[CS-FSLUG] PD: Anti-homeschooling bigots strike again

[Fred Miller]

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40569

Anti-homeschooling bigots strike again
 
 Posted: September 22, 2004  1:00 a.m. Eastern
 © 2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc. 


The public school establishment hates homeschoolers. They've smeared the 
movement as a conspiracy of conservative Christian zealots. They've scoffed 
at homeschooled kids as social pariahs. They've painted homeschooling parents 
as uneducated and negligent.

And now, under the guise of preparing students for a violent terrorist attack, 
educators in one public school district are casting homeschoolers in the role 
of bomb-detonating militants. 

The story about a mock terrorism drill involving a local school district in 
the Muskegon Chronicle starts out innocently enough:

   Local school district transportation directors instigated the exercise 
because they wanted to test their abilities to respond to emergencies, said 
Tom Spoelman, transportation consultant for the Muskegon Area Intermediate 
School District. They eventually hooked up with Muskegon County Emergency 
Services, and planning for the event has been under way for about a year, 
Spoelman said.

   The exercise will test not only school transportation directors, but also 
the Muskegon County Emergency Operations Plan, which involves many agencies 
throughout the county. 

   About 60 middle and high school students from Reeths-Puffer and Whitehall 
public schools will be part of the exercise, according to Kristin Tank, 
public information coordinator for the MAISD. Local law enforcement agencies, 
fire departments, human service agencies, transportation services and medical 
services will participate.

   Students from Muskegon Community College and Reeths-Puffer will assist in 
applying makeup to add to the reality of the gruesome scene. Between 200 and 
300 people will observe the exercise, including school bus drivers, school 
administrators, emergency personnel and evaluators from agencies across the 
state who will provide feedback.

What's jaw-droppingly unbelievable is the next paragraph describing the 
attackers in the simulation: 

   The exercise will simulate an attack by a fictitious radical group called 
Wackos Against Schools and Education who believe everyone should be 
homeschooled. Under the scenario, a bomb is placed on the bus and is 
detonated while the bus is traveling on Durham, causing the bus to land on 
its side and fill with smoke.

This is not a joke. A taxpayer-funded drill is using public school students to 
enforce anti-homeschooling bigotry under the guise of preparing for 
terrorism. Terrorism by whom? By Islamic jihadists who hijack planes and 
incinerate kids headed to Disneyworld. Islamic terrorists who take hundreds 
of children hostage in Beslan, force them to drink their own urine and shoot 
babies in the back. Islamic terrorists who groom toddlers as suicide bombers.

Our enemies are Islamic extremist murderers. Except if you happen to attend 
the Muskegon County, Mich., schools, where the menacing faces of terrorism 
belong to parents who make untold sacrifices to give their children the best 
education they know how by schooling them in the loving environment of their 
own homes.

I recall the Islamist-sympathizing admonition included in the National 
Education Association's touchy-feely, post-Sept. 11 curriculum: "Do not 
suggest that any group is responsible" for the terrorist attacks, one tip for 
parents and teachers urged. Unless, it should be amended, you can work an 
anti-homeschooling hate angle into the lesson.

When President Bush's education secretary, Rod Paige, likened the NEA in jest 
to a "terrorist organization," teachers' union officials and the media became 
completely unhinged. How dare he make such an odious comparison, they gasped. 
How dare he make light of the real terrorists, they fumed.

"I can tell you what my first response was: Scary. That's really frightening," 
said Diana Garchow, a special-education teacher at Highland Elementary School 
in Bakersfield, Calif., to the Associated Press after Paige's remarks. "It's 
scary that you can't voice an opinion in this country without being called a 
terrorist ... I don't care if it was a joke or what it was, that was a 
totally inappropriate comment."

Paige was forced to apologize to teachers. What about the Muskegon County, 
Mich., school system? Will its public education militants apologize to 
homeschoolers for taking an intolerant swipe at their beliefs? Or will this 
politicized "Wackos Against Schools and Education" terror drill be coming to 
a classroom near you?

Michelle Malkin's column is syndicated by Creators Syndicate and appears in 
about 100 newspapers nationwide. Her book, "Invasion: How America Still 
Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores," is a 
national best seller and now available at ShopNetDaily. All copies of the 
book sold at ShopNetDaily are personally autographed. 

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