Michigan student suspended for wearing 'I'm straight' sticker

A Christian student has been punished by his Michigan high school for demonstrating opposition to a school event celebrating the homosexual lifestyle. The boy's father, a pastor, says he's frustrated the rights of Christian students are being constantly trampled on campus.

Oakridge High School in Muskegon, Michigan, is one of many schools across the U.S. that took part in Wednesday's "National Day of Silence" -- an event promoted heavily by homosexual activist groups, which view it as a day to protest alleged discrimination faced by students who identify as "gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender (GLBT)." At Oakridge High, duct tape was passed out for students to wear over their lips as a way to show solidarity with homosexual students who are purportedly suffering in silence.

John Gardner is pastor of Holton Family Life Worship Center in Holton, a community of approximately 2,500 about 17 miles northeast of Muskegon. Pastor Gardner says his 15-year-old son David, a student at Oakridge High, was suspended for a day by the school because he wrote with a black marker "I'm straight" on a piece of duct tape and attached it to his shirt. He explains that David donned the message to voice his objection to the school's participation in the Day of Silence. "They asked him, at that point, to take it off," Gardner says, "and David [asked] why do the rest of the kids in the class get to wear theirs and I can't wear something about what I believe?" According to the pastor, the teacher then instructed David to remove the message or he would be "kicked out" of class. "And he said, 'Well then, you'll have to kick me out' -- and that's what they did," says David's father.

Pastor Gardner says every week he preaches that the day is coming when opposition to homosexuality will be banned, but he never imagined it would happen in his small Michigan town. He says a "liberal mentality" is being pushed in public schools to the extent many children are being indoctrinated with it. It is time, says the Michigan pastor, for Christians to step to the forefront. "I tell you, I fear what's coming in the next ten years for the Church and the schools -- and children, in general -- if the Christians don't come out of their closet," he says. "The gays and lesbians want to come out of their closet; I think the Church needs to come out of their closet and stand up and be the Body of Christ that God has told it to be." Gardner states he has not decided whether to take legal action against Oakridge High School.

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"Urban": The new race preference loophole

Post recycled from La Shawn Barber's blog -- which see for links

Some schools are taking pre-emptive action against Department of Justice (DOJ) investigations and private citizen lawsuits by removing blatantly illegal, racially exclusive language from scholarships and replacing it with the new descriptor, "urban." Urban, of course, is code for "black." Northeastern University has opened its Ujima Scholars program to all students, but with a catch. The program will target students from an "urban background."

Questions like, "If Northeastern is already predominately a White university, why should the Ujima programs be used for White students?" uttered by Lula Petty-Edwards, director of the school's African American Institute, are totally irrelevant to the illegality of racially exclusive scholarships. Northeastern, a private research university, receives federal (taxpayer-funded) grants. That brings it within the purview of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ("No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.") In that regard, the school also may want to remove racially exclusive language from other scholarships and fellowships.

I have outlined reasons why I'm against government-mandated race preferences of any kind ad nauseam. If private organizations supported by something or someone other than taxpayers wish to treat people differently based on skin color, that's their business. But the government has no business in the skin color game. Just ask people who lived through Jim Crow, not the pampered fools of my generation whose only example of "racist" treatment is some white sales clerk looking at them "funny." New readers, check out the Race Preferences archive and some of my columns.

Finally, after decades of institutionalized, government-mandated, racially exclusive programs and race-based policies, in violation of the U.S. Constitution, fairness, and decency, citizens are rising up. No matter how much liberals crow on and on about the value of "diversity" - though none has shown or proved or quantified the value of it - such practices cannot be justified, not even on the basis of historical grievances, let alone federal and state laws.

What's happening at Northeastern is a sign of things to come. In February, the Urban Journalism Workshop opened its program to all students after being sued. The powers that be accepted a white student for a summer workshop but rescinded the acceptance after finding out she was white. The workshop had been open only to "minorities." By the way, "minorities" also is code for black, with hispanic thrown in for good measure. Although Asians are a minority in the U.S., they are not "preferred" racial minorities in most cases. And whites are minorities in some cities and states, but you'll never, in your wildest dreams, hear any liberal advocating for skin color preferences on their behalf. (Example: Whites are a minority in the nation's capital. If being a minority simply means you're a member of an "underrepresented" racial group, based on the city's population, whites ought to be receiving all sorts of government goodies like set-aside contracts because they're white. That's obviously discriminatory, right? Well, so is the situation in reverse.)

Last year, DOJ threatened Southern Illinois University with a discrimination lawsuit for offering racially exclusive fellowships. The school settled with DOJ by opening up the fellowships to all students. As long as government programs and policies designed to benefit blacks aren't racially exclusive - barring other races from participating or benefiting - I don't have too many issues with them. The designation "urban" is a compromise of sorts. Having said that, I deeply resent any person, program, or policy that implies blacks should be judged by lowered standards for any reason - poverty, fatherlessness, ignorance, legacy of slavery, hormones, the weather, whatever.





MUSLIM DEMANDS

Last week, I wrote about Minneapolis Community and Technical College's proposal to install ritual washing facilities to facilitate Muslim prayer. Is this a tempest in a teapot, as some have suggested? Canada, our neighbor to the north, is farther down the "accommodations" road. A glance north can shed light on whether prayer spaces and ritual washing facilities are likely to satisfy activists for long.

Last month, the Canadian Federation of Students issued a report, titled "Final Report of the Task Force on Needs of Muslim Students," that calls for sweeping changes at the country's institutions of higher education. The federation represents more than 500,000 students across Canada, about half of the nation's total. While the report focuses on Ontario, its conclusions are applicable across the country and internationally, said Jesse Greener, the Federation's Ontario chairperson.

Some recommended changes could affect all students. For example, the report criticizes Canada's loan-based system of financing higher education and calls for outright grants to students. "Education related government loans should not accumulate interest," it says, since Islam "opposes usury and involvement with interest-bearing loans." Other changes would be more focused. The report endorses "women-only" time at athletic facilities, and urges colleges to "provide curtains or screens over the observation windows" when women are using the pool.

The report calls not just for Muslim-only prayer space but for "multiple prayer spaces" with "easy access" from all over campus. All new building plans should include prayer space and ritual washing facilities if necessary, it adds. Food service workers must learn to prepare halal food, which is ritually slaughtered and otherwise permissible under Sharia law. After preparing non-halal food, staff must "change sanitary gloves and wash cutlery and surfaces" to avoid contaminating halal food.

What if a campus fails to make these changes, and others like them? It is guilty, says the report, of "Islamophobia" -- an "emerging form of racism," according to the Ontario Human Rights Commission. Islamophobia includes more than clearly inappropriate behavior such as violence against Muslims or unreasonable suspicion of them. It can be as "subtle" as a remark that includes a "stereotype" or betrays the speaker's "lack of understanding" of Islam (such as the notion that Sharia law treats women as second class citizens). Just "one comment" of this kind can create a "poisoned" learning environment for Muslim students, the report says.

"Islamophobic" comments will soon land Canadians in serious trouble, if the federation has its way. The report outlines a comprehensive system "to encourage and facilitate a culture of reporting Islamophobia on campus. Anti-discrimination officers should be notified whenever such a comment is made, it says.

But the report makes clear that systems like this will not eradicate Islamophobia from Canadian campuses. To remove stereotypes, faculty, staff, students and administrators must all learn "the tenets of Islam," it said. "Education modules" for professors should incorporate a focus on "Islam and Islamophobia," while student activities could range from more courses on themes of the Qur'an and the Islamic world today to "socials, programs and other initiatives" to teach about Islam. Everyone on campus should learn to recognize his or her "collective responsibility to identify and stop Islamophobia."

Throughout this process, however, Islam must not be taught from a "Western perspective." This qualifies as Islamophobia, because it "misrepresents Islam." At the same time, the report says, some Muslim students have called for integrating "Islamic perspectives" in disciplines such as marketing, nursing and finance," since Islam's view of these differs from those of the West.

The Muslim Students Association of the U.S. and Canada is heavily involved in the Canadian Federation of Students' new report and lobbying. Its president is a member of the task force, and has been a spokesman for its recommendations. The association is the organization that Minneapolis Community and Technical College has looked to for guidance on the ritual washing issue.

Source

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here. For times when blogger.com is playing up, there are mirrors of this site here and here.

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