Category: Education & Schools

West Virginia Governor Announces Support for Newly Passed Campus Carry Bill: ‘I’ll Sign It’

The Mountain State will soon be the latest to allow those with permits to carry concealed guns on college campuses.

On Tuesday, the West Virginia House of Delegates put the finishing touches on Senate Bill 10. By Wednesday, Governor Jim Justice (R.) announced his intention to sign it into law once it reaches his desk.

“I know it’s controversial, but from my standpoint, here’s where I stand: I stand rock solid with our Second Amendment,” Justice said during a press conference Wednesday. “When this bill comes to me, it won’t be with me but just a matter of seconds because I’ll sign it.”

Once signed, the bill will make West Virginia one of twelve states to allow gun carry in most areas of campus without an option for school officials to implement gun bans. It arrives at a time of heightened scrutiny over gun carry after the Supreme Court’s June decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen recognized a constitutional right to carry a gun in public for self-defense. Many blue states have rushed to pass laws cracking down on public gun carry in response to the ruling. Meanwhile, red states have continued to expand where civilians can carry in public and sought to eliminate permitting requirements.

Governor Justice cited frequent mass shootings across the country committed by “bad, bad, bad actors” that occur on “soft targets” as his reasoning for supporting the bill.

“God forbid, but it may very well be that we’ve got somebody on that campus that has a firearm and something bad starts to happen, and they save a bunch of lives,” he said.

Armed bystanders have intervened to stop or prevent mass shootings on numerous occasions throughout the country. Elisjsha Dicken returned fire against a shooter in July 2022 ending an attack on an Indiana mall food court. Similarly, a legally-armed bystander shot a gunman at an El Paso, Texas mall earlier this month.

He also pointed to long-standing campus carry laws in states like Texas that have been on the books “for years and years” to show that the policy can be implemented safely.

The bill would not prevent schools from instituting any and all restrictions on campus carry. But school officials would be limited to baring guns in buildings and other parts of campus with comprehensive security measures, such as metal detectors. Those provisions, however, were not enough to win over opponents of the bill. Some pointed to the recent mass shooting at Michigan State, where an adult not affiliated with the school shot and killed three students on campus, to argue against the bill.

Marshall University student E.T. Bowen said college students already feel “terrified on campus,” and adding more guns would exacerbate that.

“This bill is like throwing kerosene on the wildfire, and it is appalling that we even need to say that while there’s still blood on the ground at Michigan State,” Bowen said.

The bill’s supporters also pointed to prior mass shootings on college campuses. Delegate Mike Honaker (R.) was a state trooper who responded to the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting. He said the prospect of something like that happening again compelled him to give students a chance to defend themselves.

“Please hear me: Years ago, I sat on the foot of my bed with Windex and paper towels and I washed the blood of almost 30 kids off of my shoes because of an active shooter on a college campus,” he said, according to the Associated Press. “I fear that if I do not support this legislation, and it happens again, washing their blood off my shoes will not compare to trying to wash the blood off of my hands.”

The bill ultimately passed overwhelmingly on an 84-14 vote. Once signed, it will take effect on July 1, 2024.

Wanna bet they have their pronouns memorized?

Not a single student can do math at grade level in 53 Illinois schools. For reading, it’s 30 schools

Spry Community Links High School, in the Heart of Little Village in Chicago, says its vision is to “provide a challenging and supportive environment…to enable our students to succeed in the 21st century.” Number one on the school’s focus list? “Increasing reading and math scores to or above grade level.”

But a look at state data that tracks reading and math scores for each Illinois school reveals two frightening facts about Spry. Not a single one of its 88 kids at the school can read at grade level. It’s the same for math. Zero kids are proficient.

Spry is one of 30 schools in Illinois where not a single student can read at grade level. Twenty-two of those schools are part of the Chicago Public Schools and the other eight are outside Chicago.

The failure list in math is even longer. There are 53 schools statewide where not one kid is proficient in math.

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Why are “gun safety” activists opposed to teaching real gun safety?

Even though groups like Everytown and Moms Demand Action have tried to rebrand themselves as “gun safety advocates” and not anti-gun activists, their definition of “gun safety” boils down to “don’t own a gun.” When it comes to actual training and education, the gun prohibitionists tend to demand a host of mandates for would-be gun owners; requirements that seem less designed to improve safety and more to make it a difficult and burdensome process to exercise your right to keep and bear arms.

When it comes to educating kids about how to be safe and responsible around firearms, however, anti-gunners adopt a strident abstinence-based approach; don’t even mention firearms, and certainly don’t use programs like the NRA’s Eddie Eagle GunSafe program to teach younger kids that if they ever see a gun they should stop, don’t touch, run away, and tell a grown-up. Not because that’s bad advice, but because it’s coming from the NRA.

The anti-education ideology of the gun control lobby is on full display in Kansas, where lawmakers are debating a bill that would allow school districts to adopt a firearms safety and education curriculum for K-12 grades and self-proclaimed gun safety advocates are now demanding kids be kept intentionally ignorant, lest they be brainwashed into supporting the Second Amendment when they’re older.

Moriah Day, executive director of the Kansas State Rifle Association, said the state affiliate of the NRA requested reintroduction of the bill because establishing a unified curriculum for firearm education in public schools was “the only way to counteract the dangerous perspective many young people have from learning about firearms only through violent and careless examples on display across pop culture.”

He said the NRA approach was pragmatic because it acknowledged firearms were part of preparation for dangers of everyday life in the way advice was shared about the being safe while swimming, using electrical outlets or around fire hazards.

Johnson County resident Ephren Taylor III also addressed the Senate committee, but pointed to research indicating the Eddie Eagle program was “absolutely ineffective.” He said lobbying for firearm training in Kansas public schools was part of a campaign to build support for the NRA.

“Let’s be honest,” Taylor said. “We know why we’re choosing the NRA’s program. It’s not about gun safety. It’s about promoting the NRA to young kids so when they grow up they say, ‘Oh, Eddie Eagle. I remember him.’ You want to indoctrinate young kids into loyal NRA supporters.”

Under the Senate bill, the state Board of Education would be compelled to establish curriculum guidelines for firearm safety training conforming to programs offered by the NRA and Department of Wildlife and Parks. A local school board would make the final decision about whether to offer students instruction in gun safety.

If adopted in the 2023 legislative session, the statute would take effect July 1 and the new firearm programs could begin this fall. The Senate bill would require nearly 500,000 students in Kansas schools be afforded an opportunity to study how to responsibly deal with a gun. The anticipated annual cost of the program to the state would be $70,000.

Under the bill, students in kindergarten through grade five would exclusively have access to the NRA’s trademarked Eddie Eagle program. Students in grades six through eight would be in either the Eddie Eagle curriculum or the hunter safety program of the Department of Wildlife and Parks. The state parks department’s Hunter Education In Our Schools Program would be exclusive in grades nine through 12.

The head of the Kansas branch of the National Education Association also objects to the plan, insisting that when it comes to gun safety education schools are not the proper environment, and that any such efforts “ought to be operated outside the school day and outside school buildings.”

Given that the national NEA continues lobbying for all kinds of gun control, including bans on so-called assault weapons and criminalizing firearm transfers without a federal background check, I’m pretty sure that the Kansas chapter would object to any program that doesn’t paint gun ownership in a negative light; even something that completely avoids the political debate over gun control in favor of providing simple tips that can keep kids safe. Though school districts would have to opt-in to providing these programs, even that’s too much for the teacher’s union. If the anti-gunners had their way, the only “gun safety” lessons taught in school would be the talking points of Everytown, March for Our Lives, Brady, and the like shared by educators in their classrooms.

It looks like SB 116 will soon be headed to the Senate floor, and I expect that it will pass with wide margins. So far Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly hasn’t indicated whether she’ll sign the bill if it gets to her desk, however, so a veto-proof majority may be needed if lawmakers want to help school districts provide a real education on firearms safety when kids head back to class in the fall.

Why? The public school indoctrination system

Why 65 Percent of Fourth Graders Can’t Really Read.

On Saturday, I wrote about the 230,000 children who failed to show up for class when public schools reopened after the pandemic. It’s a tragedy without parallel in American history as many of the no-shows are very young — K through 3rd grade. Critical skills learned in early education were not taught to these kids, who are now hopelessly behind.

The pandemic didn’t necessarily cause the problem. It exposed problems that already existed and were exacerbated because of incompetence and, as it turns out, wrongheaded teaching.

Consider the fact that 65% of American fourth-grade students can barely read. This is a result of a radical shift to a new way of teaching children how to read.

What was wrong with the old way? Well, it was old.

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Mississippi Senate passes bill allowing teachers to be armed

Legislation that would allow public and private school teachers in the Magnolia State to be armed has passed the Mississippi Senate.

On Wednesday, Senate Bill 2079, authored by Senator Angela Hill, R-Picayune, passed after receiving 39 yea votes and 13 nay votes.

The bill would establish a School Safety Guardian Training Program, which would be administered by Mississippi Homeland Security under the umbrella of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety (DPS).

Governing bodies of school systems throughout the state would have the autonomy to determine whether or not they will participate in the program. Authorities within participating school districts would either approve or deny permission for a volunteer school employee to be involved in the program.

“If a school wants to put together an armed educator team to work with law enforcement and to be trained to basically assist in the time of an active shooter or some unfortunate situation, the framework is now in place once we get this bill through the House,” Senator Hill said on The Gallo Show.

To participate in the program, one must possess an enhanced or concealed carry permit prior to applying.

According to DPS Commissioner Sean Tindell, once qualified, those participating in the program go through a two-to-three-week training session where they are educated on tactics related to gun safety and proper interaction with the police if a crisis happened to occur.

“They would learn self-defense tactics. They would learn firearm tactics. They would learn communication with law enforcement,” Tindell said on MidDays with Gerard Gibert. “If we’re going to have teachers in schools with a firearm, they’re going to have the proper training and an interaction plan with law enforcement.”

Training would be conducted at the Mississippi Law Enforcement Officer Training Academy in Pearl and led by multiple law enforcement agencies in collaboration with one another.

Iowa student sues over 2A t-shirt suspension

An Iowa high schooler has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that her school district and a civics teacher violated her First Amendment rights by suspending her for wearing a pro-Second Amendment t-shirt to class; a case that could one day have far-reaching implications for students across the country.

In the complaint, which is the topic of today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co, the student (identified by her initials A.B.) alleges that just two days after discussing students’ rights to free speech in class, teacher Thomas Griffin “removed her from class and suspended her” for wearing a t-shirt promoting the Second Amendment, claiming it was “inappropriate”.

Griffin told his students that, although they had some right to free speech, that right was “extremely limited” when the students stepped on school property. Griffin told his students that their teacher (in this case, him) would decide what was acceptable speech in the classroom. And with respect to clothing—which was at the very core of the Tinker case—Griffin told his students that he would not allow students to wear any clothing that depicts guns, alcohol, or any other “inappropriate material.”

A.B. knew that Griffin was wrong about the scope of the First Amendment, so the next time she had Griffin’s government class, September 1, 2022, she wore a shirt to school that said “What part of ‘shall not be infringed’ do you not understand?” with a depiction of a rifle underneath it.

A.B. had worn the shirt to school before, with no complaints from students, teachers, or administrators. And A.B.’s brother, who graduated from Johnston High School in 2019, had worn the same shirt to school multiple times with no complaints.

Griffin, who teaches the Bill of Rights, knew that shirt was quoting the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and he knew it was a commentary on gun control efforts. Nevertheless, he claimed that the shirt violated the school’s dress code and he removed A.B. from the classroom, sending her to the school administration office.

A.B. told Griffin she had a right to wear the shirt, which was not causing any disruption in the class—other than any disruption Griffin himself created by removing A.B. from the classroom. But Griffin said she was wrong about the First Amendment and that the administration would back him up.

As you can see, there are no depictions of violence on the shirt worn by A.B., but the school administration did indeed originally stand by Griffin’s actions, suspending her after she refused to change her shirt in order to return to class.

The lawsuit alleges that later that evening, however, A.B.’s mom Janet Bristow received a call from the school district’s superintendent to apologize for their actions, as well as a similar mea culpa from Chris Billings, the Executive Director of School Leadership.

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Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will BAN drag shows in the state to ‘protect kids’ – after already putting limits on teaching critical race theory in classrooms

  • Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will sign a bill banning drag shows from areas accessible by minors in order to ‘protect kids’
  • The bill would ultimately do away with drag storytime performances, which sees drag queens reading to students for free at public libraries
  • It’s Sanders’ latest move amid the US culture wars after she issued limits on teaching critical race theory in schools

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is set to ban drag shows in order to ‘protect’ children after already cracking down on critical race theory in schools.

Sanders and her supporters said the bill, which would re-define drag shows as ‘adult-oriented performances,’ is meant to protect social values as it bans the shows from public areas with children despite outcry from the LGBTQ community.

Alexa Henning, a spokeswoman for the governor, said the bill was not aimed at ‘banning anything,’ but rather about ‘protecting kids’ from ‘sexually explicit drag shows.’

‘Only in the radical left’s woke dystopia is it not appropriate to protect kids,’ Henning told The Washington Post.

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Still Need Proof of LGBT Grooming in Schools?

According to Wikipedia, “LGBT grooming” is a conspiracy theory perpetuated by “the far right.”

“Since the early 2020s, conservatives and members of the far-right, mostly in the United States, have falsely accused LGBT people, as well as their allies and progressives in general, of systematically using LGBT-positive education and campaigns for LGBT rights as a method of child grooming,” claims Wikipedia. “These accusations and conspiracy theories are characterized by experts as baseless, homophobic and transphobic, and as examples of moral panic.”

Except, they’re not baseless at all. We’ve been reporting on LGBT child grooming for some time now at PJ Media, and we know it’s not a conspiracy theory. The reason why the radical left opposes the use of the word “groomer” when we discuss Drag Queen Story Hours, transgender closets, and porn in school libraries is because the word is accurate. They don’t want us to believe that it’s happening, but it is.

The latest story comes out of Portland, Maine, where a male middle school substitute teacher who identifies as transgender intentionally shared his highly sexualized TikTok account with sixth-grade students.

According to a report from Reduxx, Chris “Lydia” Lamere “wrote his TikTok handle on the whiteboard at the front of the classroom and encouraged students to ‘check it out.’” Students proceeded to visit his page and started circulating his videos, which were suggestive and sexual in nature.

We know this is not an isolated incident. Stuff like this is happening across the country, and yet, the liberal media and big tech want to pretend that LGBT grooming is a conspiracy we just made up. It would be nice if it were made up. It would be nice not to have to worry about whether degenerates are deliberately exposing our kids to sexual content or trying to recruit them into the trans cult. According to a report from The Maine Wire, the local NBC News affiliate covered for Lamere by falsely reporting that students just happened to “discover” his TikTok account. So, not only are groomers infiltrating public schools, but the media is actually refusing to tell the real story.

That the children are apparently purposefully deluded by their instructors and not taught that SCOTUS took care of this in 2008 in Heller, simply shows that it’s not teaching, but indoctrination

Also, JIC:

The meaning of the phrase “well-regulated” in the 2nd amendment

Anti-gun op-ed by student hardly the gotcha she thinks it is

Every now and then, we see some person who thinks they’re clever, only to trot out a tired, debunked argument that they’re sure is a “gotcha” moment.

That’s especially true with anti-gun arguments, of course.

I recently came across an op-ed written by a Los Angeles high school student that treads a particularly tired argument.

Titled, “Opinion: The 2nd Amendment requires gun regulation,” you already know it’s going to be good.

How can we decrease gun violence?

According to the 2nd Amendment, since “[a] well regulated Militia [is]…necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Although people have the right to bear arms for their own protection as stated in the Constitution, the Second Amendment also clearly states that this is based on the need for a “well regulated Militia”, not based on random people being able to have guns.

This can be interpreted to mean that no one except for law enforcement should have more than a number of guns or ammunition, because the right to bear arms is for a “well regulated Militia”. People do not need 10 guns to protect themselves from danger, and they certainly won’t need a gun that can shoot 600 bullets per minute either, like the AK-47 as detailed in Britannica.

If we limit a certain amount of guns per person, making sure that gun owners are “well regulated”, then the chance of a mass shooting will be less likely as a gun owner could only own a specific amount of guns and also have “regulated” ways to use them.

I’m sure the author and her teachers are very proud of her for this argument. Too bad it’s an anti-gun argument debunked ages ago by people far better versed in constitutional law than she is.

First, the phrase “well-regulated” means “properly functioning.”

Second, the militia refers to the whole body of free people who can be called upon to defend our nation. While many argue that this means the National Guard today, if you take a look at the Militia Act, you’ll see the unorganized militia is still people within a given age range who aren’t currently serving in the military or eligible for call-up.

Further, the young author here is illustrating just how poor the American educational system actually is, because she clearly didn’t grasp the totality of the Second Amendment.

See, she’s doing what many anti-gunners do, which is focus on the militia clause. Yet the rest of the amendment read, “the people’s right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

“[S]hall not be infringed.” That part alone debunks the entire premise on which the author based her work. It doesn’t say the right to keep and bear arms shall only be for militia purposes. It explicitly states that it shall not be interfered with by lawmakers.

I don’t blame her, though. I blame her teachers.

It seems no one adequately educated her about the context surrounding the Second Amendment. She likely was never taught about our Founding Fathers’ innate distrust of standing armies, or how they believed any government had the potential to become tyrannical unless held in check by the citizenry.

They never taught her how the Bill of Rights came to be, how many of the amendments were a direct response to actions carried out by the British, and how the Founding Fathers wanted to make sure their new nation wouldn’t go down that same road.

That includes removing arms from law-abiding citizens.

“But you don’t need 10 guns,” she argues, yet the Second Amendment doesn’t call for such anti-gun regulation as she claims. It explicitly precludes any such regulation by saying our right shall not be infringed.

It seems clear that this young woman hasn’t been taught by her teachers. Not about history and likely not even how to think for herself.

Will Phobias About AR-15s Keep Schools From Adopting This Innovative Product?

Time is of the essence in mass public shootings. Civilians and police stop a lot of mass murders by carrying handguns, but sometimes you need a larger round than is available in a traditional handgun. It often simply isn’t practical to carry around a rifle. And school staff might not have time to run to a locker to retrieve the needed gun.

Andrew Pollack, whose 18-year-old daughter, Meadow, died in the 2018 Parkland school mass murder that left 17 people dead, is fighting to give school districts the tools they need. Byrna, a company that makes innovative self-defense tools, has donated eight backpacks containing collapsible AR-15s to Pollack’s “Meadows Movement” nonprofit. These guns fire .223 caliber rifle rounds and are more powerful than traditional handguns.

On January 4th, Pollack will give the backpacks to the Bradford County Sheriff’s Office for use by school resource officers (SROs) and Will Hartley, superintendent of Bradford County Schools.

“The folding rifle is easy to carry throughout the day for a school resource officer inside the bulletproof backpack,” Pollack said. “The seconds to get minutes lost retrieving a rifle from a locker vs. pulling the bulletproof backpack into a vest and having the rifle on hand equates to the number of lives that could have been saved.”

The school superintendent echoes his comments. “I wish more people could have it,” Hartley notes. “Because if someone comes on your campus and they have a long gun, we need to be able to meet their force with the same kind of force.”

Bradford County Schools is smart enough to have multiple layers of protection. Even when school resource officers are in the right place at the right time, they have a tough job. Uniformed guards may as well be holding neon signs saying, “Shoot me first.” Attackers know that once they kill the sheriff’s deputy, they have free rein to go after everybody else.

To prevent that, the Bradford County schools are part of Florida’s Guardian Program. As in nineteen other states, teachers and staff are trained to use guns to protect people. But their guns are concealed. Permit holders make guards’ very difficult job easier. If an attacker tries to kill a school resource officer, he reveals his position and makes himself a target to someone with a concealed handgun. As with concealed handgun permit holders generally, the whole point is that the attacker doesn’t know who else he needs to worry about.

Instead of a sign in front of these schools saying “Gun Free School Zone,” they are replaced with signs warning: “Please be aware that certain staff members at Bradford County Schools can be legally armed and may use whatever force is necessary to protect our students.”

But, unfortunately, there are plenty of schools around the country that haven’t learned the lessons that Bradford County has. And these backpacks, with their built-in bullet-resistant vests and ARs will help protect school resource officers from surprise attacks from behind them and will give them more potent firepower if they get into a firefight with attackers. In literally just a couple of seconds, the bullet-resistant vest can also be put on their front side.

Technically these guns are called AR-pistols rather than AR-15s, but the difference in terms is entirely arbitrary and results from nonsensical government regulations on how to define a rifle. Instead of a stock, an AR-15 pistol usually has a tube, but the two guns are functionally identical.

Pollack so believes in Byrna’s products that he is now their chief public safety officer.

It will be a shame if school districts’ phobias about AR-15s prevent them from taking advantage of this innovative product.

Andrew Pollack Teams up with Byrna to Make Florida Schools Safer

On January 4, 2022, Parkland father Andrew Pollack’s 501c3 “Meadows Movement” will be donating eight backpacks, each containing an AR pistol, to Florida’s Bradford County Sheriff’s Office for use in Bradford County schools.

Pollack lost his 18-year-old daughter, Meadow, in the heinous criminal attack that claimed 17 lives at Marjory Stoneman High School on February 14, 2018.

He says he founded “Meadows Movement” as a way to fight to “[ensure] sure that other parents never have to go through what I (and so many other parents) have had to endure.”

When Pollack presents the backpacks to the Bradford County Sheriff’s Office, each one will be coupled with an Adams Arms AR pistol.

The backpacks/AR pistol combination means sheriff’s personnel serving as school resource officers (SROs) will not have to run to a locker or a patrol car in order to retrieve a firearm chambered in a round larger than a traditional handgun. Instead, the AR pistol will be on their person and immediately accessible.  This saves time and time saves lives.

By the way, the backpacks are also equipped with body armor to help protect the SROs as they confront and stop attackers.

The backpacks were donated to “Meadows Movement” by Byrna, a company focused on self-defense tools.

Pollack told Breitbart News, “I was fortunate enough to link up with Byrna, which is such a great company. They have the same vision as I do. They to save lives and give law enforcement the tools to even the playing field against evil.” (Pollack and Byrna have grown so close via their work together for safer schools that he is now their chief public safety officer.)

Breitbart News also spoke with Will Hartley, the superintendent of Bradford County Schools. Hartley noted that his district has a total of six facilities and those already have certain teachers and staff who are armed for classroom defense.

He believes the addition the SROs with the AR pistols is an added–and necessary–layer of protection to keep kids safe.

Hartley said, “I wish more people could have it. Because, if someone comes on your campus and they have a long gun, we need to be able to meet their force with the same kind of force. The backpacks with AR pistols fit perfectly with our belief that if someone comes on your campus we should have every right to stop that threat with whatever means necessary.”

Hartley’s desire for other school districts to be prepared was echoed by Pollack, who stressed that “Meadows Movement” has more funding available to help other police departments and/or school districts get life-saving tools into the hands of SROs.

Educator brags about indoctrinating kids, then complains about ‘right-wing’ reporting on it.

[Yep, that kind of weirdo is what some people let teach their children]

Believes right-wing is ‘legitimately trying to bring down our democracy’ A Chicago-area high school “literacy coach” recently recorded a video of herself in which she admits to indoctrinating the students in her charge.Fox News reports Crete-Monee High’s Heather Marie Godbout (pictured), a member of the school’s Equity Team, also rips “right-wing conspiracy theorist nut jobs” in her video and notes she is opposed to traditional grading policies — because grades get “conflated with other things that aren’t actually learning, like effort or ‘work ethic,’ whatever that means.”“All you right wing conspiracy theory nut jobs who seem to think the teachers are out here just indoctrinating children into some sort of woke agenda that you can’t actually define, I’m just going to come clean,” Godbout says. “I am, in fact, indoctrinating your children.”

“I’m indoctrinating children into understanding their own agency and learning how to think critically about the issues that impact their lives… I am indoctrinating children into wanting to be productive citizens of the world… So that’s what I’m doing. I’m indoctrinating them. You’re 100% right.”

In response to a commenter who asks why she appears so angry, Godbout says believes conservatives “are legitimately trying to bring down our democracy,” create “a Christian nationalist theocracy” and “literally un-alive people.” Thus, they aren’t worthy of respect.

In a follow-up video, Godbout complains she is the latest “teacher on TikTok” targeted by Fox News Digital. But she says while Fox News’s article about her is supposed to be “insulting,” she doesn’t actually consider it so.

“I’m fine … my administrators fully support my First Amendment rights to free speech on my own social media platforms,” Godbout says. She notes she’s received only a few “nasty-grams” from people who had bothered to look up her school email, including one from a “Phil McCracken.”

Godbout also points out given how strong tenure and teachers’ unions are in Illinois, any controversy over her remarks have been but a “blip.”

“Ive really had no negative repercussions,” she says. “But … this brings up the larger point about teachers and our ability to speak truth to power and to try to make sure we are creating schools that are, um, equitable and safe and helping to create the society we all want to live in.”

Godbout claims queer teachers, teachers of color and teachers who work in union-weak states face a “chilling effect” with (right-leaning) news outlets reporting on them: “All of this … bullying is designed to shut us up so that [conservatives] can continue to push their agenda.”

I’ve always said that if demoncraps didn’t have double standards, they wouldn’t have any standards at all.

Democrats’ double standard on constitutional amendments

Ballot measures to impose new gun control laws? Democrats love ’em, even when the courts question their constitutionality. But when Republicans turn to voter referendums and constitutional amendments to strengthen the Second Amendment, as they’re doing in Montana, Democrats declare an “existential crisis” is at hand.

Thanks to the midterm elections, Republicans in the state now enjoy a supermajority in both legislative chambers as well as the governor’s office. That gives them the numbers (on paper, anyway) to start the ball rolling on amending the state’s constitution, and several lawmakers are already looking at one area they say is in desperate need of reform: the unfettered power given to the state’s Board of Regents in establishing rules and policies governing public colleges and universities in Montana.

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Biden admin disbands ‘fake’ parents council after pushback from parental rights groups

WASHINGTON (CITC) — The Biden administration is disbanding its newly formed national parents council after several advocacy groups accused it of violating federal law.

The National Parents and Families Engagement Council was formed in June as a way to “facilitate strong and effective relationships between schools and parents, families and caregivers.” Representatives were handpicked by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to help the agency engage with communities at the local level.

Less than a month later, the Biden administration was hit with a lawsuit by parental rights groups claiming the council was ideologically divisive. Plaintiffs Parents Defending Education (PDE), America First Legal (AFL) and Fight for Schools and Families (FFS) noted that members of the council included those who stood by a National Schools Boards Association (NSBA) letter that likened concerned parents at school board meetings to “domestic terrorists.”

The lawsuit also argued the council failed to meet other various federal requirements, including open and transparent public meetings and public oversight.

The DOE appeared to concede Monday, as it announced that while it “disagrees” with the notion that it violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), it will no longer move forward with the council.

“Parental rights and voices matter,” the announcement reads. “That’s a clear and consistent message we hear from education stakeholders throughout our nation, whether they’re parents themselves, students or educators, or partners in government or the private sector.”

The DOE added that it strives to hear from “as many parents as possible” and that it recognizes the concern shared by all for the future of American students, regardless of political, social and cultural backgrounds.

The three groups behind the lawsuit have quickly taken to social media to celebrate the victory.

“Parents should NEVER be used as political props to advance radical policies that harm students,” PDE founder and president Nicole Neily, who calls the outcome a “huge win,” reacted on Twitter.

How to Stop School Shootings

My heart sinks every time I see breaking-news graphics announce another school shooting. It’s like a gut-punch — the lost lives, the suffering of the wounded, the horrors the First Responders must encounter, and the families that will never again be whole.

The blame and blood-dancing usually start before the bodies are even recovered. The talking heads call to ban or further regulate firearms, magazines or accessories in common usage, as if the contents of my gun safe located thousands of miles from the crime scene somehow played a role in the killings.

Politicians will gleefully announce new infringements, none of which could have prevented the mass murder, but that is never their intent. They were eagerly awaiting another opportunity to do something that will score points with their base and their donors, as well as disarm law-abiding Americans.

Keep in mind that more than three-times as many people die each year from excessive alcohol use than from firearms, yet no one is calling to ban bourbon or vodka, because the booze-ban industry died on Dec. 5, 1933, while the gun-ban industry sputters on. Their misguided efforts have no chance of ever stopping mass murders because they are solely fixated on banning an inanimate object, while ignoring the person pulling the trigger and those who help facilitate the crime.

In my humble opinion, if we truly want to stop school shootings we should harden the staff, not just the buildings, and we should focus on the other bad actors, too, not just the trigger-pullers. It’s time to start holding parents, law enforcement and the legacy media strictly accountable — criminally, morally and very publicly — for aiding and abetting these preventable deaths.

Continue reading “”

Go woke (sow to the wind) and reap the whirlwind.
Actually I kinda like this. Rub their noses in this hard enough and they seem to get the idea.

Average HS male runner becomes top-ranked female after gender transition.

‘Deprives other girls’ teams of the chance to compete at State’

A Washington State high school student who, as a male, ranked 72nd in boys’ track, vaulted up to the number-one spot as a female following gender transition.

Libs of Tik Tok reports that Seattle Academy’s Aspen Hoffman made this incredible improvement between her freshman and sophomore years.

During the former, Hoffman finished 72nd in the cross-country finals; in the latter, she finished first and broke Seattle Academy’s girls’ 5,000 meter record.

Hoffman’s first-place time in the girls’ finals would have gotten her 48th place in the boys’ division.

Libs of Tik Tok spoke to some coaches and several parents who aren’t very happy with the situation.

“[A]llowing [Hoffman] to compete against biological girls deprives other girls’ teams of the chance to compete at State (which is a big deal),” a coach in the Emerald Sound Conference said.

Another coach said “This is just about fairness in female sports. It would be just as insane if we made a girl who’s transitioning to be a boy compete against the girls.”

The father of a female competitor said “[Hoffman] is larger than any of the girls, and shamelessly takes 1st place on the podium. Now my daughter is competing against a male for scholarships. And we can’t even say anything. You can’t even approach it in a nice way without being labeled a hateful bigot. You will get threats against you.”

Another parent asked “What about [Hoffman’s] teammate that was bumped off the varsity? These girls are losing their opportunity to not just get to state but maybe earn a scholarship.”

Washington State’s guidelines for transgender athletes have evolved considerably over the last 15 years. Initially they required athletes to undergo surgery and two years of hormone therapy; eleven years later, the surgery mandate was lifted and only “documented testosterone suppression therapy” was required.

But last year, “disregard[ing] all scientific reasoning,” the only thing the state required of a transgender athlete is that they “consistently express” a gender.

Even more troubling to students and parents, WIAA eliminated aggrieved students and competing schools’ right to even question the participation of a trans student in female sports.

The rationale behind the changes was outlined in the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s 2021 Gender Diversity Toolkit where they inaccurately argue trans athletes on teams have “not been shown to diminish opportunities for others” and that there are “no competitive advantages.”

US Women’s Soccer star Megan Rapinoe took a different tack earlier this year saying “We’re talking about people’s lives. I’m sorry, your kid’s high school volleyball team just isn’t that important. It’s not more important than any one kid’s life.”

Rapinoe is referring to the higher suicide rate among transgender individuals. In other words, as the University of Idaho student paper put it, “whether or not a team wins or loses, human lives are more important than the biological sex of team members.”

Governor wants money to arm teachers, staff inside Mississippi schools

JACKSON, Miss. — Gov. Tate Reeves said he wants Mississippi lawmakers to put up more money to put armed teachers and staff inside schools.

The governor released his 2024 Executive Budget recommendation Tuesday for the coming legislative session. Included in the recommendations is a program called the Mississippi School Safety Guardian Program, which Reeves said is in response to a rash of school shootings across the nation.

Under the proposal, teachers or staff members would be nominated by the school district to undergo a thorough training program on active shooter situations and issued a gun, holster and bullets. The Mississippi Department of Public Safety would train the selected staff members.

“While law enforcement is the best-case scenario, having someone who is on the scene trained with a firearm that could possibly stop a shooter before more lives are lost is a good thing to have,” said Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell.

The governor’s plan pays $500 a month to the personnel who are trained for the enhanced safety role.

Akemi Stout, president of the Jackson Federation of Teachers, doesn’t support the proposal.

“How can this be to be so important to arm educators? People are afraid of their guns, so imagine if there is an instant where there is an armed intruder in the school and that person freezes, or the gun is taken from them,” Stout said.

Supporters point to the Pearl High School shooting, where an assistant school principal retrieved his weapon from his car to stop the shooter.

Also included in the governor’s budget recommendations are eliminating the state income tax, advancing the “new pro-life agenda,” giving Mississippi children “a first-rate education,” lowering health care costs and building a “high-quality” workforce.

“Our ultimate aim is straightforward: to advance responsible policies that lay the foundation of a strong society and allow Mississippians to flourish,” Reeves said in a statement. “We will maximize freedom, we will protect your rights and safety, and we will build a future that every Mississippian can be proud of. In other words, my budget continues to put you – the taxpayer – first.”

Lawmakers return to the Capitol in January for the start of the session.

List: 11 solutions to thwart school shootings

George Washington University legal advocate John Banzhaf has long led fights for public health, including on smoking, obesity, and discrimination.

But few knew he also has expertise in security, as a former security officer and consultant, career highlights he tapped today to call for major changes in school security to thwart shootings such as the one that killed three at the University of Virginia Sunday night.

While an advocate for arming some teachers, Banzhaf said he realizes that is a sensitive topic in some cities, so he has prepared a list of 11 solutions that are quick to deploy to stop the next shooter from harming students in classrooms.

“Most schools — including many which, like the one in Uvalde (Texas), had been ‘hardened’ — are ill-prepared for an armed intruder, lacking even such basic precautions as classrooms which can be locked from the inside, simple magnetic door-open sensors linked to a WiFi system of the type used in millions of homes,” he said in an email.

Banzhaf passed along his new security list of easy fixes that he published last month in University World News. “Those in charge of educational institutions, as well as those who teach there, should carefully consider taking some simple, proven, and inexpensive steps to substantially improve safety and reduce the chance that they and-or their students will be injured — or possibly even killed — by an active shooter on campus,” he wrote.

The Banzhaf Security List:

  1. Install classroom doors that can be locked from the inside.
  2. Mark each room with an easy-to-find identification and make up-to-date floor plans easily available for first responders.
  3. Provide all administrators and campus police officers with master keys.
  4. Get police door-opening tools such as the Halligan carried by firefighters.
  5. Install magnetic door-open sensors so administrators can see which doors are open or properly closed in schools.
  6. Make it easy to text via cellphone in an emergency.
  7. Distribute kits to help quickly stop the type of bleeding left by standard AR-15 rounds.
  8. On school apps, make sure it’s easy to find ways to contact police and officials in an active shooting case.
  9. Install one-way peepholes in office and other doors.
  10. Make a limited availability of guns and post signs stating, “Warning, some professors are armed.”
  11. Supply nonlethal weapons, such as bear spray or poles.

“To limit the carnage caused by active shooters, as well as the massive resulting potential legal liability, colleges, and universities, both in the U.S. and abroad, should consider taking a number of simple and inexpensive (and therefore reasonable) steps to reduce the risk, and the harm which is expected to be caused this year by active shooters,” said Banzhaf.