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Parents Irate over Forced Elementary Gender Identity Curriculum

Parents in Oak Park, California, are condemning a new elementary school curriculum that pushes gender ideology in the classrooms of young children.

“As a parent, absolutely we have the right to choose what’s best for our children and we know it’s going to confuse them,” Jennifer Weir told ABC7 News.

In July, California Parent Alliance posted a slideshow that was presented at a school board meeting of the Oak Park Unified School District in April.

The slideshow included one slide featuring a “gender unicorn” who teaches, “Gender does not equal Sexuality.” Another slide states, “Palo Alto Unified – “Every new teacher trained on LGBTQ+ issues,” and a third slide highlights the SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) program.

The school district stated in a later slide the gender curriculum was “created in coordination with Readers Workshop Teachers and inspired by and drawing upon lessons from Teaching Tolerance, Welcoming Schools, and Rainbow Umbrella.

Teaching Tolerance is currently advertising on its website how to teach about “American slavery.”

Welcoming Schools is the school training program engineered by the foundation affiliated with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) – the nation’s largest LGBT rights organization. Its website states the program seeks “to embrace family diversity, create LGBTQ and gender inclusive schools, prevent bias-based bullying, and support transgender and non-binary students.”

Rainbow Umbrella says it is a “positive, safe and welcoming space … an activities based program that provides support and empowerment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and questioning (LGBTIQQ) youth.”

The slideshow presented the goals and plan for each grade of the curriculum, with books students will read in each grade, including, in grade three, Sparkle Boy, a book that normalizes the behavior of a boy who is preoccupied with wearing dresses and feminine accessories.

In fourth grade, students learn gender is “self-defined,” and, in grade five, they learn “there are many gender identities” and are introduced to the concept of “transgender” and the use of preferred pronouns.

According to ABC7, the Oak Park school superintendent refused to go on camera to discuss the gender ideology curriculum. The school district reportedly sent in a statement:

We have students who identify as transgender or gender-fluid at every one of our schools. In order to ensure that we are creating safe learning environments for our children, schools may not simply ignore these children for fear of offending someone.

Parents in the district say they have attended school board meetings to express their concerns but are told they can only speak to a single district “spokesperson.”

“Either he’s not answering the hard questions or he can’t answer the hard questions, and then the only other thing he could offer was that we can’t opt out,” said parent Carlos Velasco.

Regarding a parental opt-out from the curriculum, Oak Park district responded to ABC7, “If the District allowed parents to opt-out, it could potentially increase the prevalence of gender-related bias, violence, bullying, and harassment.”

In July, an editorial by Pat Lynch at the Citizens Journal noted the Oak Park school board “quietly” adopted the K-5 gender identity curriculum with a vote of 5-0.

“Very few Oak Park parents were even aware that this vote was occurring on this highly controversial curriculum change that is not mandated by state law for elementary school,” Lynch wrote, and continued:

Under the banner of anti-bullying and equality, the school district is imposing the integration of gender fluidity and transgenderism within the existing curriculum. There is no option for parents to “Opt-out” of this material as it is being incorporated into the children’s existing education structures such as the Readers Workshop. Traditional anti-bullying campaigns focus on teaching children to be kind to everyone regardless of their differences. This transgender-based curriculum could make bullying worse by arming the children with additional terminology that will cause further stereotyping. If a little girl is a “tomboy” or a boy wears pink, they will now be labeled by their peers as “gender fluid.” In the name of breaking stereotypes, this curriculum could therefore worsen them.

“Elementary school-aged children are not considered by experts to have the cognitive maturity and frontal lobe development to understand gender constructs, which is a highly complex concept, even for adults,” the editorial also observed.

A meeting is scheduled in the Oak Park district on September 10 to discuss the issue.

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Hong Kong Protesters Vow to Fight On After ‘Band-Aid’ of Extradition Bill Withdrawal

Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam called for an end to protest marches on Thursday and promised to hold constructive dialogue with movement leaders after caving in to one of their key demands and permanently withdrawing the controversial extradition bill. Movement leaders vowed to continue fighting until their other demands are addressed.

Lam’s Thursday press conference was her first public commentary after releasing a video message on Wednesday announcing the demise of the extradition bill. 

Lam said she killed the bill to “help prevent violence and stop chaos as soon as possible, resume the social order and help our economy and people’s livelihood to move forward.” She said she made the decision on her own but had the full “respect” and “support” of the Chinese government.

Lam acknowledged that the protests were about more than just the extradition bill, but she also tried to divide the movement into “moderate” and “extreme” factions, encouraging the former to renounce the latter and engage in a constructive dialogue with her administration. Protest leaders denounced this gambit and insisted they would continue demonstrating until all of their concerns are addressed. Plans for more protest marches quickly flooded social media.

One of the first demonstrations after Lam announced the withdrawal of the bill turned into a brawl between police and protesters at the Po Lam railroad station on Wednesday night. 

The protesters were angry that the station was closed on Saturday night, the anniversary of the beginning of Hong Kong’s previous round of pro-democracy demonstrations in 2014. The demonstrators accused the railroad station manager of bowing to pressure from Beijing by making it harder for them to move around the city. 

The Po Lam station wound up getting closed again on Wednesday night due to the scuffle. Another demonstration on Thursday morning shuttered one of the gates at the Hang Hau station.

China’s state-run Global Times could scarcely believe ungrateful protesters refused the injection of “much-needed optimism” provided by Lam’s withdrawal of the extradition bill and warned that insufficient optimism would be punished.

“Though still facing criticism from some radical forces that showed no sign of backing down from violence, for many others, Lam’s plan marks a critical turning point, as genuine concerns over social and economic issues – from housing to employment – should be separated from irrational, ill-intentioned political goals, and society should unite and reject violence,” the Global Times editorialized.

Unsurprisingly, the party line advanced by the Global Times is that Lam ended legitimate protests by promising to permanently withdraw the extradition bill – a very minor concession if Beijing’s previous rhetoric is taken seriously, since they constantly chided the protesters for refusing to accept the bill was informally dead. 

As Quartz pointed out on Thursday, it was not the only confusing, hairpin ideological turn the Chinese Communist Party has demanded of its faithful. A good number of Chinese social media posters expressed confusion over the withdrawal of the extradition bill because they have been repeatedly told the protesters were irrational or treasonous to speak out against it. They also appeared keenly aware, and somewhat contemptuous, of the government’s attempt to squelch news about the demise of the extradition bill.

“I don’t understand. If the bill was just, then why retract it? If it wasn’t, then why promulgate it?” asked one commenter on China’s Weibo microblogging service. Another noted that protesters in China get tossed in jail while protesters in Hong Kong get concessions, a sour train of thought Beijing will want to derail quickly.

Protesters have taken to chanting “Five Demands, Not One Less” as a response to the “half an olive branch” offered by Lam’s concession. There seemed to be very little sense of the steam going out of the protest movement; on the contrary, participants seem unfazed by the largely symbolic withdrawal of the bill and braced for Beijing to use the concession as an excuse to crack down on those who continue demonstrating.

“This is like applying a band-aid to rotting flesh,” one protester told the South China Morning Post on Wednesday.

“The withdrawal cannot compensate for our blood and tears over the past three months. It was a debt from three months ago, but the government and police have added more debts over the past two months. They are bankrupt on character and ethics,” another elaborated.

Even some Beijing loyalists reportedly thought it was a mistake to pull the bill as such a minimal act of compromise after putting the city through months of unrest. Some suggested another key protest demand, an independent inquiry into excessive police violence, should be granted quickly to defuse some of the public’s anger.

The struggle will probably continue internationally as well. NBC News reported on Thursday that “groups comprised of mostly mainland Chinese immigrants have increasingly been turning up at pro-Hong Kong rallies in major cities across the world,” insulting Hong Kong supporters as traitors and attempting to drown them out with jeers. Some incidents of vandalism and violence have also been noted.

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‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star Isaiah Washington Decided To Leave The Democratic Party After Trump White House Visit

He gets that Obama was an empty chair and Trump’s actually making substantive change. Via Fox News: On Fox Nation’s latest episode of “Nuff Said,” “Grey’s Anatomy” star Isaiah Washington opened up about his decision to leave the Democratic Party, and the reaction he got from the Hollywood community after publicly declaring his support for […]

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Illegal Alien Shoots Police Officer in California — Was Released from Jail for Earlier Offense Due to Sanctuary State Laws

Guadalupe Lopez Herrera was arrrested on Thursday after shooting a Merced County Sheriff’s detective in the chest on Wednesday afternoon.

ABC 30 reported:

The California Highway Patrol has confirmed officers arrested the man accused of shooting a Merced County Sheriff’s detective Wednesday afternoon.

51-year-old Guadalupe Lopez Herrera was taken into custody after a pursuit through several Central Valley counties.

The chase ultimately came to an end when officers deployed a spike strip on Interstate 5 near West Jayne Avenue in Fresno County.

Herrera is accused of opening fire on detectives that were following up on a domestic violence investigation…

…According to the Sheriff’s Office, Herrera is not in the country legally and was in custody earlier this year for a domestic violence charge. However, he was released due to SB 54 which restricts local law enforcement agencies from sharing information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement about arrests of people in the country illegally.

The post Illegal Alien Shoots Police Officer in California — Was Released from Jail for Earlier Offense Due to Sanctuary State Laws appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Boston Judge refused to dismiss charges against Antifa, jailed lawyer who argued with him

Saturday, 36 people were arrested in connection with Boston’s “straight-pride parade.” Only two of those people were part of the parade itself. The rest were part of the Antifa counter-protest. As you can see in this arrest log, about half of the people arrested had serious charges against them including assault against police officers. Four officers were injured Saturday and, as of Wednesday, had not returned to duty. The other half were arrested for disorderly conduct and/or resisting arrest, i.e. relatively minor charges.

Tuesday, half of the arrestees were brought before Boston Judge Richard Sinnott. DA Rachel Rollins asked Sinnott to drop charges against 9 people who were arrested Saturday on lesser charges, i.e. resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Rollins, who is considered a progressive DA, has a standing commitment not to prosecute a list of 15 crimes which include disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. She wanted these counter-protesters to walk.

But Judge Sinnott only agreed to drop charges against two of the nine. That’s very unusual because a judge generally doesn’t decide who will get prosecuted. Tuesday evening DA Rollins published a statement on Facebook criticizing Judge Sinnott’s refusal to dismiss the cases:

By compelling arraignment in every case, the judge punished the exercise of individuals’ First Amendment right to protest. At my request, prosecutors used the discretion constitutionally allocated to the executive branch to triage cases and use our resources most effectively to protect public safety. Make no mistake: some people were appropriately arraigned and will be held accountable for actions that put the safety of the public and law enforcement at risk. For those people now tangled in the criminal justice system for exercising their right to free speech—many of whom had no prior criminal record—I will use the legal process to remedy the judge’s overstepping of his role.

A defense attorney named Susan Church who was representing some of the defendants tweeted her own reaction to Judge Sinnott’s refusal to dismiss: “The Judge has zero authority to do that. Zilch. A severe overstep. Although the court can deny a dismissal arguably (very thin argument) they cannot for a nol prosse. Trumps’ screw the law attitude seeping down to district court judges I see.” Church, who previously represented Occupy Boston, tried to argue this same point with the judge in person and wound up in handcuffs:

“All I was trying to do was read the law to the court,” Church said. “And I was summarily arrested, handcuffed, brought down to the holding cell, held there for hours … simply for doing my job and advocating for my client.”…

Sinnott, who declined requests from prosecutors to dismiss some of the cases the day before, pushed back against Church when she spoke out about statutes regarding case dismissals.

“This is the only warning you’re going to get. Do not try to talk over me, do not try to turn this into theater,” Sinnott said before ordering Church to be held in contempt.

Here’s Church discussing what happened after she was released:

So the progressive DA, the ACLU, and the progressive defense attorney are all unhappy with Judge Sinnott. The Massachusetts Association of Defense Attorneys has called for an investigation of the judge and DA Rollins has asked the state’s Supreme Court to overrule him. Based on what I’m reading, that seems likely to happen.

Finally, I have to point out that when writing about this story, a Boston Globe columnist managed to include this idiotic defense of Antifa:

Perhaps Sinnott has a bee in his bonnet about these particular demonstrators, whom the right derisively calls “Antifa” — it is meant as a disparagement, because being antifascist is apparently a bad thing now. The judge, who comes from a family with a background in law enforcement, is certainly sympathetic to police officers, who have been accused of being too rough with those they arrested on Saturday.

It never ceases to amaze me that left-leaning journos support a group whose stated mission is political violence carried out behind masks to escape accountability. It’s not like any of this is a secret. Just a few days ago the Boston Herald quoted an Antifa member who said, “We’re covered in black so when we attack these guys we can’t be prosecuted.” So even when, as in this case, these goons are attacking and injuring the city’s police, there are still numbskulls like this Globe columnist or CNN’s Don Lemon who are eager to defend them.

And speaking of the police, the Police union was the only group who seemed happy with Judge Sinnott’s stand against giving Antifa a pass:

The post Boston Judge refused to dismiss charges against Antifa, jailed lawyer who argued with him appeared first on Hot Air.

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America’s Children Need Universal School Choice Now More Than Ever

What social institutions have the most immediate and strongest impact on a child’s development and well-being? According to researchers for the Pew Charitable Trust’s Economic Mobility Project, it’s the child’s family circumstances, with schools ranking as the second-most important factor.

In the U.S., family circumstances and schools are closely linked, because most cities and counties link schooling to housing. The extent to which families can select schools is largely determined by the extent to which they can afford to select their neighborhood.

This arrangement effectively limits the prospects of upward mobility for millions of children across the country.

In 2013, the real estate brokerage firm Redfin analyzed more than 400,000 home sales. It found that, on average, families paid $50 more per square foot for houses in highly rated school districts.

In one case, Redfin found a house priced $130,000 more than its “twin” (in terms of square footage and number of rooms) less than a mile away. The main difference? The first was in a highly rated school district; the other was not.

Although the Redfin study did not control for other potential confounding variables, its findings underscore what we all already know: Housing choice is school choice.

Many of the country’s largest school districts give families no alternative to the nearest public school. They offer no charter schools, no school vouchers–no school choice programs of any kind.

Instead, kids are consigned to a dysfunctional school.

Fourth graders in Baltimore and Philadelphia public schools are reading more than two grade levels behind their peers nationally, according to the Nation’s Report Card. Detroit’s fourth-graders are reading nearly four grades behind their peers.

Yet parents in large public school districts often have even bigger concerns than whether Johnny can read. They’re worried more about their children’s safety. And with good reason.

From September through December last year, Chicago Public Schools dealt with more than 600 allegations of sexual violence. In the year before that, 10% of high school students in Washington, D.C., public schools were threatened or injured with a weapon on school property.

Nationwide, the National Center for Education Statistics reported more than 827,000 incidents of crime among students aged 12 to 18, including sexual assault, robbery, and theft.

Upward mobility doesn’t just require that schools keep students safe and teach them to read; it requires that schools imbue students with that cultural currency that will enable them to be productive members of a free society.

Here, too, many public schools are failing. Today, one-third of Americans–the vast majority products of our public schools–cannot name a single branch of government.

Nor is an uptick in civic literacy visible anywhere on the horizon. Instead, public schools seem more interested in introducing their pupils to leftist ideology than in teaching basic civics.

Unsurprisingly, California is leading the way in this endeavor.

After introducing a much-derided sex education framework earlier this year (with no opt-out for families), the Golden State has now introduced an ethnic studies curriculum that brings the social justice warrior mentality of grad schools to grade schools.

Williamson Evers of the Hoover Institution calls it training for “ideological activists and proponents of identity politics.”

Inez Stepman of the Independent Women’s Forum wrote that with its references to terms like “cis-heteropatriarchy” and its broadside against capitalism, the curriculum “reads as though ripped from a Berkeley seminar on ‘critical whiteness studies.’”

All this while, as my colleague Jonathan Butcher points out, 57% of California’s black fourth-graders cannot read at even a basic level.

These disappointing outcomes support the notion that public education is actually hindering upward mobility for its students.

When government assigns children to schools that are failing every test of quality–safety, learning, and civic literacy–it is saddling those kids with lifetime opportunity costs.

Yet it need not be that way.

School choice programs allow students to attend schools that meet their learning needs. And studies show that when students avail themselves of these options, they develop better both academically and as citizens (as measured by things like political tolerance and civic engagement). Their parents are more satisfied as well.

A near-monopoly education system that denies students access to schools that would better serve them impedes upward mobility in America. It will not get better until we separate housing from schooling, through universal education choice.

Originally published in Fox News

The post America’s Children Need Universal School Choice Now More Than Ever appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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Actress Alyssa Milano Announces Meeting with Sen. Cruz to Discuss Disagreement on Guns

Alyssa Milano

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Liberal activist and actress Alyssa Milano says she’s scheduled to meet with Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to discuss their differences on Second Amendment and gun violence issues.

On Sunday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) accepted a Twitter invitation by actress/activist Alyssa Milano to meet and “hear your bullsh*t 1st hand.”

On Wednesday, anti-gun activist Milano tweeted that she has scheduled a meeting with Cruz for next Tuesday, August 10, when she will be visiting Washington, D.C.

Milano says she will enter the meeting with an open mind, and that she plans to treat the pro-Second Amendment Republican senator with respect:

“I’ll be meeting with @tedcruz on Tuesday about guns.

“We don’t agree on this issue.

“But if we can talk with mutual respect & humility, maybe all of us come together to effect positive change.

“I will enter this with an open heart, ears and mind. I hope he does the same.”

 

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Four years after allowing universal ‘concealed carry’ law, Maine rated the safest state in the nation for crime

Since 2015, residents of the state of Maine have been allowed to carry a concealed firearm without any special permit, and now the results are in: crime has fallen to the point where the state is now rated the safest in the nation from the threat of crime. The Maine Examiner reports:

When Maine passed a “Constitutional Carry” law allowing Maine residents to carry a concealed firearm without any special permit in 2015, opponents of the law forecast a dangerous future for the state. They said the new law would hurt public safety and put Maine kids at risk.

One state representative who opposed the bill went so far as to say it would give Mainers a reason to be afraid every time they went out in public or to work.

Another state representative suggested the law would lead to violent criminals with recent arrests and convictions legally carrying handguns.

They were wrong, as wrong as the San Francisco Board of Supervisors labeling the NRA a “terrorist organization.” And for the same reason, the notion that a physical object, not human beings, causes evil.  The US News &World Report rankings of the safest states has named Maine as the safest state in the nation.

Public safety makes up 50 percent of the Best States for crime & corrections ranking. This subcategory evaluates both the violent crime rate and the property crime rate in each state, as measured by the FBI in 2017. Though some major cities, such as Chicago and Baltimore, have seen drastic increases in homicides in recent years, overall violent crime and property crime rates remain near historic lows.

A higher state ranking indicates a lower crime rate for these metrics. Maine ranks first in the nation for public safety. Fellow New England state Vermont places second in this subcategory, followed by New Hampshire, New Jersey and Idaho.

Beautiful… and safe, thanks to universal concealed carry (photo credit: PXhere)

As the Maine Examiner noted, second-ranking Vermont also has a constitutional carry law.

Guns in the hands of honest citizens decrease crime. That is fact that has been statistically demonstrated by John Lott’s pathbreaking book, More Guns, Less Crime, a rick-solid statistical analysis showing that when states pass “shall issue” concealed carry laws, crime goes down. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors should take note.

Hat tip: Bryan Demko

Since 2015, residents of the state of Maine have been allowed to carry a concealed firearm without any special permit, and now the results are in: crime has fallen to the point where the state is now rated the safest in the nation from the threat of crime. The Maine Examiner reports:

When Maine passed a “Constitutional Carry” law allowing Maine residents to carry a concealed firearm without any special permit in 2015, opponents of the law forecast a dangerous future for the state. They said the new law would hurt public safety and put Maine kids at risk.

One state representative who opposed the bill went so far as to say it would give Mainers a reason to be afraid every time they went out in public or to work.

Another state representative suggested the law would lead to violent criminals with recent arrests and convictions legally carrying handguns.

They were wrong, as wrong as the San Francisco Board of Supervisors labeling the NRA a “terrorist organization.” And for the same reason, the notion that a physical object, not human beings, causes evil.  The US News &World Report rankings of the safest states has named Maine as the safest state in the nation.

Public safety makes up 50 percent of the Best States for crime & corrections ranking. This subcategory evaluates both the violent crime rate and the property crime rate in each state, as measured by the FBI in 2017. Though some major cities, such as Chicago and Baltimore, have seen drastic increases in homicides in recent years, overall violent crime and property crime rates remain near historic lows.

A higher state ranking indicates a lower crime rate for these metrics. Maine ranks first in the nation for public safety. Fellow New England state Vermont places second in this subcategory, followed by New Hampshire, New Jersey and Idaho.

Beautiful… and safe, thanks to universal concealed carry (photo credit: PXhere)

As the Maine Examiner noted, second-ranking Vermont also has a constitutional carry law.

Guns in the hands of honest citizens decrease crime. That is fact that has been statistically demonstrated by John Lott’s pathbreaking book, More Guns, Less Crime, a rick-solid statistical analysis showing that when states pass “shall issue” concealed carry laws, crime goes down. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors should take note.

Hat tip: Bryan Demko

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Sanders: My Administration Would Feature Population Control In Climate Fight

Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) said his administration would feature population control provisions in order to combat climate change during CNN’s climate change town hall on Wednesday night.

An audience member asked Sanders about "educating everyone on the need to curb population growth."

"Good evening. Human population growth has more than doubled in the past 50 years. The planet cannot sustain this growth. I realize this is a poisonous topic for politicians, but it’s crucial to face," the audience member asked. "Empowering women and educating everyone on the need to curb population growth seems a reasonable campaign to enact. Would you be courageous enough to discuss this issue and make it a key feature of a plan to address climate catastrophe?"

"The answer is yes," Sanders responded. "And the answer has everything to do with the fact that women in the United States of America, by the way, have a right to control their own bodies and make reproductive decisions."

"And the Mexico City agreement, which denies American aid to those organizations around the world that allow women to have abortions or even get involved in birth control to me is totally absurd," he continued. "So I think especially in poor countries around the world where women do not necessarily want to have large numbers of babies and where they can have the opportunity through birth control to control the number of kids they have, is something I very, very strongly support."

This characterization is misleading as the Mexico City policy specifically refers to abortion, not birth control in general.

The policy, created by the Reagan administration in 1984, forbids foreign non-governmental organizations from using American federal funding to "perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning."

Critics of the policy refer to it as the "global gag rule" because it forbids NGOs from providing abortion referrals.

The Washington Examiner’s Jay Caruso called attention to the mischaracterization on Twitter:

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