The Seattle Public Schools are forming a committee to examine prayer in school, particularly to "support the needs of our diverse students and families." But the committee is not organizing to examine the full diversity of the student body, only the needs of Muslim students:
Committee will propose guidelines for issue of prayerThe SPS Department of Race and Equity is looking for SEA members to participate in a "Prayer in Schools Committee," the charge of which is to look at how to address this issue District wide and to provide information about our Muslim students that will help teachers and building leaders make decisions that support the needs of our diverse students and families. The next meeting is scheduled for May 30th, 3:00 - 4:30. Contact Dr. Hollins at cdhollins1@seattleschools.org
I wrote Dr. Hollins for clarification on the purpose of the committee and the need for it, but I have not yet had a response. I believe that students should be allowed to pray on school grounds on their own time, such as during recess, lunch, and between periods. However, the schools should stay neutral in matters of faith and not adjust class schedules to accommodate the needs of any religion. My fear is that the Seattle Public Schools will suggest just that, but until we hear back from Dr. Hollins will will not know for sure.
Posted by Andy MacDonald at May 11, 2006 03:19 PM | Email ThisNeither can I.
Posted by: Michael B. on May 11, 2006 02:54 PMThe proof detracting my cynicism will be when Christians and Jews and Hindus and Shintos (Japanese national religion) get equal treatment.
[A Watchdog's faith, BTW, is nondemonational.]
Posted by: A Watchdog on May 11, 2006 03:05 PM*"Religious services shall not be held on school facilities during school hours..."
Perhaps accomodating the needs of Muslim students may force a more tolerant policy towards Christian students.
*Source: USE OF SCHOOL FACILITIES BY RELIGIOUS GROUPS: E55.00
Adopted JAN 1983
Cross Reference: D150.00 - Religion
http://www.seattleschools.org/area/policies/e/E55.00.pdf
Posted by: Kenneth on May 11, 2006 03:10 PMPathetic weasels.
Posted by: JCM on May 11, 2006 03:28 PMThat said, it seems to me that any meeting to review Muslim-only prayer is typical SPS twisted liberal logic to be "all-encompassing" while ignoring how this immediately distinguishes those of a different religion. And speaking of distinguishing...don't forget SPS, you can't let the boys and girls pray together.
Posted by: Diogenes on May 11, 2006 03:29 PMhttp://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1930114,00.html
Posted by: JDH on May 11, 2006 03:33 PMI'm just not surprised by this move.
Posted by: Misty on May 11, 2006 03:59 PMYou gotta love the Multiculturalism scam! (NOT!)
Posted by: alphabet soup on May 11, 2006 04:14 PMAny Jewish parent who is religious enough to care about prayer and the like has already removed their child from the Public Schools. This is why it is almost impossible to find an Orthodox Jewish child in a Public School.
This was not the case a generation ago, but it is now.
Posted by: HKL on May 11, 2006 04:19 PMRemember, diversity CELEBRATION is a one way street.
I wonder when we'll see the ACLU jump in on this one? Waiting, waiting, wai.....
Now, excuse me while I barf after thinking about another CELEBRATION.
Posted by: Alicia on May 11, 2006 04:56 PMSomehow I think it will survive....... AGAIN.
don't sweat it.
Posted by: da Vinci Code on May 11, 2006 06:41 PMAs if I needed another reason to be disgusted with the public school system.
Posted by: SeaRep on May 11, 2006 09:19 PMI fashion a golden calf; place it in a school; now, I "celebrate it" with a 'holiday' or festival; 10-point test question: is this tolerance? diversity? idol worship and therefore prohibited/allowed religion or just plain art? meanwhile, Johnny can't read for squat nor add two numbers but wears snazzy designer sneakers; the bureaucracy hashes out the legalities and taxpayers see the upward creeping share of that tax bill for schools;
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on May 11, 2006 09:39 PMNow, today's generation of people in power, former activists in the 1960's (McDermott, Pelz and their ilk) are the leftists and trying to indoctrinate kids with Marxist philosophy to nuture them into perfect Moonbats and they will believe that it is best to negotiate with terrorists and terrorist states like Iran. Way to f*** up the culture - pinkos !
Since 1962 test scores have plummeted. Students have become on campus murderers, assailants, and rapists by the dozens. Gangs control many schools. Junior high female teachers are raping junior high boys. Drugs are in the urban, suburban, and rural schools. The kids know nothing but they feel great about themselves (not really - suicide rates are way up). Expenditures at the national level are nearly 80 billion dollars a year. Expenditures at the state level are also out of control. Outstanding students are expelled as administrators lose their minds in zero tolerance. Building crumble like the Soviet grayzone apartment rows as maintainance succombs to union control. Gay-ology is forced into classrooms at the kindergarten level. Math has been turned into English. Competition has been forced from the classroom. Boys not only trail girls in all measures of academic, testing, extra-curricular, and scholarship scoring (except varsity sports) they trail them by large margins. College campuses are expected within the next ten years to be two-thirds female. Already most college campuses are nearly 60% female. Men largely no longer pursue school leadership careers as they are unable to be men there having to sit in endless meetings, deal with PC and MC nonsense and zero-tolerance garbage parameters. Children are expelled for kissing a playmate, praying with playmates, or just praying over their own food. Bibles have been banned by the courts from teacher's desks. Elementary kids are not given recess or if they are they are often not allowed to run. History has been turned into the study of Amelia Erhart, Harriet Tubman (without the gun), and other giants of the American past. English is Lesbitarian vampire studies and sociopathic promotion through 'novels' such as "Who Killed Mr. Griffin?" (but don't you dare write about killing your English teacher in creative writing - remember we have zero tolerance.) The pull-up bars are all gone from the elementary schools and mostly from the upper levels too. If there are any peg boards left I haven't seen them. (I've been in dozens of schools in the last few years.) Bombardo is gone. Tag is gone from many schools. Dodgeball also gone. No junior high boys cross country (Title nine). No junior high boys soccer (title nine) Islam studies are widespread (By the definition of Islam thousands of surburban California students have converted by their role play studies) Study is often student driven 'projects' leaving little room for memorization. Students in advanced math classes don't have their times tables memorized. Literary memorization has been long gone except for a few standout students who pursue it through extra-curricular means. Extra-curricular dance hosting and decorations is now leadership class and done during the academic day. Most students see several mainstream Hollywood movies every year in school. Term papers are gone replaced by Senior projects (which now start in elementary school) - the Senior project is composed of a paper, a speech, and a visual (posterboard, powerpoint) - this is done so that the ten minutes speech which will be only three minutes forty two seconds (a speech which the parent won't see can be given a B bringing up the grade of D on the paper (should be an F) and C on the visual (pictures printed off the internet and pasted on a posterboard - or for the advanced student put into powerpoint with bad spelling and no continuity) for a combined Senior project grade of C-. The WASL has become just another medium for hiding the collapse of the system while the test itself uses leading questions to further the agenda of turning students into good little marxists (or rather fascists given the current trend of the radical left). Teachers and counselors cheat for students on the WASL (Franklin HS among others). Administrators cover up teachers raping students (Federal Way SD). Whole word is still pushed in the schools. Accelarated Reader was developed by skinnerian-behavioralist-marxist-utopian-brave-new-world radicals to divide the kids into divisions of competency for further indoctrination. Accelarated math - same song. Drama departments often now offer student driven productions. Shakespeare is a rare sight. Millions are spent on school laptops and computer labs where kids view porn or listen to hard core rap. Kids don't have to take p.e. are are not forced to sweat if they do. Kids are raped on school buses. Kids are rapped in bathrooms. Kids are rapped in classrooms with teachers present. Girls gone wild style videos are filmed in classrooms. Cafeterias now serve breakfast, lunch, dinner, and take home weekend backpack meals as well as summer meals. Bathroom stalls are vile with hateful combatitive grafitti. My space dot com is worse. Guns are in classrooms. Third world style mob beatings (gang driven often) are not uncommon in school hallways. Teachers are beaten by students and administrators do nothing. Administators hide in their office all day. The good principals are driven out wack a mole style because they stand out.
Yep, that neutrality thing is working out real well, Andy.
Posted by: Jericho on May 11, 2006 10:27 PMThe Seattle School District is going to enable the religion of pieces that will fully impose sharia law on them including burkas, beheadings, demolition of budda's, bodies hanging in the streets, books burned and the 6th century reimposed on the world. Islamic run nations obsess over the absolutes that are decreed from on high and diplomacy consists of blowing up others.......Careful of the Seed your sowing down there at SSD
From one end of this land to another we see the Deathocracts choosing alignment with ideologies that are dooming our nation. I can't believe for a minute Deathocrat policies will do anything but run us off cliffs of doom. Now You Middlerates and RINOS you are right there too spinning right along with them....ALL Of you can give me a break....At least the Deathocrats think the Islamists will get the Christians first and then they can negotiate with them....HHHAAAAA HHAAAAAAA HHHHHHHAAAAAAAAA...oh you RINOS what you gonna give away in order to get along with them???
Get serious folks; serious as a heart attack...the SSD is playing with fire far beyond its means to control it.
Why do you trolls care who is in office you just do what you want to.....and I no longer will clean up the mess......don't gd complain about the burkas and the real mexican food...oh nad enjoy filing a lawsuit under the good ol' sharia law!!!!
BTW, I'm a muslim, and if you think all muslims follow Sharia (man's word, not god's), you've got another thing coming.
Posted by: Aaron on May 12, 2006 03:16 AMThis is not true. not by a long shot. ANY student is allowed to pray in school. Hell groups of students can pray. There are only two restrictions. School personal cannot be involved in their capacity as school employees and students can't disrupt the learning environment. SO while a school club can meet before or after school (or at lunch) and pray a teacher cannot have official prayer in a class.
IT is also untrue that society is worse today then in 1962. Crime is probably as low http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9490082/ and teen pregnancy is similarly low. WE have less racism and sexism and people are living longer.
The author of the post makes a familiar yet wholly wrong logical mistake of the post hoc fallacy. Just because one thing comes before another does not imply causation.
It seems much more likely that social trends going on already in terms of greater religious diversity, more respect for individual freedoms, and political shifts lead to the end of official school prayer, not the other way around.
So what do you think about what jericho wrote giffy? Do you suppose he made all that stuff up? Or alternatively, are you suggesting that all that sort of stuff happened with a similar frequency back in the 60's and 70's and we just didn't notice?
...and teen pregnancy is similarly low.
I'm gonna call Barbara Streisand there giffy - pony up a source.
WE have less racism and sexism and people are living longer.
The NAALCP (National Association of Liberal Colored People), and the Dhimmicrat party will be distressed to hear this giffy. You see, they have hung their entire "reputation" on the notion that recism is systemic and perpetual (unless, of course we allow the Dhimmicrats to "fix" it).
Your closing statement is a nice one. It's "logic" flies in the face of everything presented prior to it, but it's still a nice one.....
Posted by: alphabet soup on May 12, 2006 09:03 AMAs for the other stuff, most of it seem to just be ramblings of someone who ahs watched to much cable news. The only real difference is that now we have a national media that reports every minor occurrence. There are three hundred million people in this country and tens of thousands of schools. There are bound to be examples of crazies. I am less concerned about antidotes on tv about some school in good knows were, were some teacher did something stupid and more concerned about statistics. For example over the nineties the coverage of school violence soared and everyone thought it was a growing problem, but in reality it was remaining relatively constant for death and declining for nonfatal violence and both dramatically deceased in this decade http://nces.ed.gov/programs/crimeindicators/Indicators.asp?PubPageNumber=1&ShowTablePage=TablesHTML/table_1.1.asp
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/crimeindicators/Indicators.asp?PubPageNumber=2&ShowTablePage=TablesHTML/table_2.1.asp
"Diversity" is an intentionally nebulous concept and as any qualified secular humanist legal scholar knows, what we have in America is separation of church and state, not mosque and state. Connect the dots.
Any good liberal knows that cultural tolerance is paramount, and liberal tolerance says, why the hell not support the religion that hates diversity, permissiveness, individualism, and personal liberty. In return they will respond with love, kindness, and forgiveness for our trespasses against them. Besides, as they say, if you can't bring Mohammed to the mountain, bring America to Mohammed.
Watch kids convert as a stylish rebellion and Tattoos proclaim Islamic purity. oh . . . hold it a sec . . . prayer bells . . .
Posted by: Amused by liberals on May 12, 2006 10:47 PMNo problem with prayer, as long as Christian prayer is included - but the politically correct Christophobes of the Seattle School District are afraid, because they see it as a threat to the agenda that is represented by their cirriculum (the gay lobby), while they and the WEA/NEA cannot bear to stay out of politics. Maybe the US Supreme Court needs to take a look at this, surely not the WA State Supreme Court or the 9th District Circuit Court of Schlemeels..
Posted by: KS on May 14, 2006 11:22 AMDear Dr. Hollins:
I heard that the SPS Depart of Race and Equity is looking for SEA members to participate in a "Prayer in Schools Committee," the charge of which is to look at how to address this issue District wide and to provide information about our Muslim students that will help teachers and building leaders make decisions that support the needs of our diverse students and families.
Is it possible that the forum could be open to providing info about the Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, and Sikh students who would like to pray in Seattle public schools? I, also, do not want to see the secular humanists and the LGBT community left out. Multicultural diversity does include all paths of faith and behaviours. Will the role of separation of church and state issues be discussed?
I would like to attend your meeting being held 30MAY06 between 3:00PM ? 4:30PM and need the address. I look forward to hearing back from you and also participating in this very enlightening discussion/forum.
Thank you very much.
Best regards,
TheHeebrewHammer
Seward Park
If I hear anything back I will post it immediately.
Hammer out
Posted by: TheHeebrewHammer on May 14, 2006 06:27 PM
Dear Mr. Hammer,
You are more than welcome to attend our meeting on the 30th. It will be here at the JSCEE building in room 2772. We are looking at prayer in general for all of our students--possibly by way of a policy. However, in addition we are currently looking at resources to educate our staff about our Muslim students, families and staff. I don't know if you are aware, but we have an increasingly growing number of Muslim students in our schools. While some of our leaders and staff have been able to figure out ways to address their needs, there is still a lot of confusion about this particular culture. It is our hopes that we can provide them with some information to help make their jobs easier in this areas as well as help our students feel welcomed in school. As of yet, I haven't received any concerns about other groups in this same way.
I have however received concerns around our staff holding events in the school during the day and after school that coincide with some of the important holidays/dates that our Jewish staff, students and families observe. As a result, there is another committee that is working on developing a diversity calendar to include relevant dates that impact our students, staff and families, along with resources to help educate them about specific these days.
My goal in this position is to help educate staff in areas that impact the learning environment for our diverse students. There is a lot of work to be done and I look forward to contributing to SPS culture so that one day all students, staff and families feel welcome.
Warm regards,
Caprice
Dr. Hollins's assertion that parents all care about their children's education was decidedly off base. I agree that parents' perception of school may be different, but insisting that all parents have their children's best interest at heart (and merely differ in their display of same)is delusional. Also, Hollins does come across as anti-white. She may very well not be the best choice for a position that supposedly exists to promote racial harmony. The department is supposed to remove institutionalized bigotry; you need only to look at the website to determine that it has had exactly the opposite effect.
I don't know if you need to have an entire agency dedicated to racial issues anyway. As the interviewer pointed out, teachers appeared to be annoyed at having to attend ongoing cultural sensitivity seminars (instead of teaching). Who can blame them? If education in this area needs to take place, then it could just as easily be done through informational brochures or brief online lessons. There is no guarantee that just because a teacher sits through a training session he (or she) will willingly absorb and implement the indoctrination.
Posted by: Peggy U on May 15, 2006 07:39 PMNo ones makes a stink about it. I would build the Caucasian Academy across the street just to see what the reaction would be.
Posted by: TheHeebrewHammer on May 18, 2006 08:36 AMOn May 25, 2006 I replied and I asked her to provide the meeting location. She has yet not responded and I?m planning on sending this follow up mail:
Hello again Dr. Collins,
I am writing to you again to make sure that my request for the location of the meeting did not fall off your radar. One of the things that I hope to find out at the meeting is the steps that the committee plans on taking to ensure that Muslims in the Seattle public schools (and non-Muslims for that matter) are following these tenets:
* rejection of jihad violence against non-Muslims
* rejections of the ideas that women should not enjoy full equality of rights with men
* rejection of the idea that Sharia law should be instituted in the Muslim and non-Muslim world
* non-Muslims and Muslims should live together indefinitely as equals
* Muslims abide by the same rules and regulations as everyone else
Awaiting your response,
Joseph
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