Louisiana state Rep. Dodie Horton (R) was successful last year in getting "In God We Trust" displayed in every classroom in the state. She went a step further this year, introducing a bill that would require K-12 public schools, colleges, and universities to display the Ten Commandments on campus and in the classroom.
House Bill 71 was wildly successful in both chambers of the state legislature, passing 82-19 in an April House vote, then 30-8 in a state Senate vote last month — with all opposing Senate votes cast by Democrats.
Horton told "Washington Watch with Tony Perkins" after the vote, "Our children deserve all that we can give them. I've been wanting to get God back in the classrooms since ... removed many moons ago. So this is progress and it's just a great day for our Louisiana students."
Republican state Rep. Michael Bayham, one of the bill's authors, told the Washington Post, "It's our foundational law."
"The Ten Commandments is as much about civilization and right and wrong," continued Bayham. "It does not say you have to be this particular faith or that particular faith."
Despite threats of legal action and subversion from leftists and other anti-religion groups — who are otherwise keen to have LGBT propaganda and pride displays exhibited in school settings — Republican Gov. Jeff Landry ratified the legislation Wednesday, saying, "If you want to respect the rule of law, you've got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses. ... He got his Commandments from God."
Landry was evidently unswayed by the concern-mongering of various anti-religion groups, including the New York-based Center for Inquiry. The CFI implored the governor to veto the legislation, telling him in a June 14 letter that a failure to do so leaves Louisiana classrooms with a "dishonorable distinction."
The out-of-state anti-religion group said the introduction of framed pictures of historical documents aback the classroom amounted to "force-feeding public school students ... religious doctrine." The CFI suggested further that the law didn't reflect the will of voters, even though Louisiana voters elected the lawmakers and the governor who ultimately passed the law.
Blaze News previously reported that the law requires every public school governing authority and the governing authority of each nonpublic school that receives state funds to display the Ten Commandments "in each building it uses and classroom in each school under its jurisdiction."
Each governing authority has some latitude regarding the nature of the display; however, the Ten Commandments must feature prominently in a framed document at least 11 inches by 14 inches. The text, which must be "printed in a large, easily readable font," is to read:
The Ten Commandments[:] I AM the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven images. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.
The displays are to be accompanied by a "context statement" noting that the Commandments "were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries," "were also included in public school textbooks published by educator William McGuffey," and "also appeared in textbooks published by Noah Webster."
The ratification of the legislation left the ACLU, the ACLU of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation incensed.
They claimed in a joint statement that the Ten Commandment displays will "send a chilling message to students and families who do not follow the state's preferred version of the Ten Commandments that they do not belong, and are not welcome, in our public schools."
The radical groups, now threatening a lawsuit, glossed over the legislation's stress on the Ten Commandments' historical significance besides its religious importance, and claimed, "Politicians have no business imposing their preferred religious doctrine on students and families in public schools"
'I can't wait to be sued.'
"All students should feel safe and welcome in our public schools," said the anti-Commandments coalition. "H.B. 71 would undermine this critical goal and prevent schools from providing an equal education to all students, regardless of faith."
Gov. Landry made clear while in Nashville Saturday that he's keen on crushing such challenges in court, reported the Tennessean.
"I'm going home to sign a bill that places the Ten Commandments in public classrooms," said Landry. "And I can't wait to be sued."
In anticipation of legal challenges from those prickled by timeless prohibitions against murder, stealing, adultery, lying, dishonoring parents, and idolatry, state Sen. Jay Morris made sure to include amendments to the bill highlighting the U.S. Supreme Court's recognition in 2005 that "it is permissible to display the Ten Commandments on government property."
In a 5-4 decision, the court found in Van Orden v. Perry that "simply having religious content or promoting a message consistent with a religious doctrine does not run afoul of the establishment clause."
Extra to noting a previous legislative allowance for the publication of the Ten Commandments "and other historically significant documents for posting in court houses and other public buildings to address 'a need to educate and inform the public as to the history and background of American and Louisiana law,'" Morris noted the Supreme Court's 2019 recognition of the Ten Commandments' significance.
Schools have until Jan. 1, 2025, to get their classrooms in order.
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A father in Loudoun County, Virginia, tore into American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten this week after the union boss claimed that a growing parental rights movement in America could lead to civil war.
Brandon Michon — an outspoken parent who is also running for Congress as a Republican in Virginia's 10th district — told Fox News on Monday that union heads and school boards across the country are the ones who started the conflict by pushing progressive ideologies in schools.
"They've already invaded the classroom," Michon charged.
"When you think about it, [the union] colluded with the CDC, colluded with the DOJ and this administration on calling parents domestic terrorists," he said.
Michon, who has four children under the age of 10, accused Loudoun County Public Schools and other progressive school districts of pushing their radical views surrounding sexual orientation, gender identity, and critical race theory on children without consent from parents.
"They have to have signed permission slips for their snacks, they have to have signed permission slips to go on field trips, but no one is asking me for permission to talk about my son’s penis," he exclaimed. "It is unacceptable. They are pushing indoctrination on the most innocent part of the population."
The special interest groups and unions invaded education a long time ago. Parents will continue to advocate for a proper education of our children. \n\nWhen elected I will investigate you @rweingarten \n\nJoin us May 21st so we can get this country back on track. \n\n#VA10 @FoxNewspic.twitter.com/Lb6llsB0Vf— Brandon Michon (@Brandon Michon) 1650908192
Weingarten made headlines last week after going off on proponents of the parental rights in education movement in America during an unhinged radio interview.
"We've been very lucky in America, and we in some ways live in a bubble for a long time. This is propaganda. This is misinformation. This is the way in which wars start. This is the way in which hatred starts," the teachers union leader fumed to radio host Rick Smith.
Elsewhere in the discussion, she called backlash against progressive ideology being taught in public schools an "existential threat" to the country and complained that "right-wing extremists" are "exploiting" parents' fears to accomplish political ends.
Weingarten's remarks served as a flash point in the heated battle between parents who want more control over their children's education and the leaders of educational institutions who think they know better.
In recent months, parental outrage over transgender-affirming and critical race theory curricula in schools has culminated in legislation aiming to prevent such unwanted indoctrination. Perhaps the most popular piece of legislation is Florida's House Bill 1557, which bars classroom discussion on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through the third grade and establishes scaleable guidelines for discussion on the subject matter in grades thereafter.
Outraged over what his children were being taught in school, Michon decided to speak up at school board meetings last year. Now he's running for office with a campaign focused on parental empowerment and putting children's interests first.
"The children just want to learn," Michon told Fox News.
"If you want to talk about the biggest equalizer in all of education, literacy. Let’s get back to teaching more literacy. That [lifts] up all socio-economic classes," he argued, adding, "Don’t talk about the vocal minority of parents when there is vocal minority on the other side. We need to renew the focus on our children. Math, science, history, the things that will make them good members of society."
The National Sex Education Standards' updated 2020 guidance is featuring what many parents may consider to be disturbing, indoctrinating sex-related information that public school districts are teaching children from very young ages.
The new standards, according to the report, were conceived by the Future of Sex Education Initiative, a partnership between Advocates for Youth, Answer, and SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change that seeks to "create a national dialogue about the future of sex education and to promote the institutionalization of quality sex education in public school."
According to a Tuesday report from the Federalist's Nick Bell, the sex education "blueprint" is steeped in "extremist sexual ethics" that are "designed to destroy children's innocence" as well as undermine their Christian faith.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a 2016 report noted that approximately 40% of school districts across the country adopted the National Sex Education Standards' 2011 edition — a less extreme version of its 2020 successor.
"The 2020 standards unequivocally endorse abortion at any time, teach the topic starting in sixth grade, and even force teachers to provide information on local abortion clinics to students in ninth grade," Bell wrote. "The standards also insist that children must be allowed to choose their own gender and false pronouns must 'be respected by the adults in their lives.'"
According to the new standards, children as young as kindergarten age should learn about gender identity, while third-grade students should learn about the role of hormone blockers for transgender youth. Teachers should also be equipped to explain masturbation to students as young as just eight years old.
It gets worse from there: Bell noted that sixth-graders — who are often 11 and 12 years old — "must define oral, anal, and vaginal sex as well as the benefits of withdrawing one's penis before ejaculation during intercourse."
Sixth-graders, the groups said, should also learn that people ought not "assume that people with a penis are boys and people with a vagina are girls," and that they should never assume another person's sexual orientation. Students of this age group, according to the guidance, should also attend LGBTQ rallies and challenge themselves and others on ways to combat homophobia. Sixth-graders would also engage in a card game in which cards ask whether various sex acts — "oral sex (mouth on genitals)," "anal sex (penis to anus)" — are considered abstinence.
For seventh-graders, anything but "sperm in vagina" would constitute abstinence, the guidance added, and teachers would demonstrate how to put on a condom.
A lesson for eighth-graders, the guidance added, would encourage anal and oral sex over vaginal sex in order to avoid pregnancy.
The new standards, according to the organization, were "written with a trauma-informed lens; have been infused with principles of reproductive justice, racial justice, social justice, and equity; address social determinants of health and how these can lead to inequitable health outcomes; and take an intersectional approach. This edition uses less cis and heteronormative language that reflects a broader range of relationships and identities."
The updated standards also appear to place parental consent on the back burner and encourage children to demand respect from the adults in their lives when it comes to sexual choice.
“No one else is qualified to label or judge another person's sexual identity, including their sexual orientation or gender identity, and it is important that the language and terms young people use to identify themselves is respected by the adults in their lives," a portion of the report added.
If teachers have to get signed permission slips to take students on field trips, teachers should also have to notify parents if a child is choosing to go by a different name or wrong-sex pronouns.
Mr. Rooney would lose his mind.
At best, AI obscures foundational skills of reading, writing, and thinking. At worst, students develop a crippling dependency on technology.
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