T’is the Season. Not quite Rhode Island, but certainly close enough to us to hit home…
An 8-year-old special-needs child was suspended from school and forced to undergo psychiatric counseling over a picture he drew of Jesus Christ dead on the cross for a Christmas assignment.
School officials in Taunton, Mass., said the picture “violated the code of violence in the school handbook,” said Toni Saunders, an educational consultant on special-needs children with the Associated Advocacy Center who is working with the boy’s family.
“I couldn’t believe what they were telling me,” the boy’s father, Chester Johnson, who also works for the school system as a substitute custodian, told The Washington Times on Tuesday. “I asked her, ‘Are you fooling around?’”
Mr. Johnson said his son, who is a slow reader and has “a little speech problem,” now wants to transfer schools. Mr. Johnson requested that his son not be named.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Ms. Saunders added, referring to the suspension. “This is a very religious family. They felt violated because of this.”
The fracas began Thanksgiving night, when the boy was taken to see a Christmas display at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette in Attleboro, Mass. The next week, on Dec. 2, the boy’s teacher at Lowell M. Maxham Elementary School asked all the students to draw something that reminded them of Christmas, and the pupil drew a crucifix like the one he had seen at the display.
The boy then was taken to the principal’s office and asked why he drew this image.
Read More: The Washington Times
Here is video called “Obama Promised” produced by a liberal group called “Yes We Still Can,” which hammers President Obama for going back on his word to insist that a “Public Option” be in the Democrats’ Health Care Bill. Those on the Left are not pleased with the Senate bill which omits a so-called “Public Option.” One can only hope that their pressure during the bill reconciliation process between the House and Senate can keep the bill from becoming law.
American Thinker: The Liberal Plot against American Education
With troublemakers enjoying near-diplomatic immunity from punishment, schools have no choice but to hire armies of workers to mitigate their impact…and as in any well-formulated, government-financed, make-work scheme, everyone receives a turn at the trough. There will be more social workers, mental health counselors, anti-violence program supervisors and coordinators, role models, and mentors for at-risk students, right on down to more janitors skilled in graffiti removal, school safety officers, technicians to repair vandalized surveillance equipment, classroom assistants to keep an eye on the mischief-makers, and whatever else it takes to staff these prison-like schools…
These extra bodies necessary for maintain dangerous schools are also a windfall for the Democratic Party and its expand-the-state policies. Bloated school payrolls guarantee more dues-paying members to education unions like the NEA and AFT, both central to Democratic fundraising and voting drives. (These unions also supply many delegates to the party’s presidential nominating convention.) They are also a ready-made voter base for erstwhile “education” mayors and governors “committed to helping the children” who all the while push government farther into fiscal insolvency…
Read More: The American Thinker