged over “the graphic nature of current sex education resources.”
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“Parents are demanding to know why their children are being taught how to have anal and oral sex, masturbate one another, and question one’s gender,” the site explains.
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Caryl Ayala, a former public school teacher and organizer of the event in Austin, Texas, said: “We are uniting with parents across the globe to demand that our rights as parents be respected regarding the teaching of sexuality and sexual orientation. Hands off our kids!”
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Rhonda Miller, another organizer, is the education chairman of the Indiana Liberty Coalition.
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“Follow the money. Comprehensive sex ed is being rolled out across America, often sponsored by special interest LGBT groups like Human Rights Campaign, and disguised as anti-bullying programs,” she said. “If it’s not okay for special interest groups like the NRA to be buying classroom time to push their agenda, then how is it okay for HRC monies to be buying schools off to teach gender-bending ideology and anal sex tutorials?”
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Conflicts already have come up in several locations, including Rocklin, California, where a teacher read the transgender-promoting books “I am Jazz” and “The Red Crayon” to kindergarten pupils.
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She also reportedly “reintroduced” a 5-year-old boy as a girl.
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In a legal fight over transgenderism in Fairfax County, Virginia, the school board is clamping down on the ability of parents to voice their objections to a controversial sex-ed curriculum
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The grassroots movement of parents frustrated by their local districts has some pointed questions.
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“Why are our tax dollars going to pay for curriculums and resources that teach dangerous and promiscuous behaviors which most parents find morally abhorrent and the CDC has stated are a health risk?” asked Elizabeth Johnston, a concerned mother.
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“Furthermore, why aren’t administrators being transparent with parents about the content of sexuality resources? It’s as if they have something to hide. That should frighten parents everywhere.”
On Wednesday, 28 March, 2018, the West Maypole Avenue Church of Christ was having a Bible study that started at 7:30 p.m. At 8:09 p.m., the study was interrupted by 27-year-old Kenneth Baines, who announced an armed robbery. A 57-year-old armed church member was seated inside. The church member was legally armed and had a concealed carry permit.
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It seems likely that he was a member of a voluntary church security team, as later reports refer to him as a “security guard”, but no report mentions that he had a security guard license, or that he was paid as a security guard.
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From suntimes.com on 29 March, 2018:
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A 57-year-old man was sitting in a the church at 8:09 p.m. in the 4400 block of West Maypole when a 27-year-old man walked in and announced a robbery, according to Chicago Police.
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Maypole Avenue Church of Christ is located at 4400 W. Maypole.
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The two men then started shooting at each other, police said. The older man was struck in the left arm and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition. The robber was shot multiple times in the chest and was in critical condition at Stroger Hospital.
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The 57-year-old legally owned his gun, police said.
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From the Maypole Ave Church of Christ Facebook page:
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“We solemnly pray for our brother in Christ and the perpetrator of this heinous deed.”
Parents threaten lawsuit if kids sent out for anti-gun activism
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wnd.com
4/7/2018
Bob Unruh
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Mass shootings have generated a wave of anti-gun activism, and the Feb. 14 attack in Broward County, Florida, has been no exception.
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The “March for Our Lives” movement has generated wide media coverage, school walk-outs and anti-gun rallies across the country, highlighted by the demonstration attended by tens of thousands in Washington last month.
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It’s also created instant celebrities, such as Parkland, Florida, student David Hogg, who’s made a name for himself on television and social media for his demand for gun control.
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But parents in one school district say that while they recognize free-speech rights, the district is going too far in endorsing gun-control and facilitating protests.
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The non-profit law firm Freedom X has written to the Loma Prieta Unified School District, which includes the tony city of Los Gatos in Silicon Valley, concerning an abrupt policy change that violates the law.
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A letter on behalf of parents of students in the district warns of legal action if officials carry out their plan to allow students, faculty and staff to participate in a planned walkout April 20.
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Freedom X wrote to Supt. Corey Kidwell asking for assurances the district will not help run the walkout in violation of its own policies.
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The April 20 event, Freedom X explains, is being facilitated by “left-wing political activist groups, including the Network for Public Education Action, to influence gun legislation and is intended to indoctrinate impressionable school children as a scheme to push an anti-2nd Amendment political agenda.”