Madison 3rd Grade Class Asked to Write Anti-War Propaganda Letters
Vicki McKenna reported on it yesterday and it was on NBC 27 last night, but this is utterly ridiculous.:
The Frank Allis third grade assigned the following to students:
The Frank Allis third grade will be writing letters to encourage an end to the war in Iraq. The letter writing will teach civic responsibility, a social studies standard, while providing an authentic opportunity to improve composition skills and handwriting.The assignment is basically to write 12 letters to everyone from other 3rd graders around the nation to congress, the Senate, and the media.
The third grade staff then have the audacity to ask parents to send 10 postage stamps and 12 envelopes. The teacher then gives parents the option to opt out of the assignment.If the war has not ended by the 12th day [of the letter writing campaign] we will start the whole sequence over again, writing to students in middle school, high school, and college.
This is a basic problem with Madison and the group-think that exists here. These teachers are politicising THE THIRD GRADE!! A third grader doesn't know what is right or wrong (the age or reason in the State of Wisconsin is 12), so they will take the teacher's bias as FACT. Under no circumstances should children be put in this situation.
Here is a scanned image of the assignment:
Update: Vicki send me an update and said that the PRINCIPLE KNEW ABOUT THE ASSIGNMENT and let it go forward. This kind of political activism should NOT be tolerated in our public schools, yet you know it is going on. This is grade school, imagine what is being taught in middle school and high school (don't even get me started with college...we all know what the group-think is like at Universities!)
Update: The school district rescinded the assignment today. But the fact that it got this far is scary and the school district should take a good look at the Principle that let it get this far and the teachers that signed onto it!
posted by Rob at 07:54
10 Comments:
Do you have the original scan, or a larger legible copy of the assinment?
Would appreciate a copy to post on the madison.com forum.
Thanks, Sandi
Wed Nov 23, 05:18:00 PM CST
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN THREATENS TO EXPEL ANTI-WAR STUDENTS
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has launched a disciplinary investigation against the UW anti-war group, Stop the War, due to a complaint filed in relation to our group's demonstration against the Army ROTC on Nov. 2.
If the Dean of Students determines that members of Stop the War violated University Codes, there will be a disciplinary hearing which could result in probation, suspension or expulsion for Stop the War members.
We are asking everyone who believes in the freedom to protest to contact the administration and urge them to cease punitive measures against Stop the War.
See below for more information on the protest of Nov. 2.
Yolanda Garza, Assistant Dean of Students and the Investigating
Officer in the complaint
(608) 263-5700
ygarza@bascom.wisc.edu
Lori Berquam, Interim Dean of Students
(608) 263-5702,
lmberquam@bascom.wisc.edu
John Wiley, Chancellor
(608) 262-9946
jdwiley@bascom.wisc.edu
The complaint alleges Stop the War "jeopardized the safety of several
individuals of the Military Science Department. It is alleged that
attempts were made by your membership to gain entry to the building by
pounding on doors and windows and attempts to destroy university
property."
These charges are absurd.
- Stop the War was unable to even approach any member of the Military
Science department. The doors of the building were locked, and no
member came in or out.
-Although there were students knocking on the door, none of them were
members of Stop the War. There was a large contingent of local high
school students there, who are unaffiliated with Stop the War, who did
most of the pounding on doors.
-No member of Stop the War made any attempt to damage university
property.
The facts are these:
-Stop the War called a demonstration against the war in Iraq, military
recruitment and ROTC on Nov. 2. After a rally attended by about 200
people, we marched around campus, eventually arriving at the Army ROTC
building with about 100 people. The vast majority of these people were
not Stop the War members or had ever been to a Stop the War meeting.
-The protestors chanted slogans, held signs and marched around the
building. A few spoke through a bullhorn. Some people, none of them
Stop the War members, knocked on the door.
-The only contact anyone had with members of the Military Science
department was spotting them through a window. With the exception of
the UW Police detaining a 14 year old high school student for throwing
a penny at a window, there was no physical confrontation of any kind.
-Although the letter says that charges could be brought against "you
and your leadership members," Paul Price was the only member who has received a
letter or been named. The only explanation he can think of for this, is
that he is the primary contact person on our student organization
registration form. In other words, Paul is being singled out because he
happened to be the one who filled out some paperwork a couple of
months ago.
-Furthermore, although this complaint was filed on the day of the
protest, Nov. 2. I did not receive notice until Nov. 22. The
University is giving Paul ten days to respond, but they waited three
weeks to send him this e-mail at 3:30pm the day before the four day
Thanksgiving break.
We ask that everyone who believes in the right to free speech contact
the people listed above, and tell them to cease all punitive measures
against Stop the War and its individual members.
Fri Nov 25, 03:43:00 PM CST
I am writing because the UW student group Stop the War, has been the subject of harassment and intimidation by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Administration and Police for much of the past year. This is not an isolated incident, but recently culminated with a threat to discipline one member of our group (Paul Pryse) who they claim is the “leadership”, most likely since his name appears as a signatory on the student-government paperwork for student group status.
Here is a brief history of this intimidation.
On Wed. Feb. 16th, we were doing a peaceful counter-recruitment action in front of the Navy’s booth at a career fair, which is supposed to be open to all UW-Madison students. The career fair was in the Memorial Union, which is a private club that all UW-Madison students are members of. The Navy recruiter is not a member of this private club. We were entirely peaceful, not infringing upon the rights of anyone at the fair, simply holding signs, passing out literature, and chanting slogans until the UW police ordered us to stop chanting.
About 30 minutes into the action, the police arrested Blake Trimbell, after she asked to see the rule stating we couldn't protest. She was never read her Miranda rights. The police also refused to tell her what she was being charged with until she was at the police station, when she was ticketed with “Disturbing the Peace” by an officer not even present at our demonstration. She hasn't been involved in Stop the War since, meaning the police successfully intimidated her away from activism.
Here is a web address of an account of the incident, from that day:
http://madison.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/21869
After a walk-out protest last spring, we were able to get a forum with UW Chancellor John Wiley, in which he publically recognized that the military and the ROTC are in direct violation of UW nondiscrimination policy, with their “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy directed against LGBT individuals. However, John Wiley refused to enforce this policy against either ROTC or Military Recruiters paid to represent their respective institutions, and made a point of defending the “free speech rights” of the Navy, Airforce, Marines, CIA, and Army on campus.
On Wednesday, Sept 28th, Stop the War had a counter-military-recruitment action at the Kohl Center (which is a UW facility) during a career fair for UW students. Again, we were entirely peaceful, not interrupting or otherwise infringing upon the rights of anyone at the fair, simply holding signs and passing out literature. The Marines, Air force, and CIA were there.
The UW police came and told us to leave. Bill Linville (another Stop the War member) asked to see the policy which stated why we couldn't be there. The police showed us a copy of the UW administrative code for UW facilities, which we were in full compliance with. Bill asked what rule we were breaking, and they refused to tell us, at which point the top police officer pointed to two random people in the group, and told Bill they would be arrested if we didn't leave.
I was separate from the main group, but was escorted out several minutes later. No one was arrested, but we wrote down the names and badge numbers of several officers. Another police officer showed up in an undercover minivan, and was videotaping us while standing in our group outside.
Again on Monday October 10th, we had a peaceful counter-recruitment action in the Memorial Union at a career fair. Again, the police told us to leave or be arrested, and again refused to tell us what rule we were in violation of. However, that time we had a video camera and a legal observer from the NLG. The legal observer’s name is Vanessa Carroll, and she can be reached at vjcarroll@wisc.edu. The video footage we still have in our possession.
On November 2nd, a high school student who was attending an outdoor peaceful picket of the Army ROTC center, was detained by the University police, never read his Miranda rights or told what he was being detained for. He was released at the police station without being charged. We have video footage of his detention.
This pattern of intimidation all culminated on this last Wednesday, November 23rd (the day before Thanksgiving) when Yolanda Garza, the Assistant Dean of Students, informed Paul Pryse (mentioned in the first paragraph) that Stop the War was under investigation. She said that Paul, and potentially other members of our group, were subject to disciplinary action should she determine Stop the War was in violation of UW policy.
Specifically, Mrs. Garza spoke of a complaint, which she did not cite or give any details of, from an unnamed individual in the Department of Military Science, and claimed that Stop the War “jeopardized the safety of several individuals of the Military Science Department. It is alleged that attempts were made by your membership to gain entry to the building by pounding on doors and windows and attempts to destroy university property.”
However, these charges are absurd. Stop the War was unable to even approach any member of the Military Science department. The doors of the Army ROTC building were locked, and no member came in or out. Although there were students knocking on the door, none of them were members of Stop the War, nor did they damage any property. There was a large contingent of local high school students there, who are unaffiliated with Stop the War, who did most of the pounding on doors.
As I already said, we have video footage of the November 2nd event. The footage clearly indicates that Paul Pryse was holding a banner, faced away from the building and towards the road, the entire time that the picket was outside the Army ROTC building, so any supposed “property destruction” or “jeopardizing the safety of several individuals” (which are absurd and outrageous charges to begin with) was not done by Paul.
Paul was told he had 10 calendar days to respond to the allegations. Might I remind you that these 10 calendar days BEGAN on the first day of Thanksgiving break, which meant that only half of those 10 days are business days. And this stems from a complaint which was filed on November 2nd, so there was clearly a conscious attempt to cripple Paul’s ability to organize a defense for himself.
Paul should be in contact with you regarding his own predicament. However, I am writing to you, because we are not just dealing with an isolated incident, but an ongoing pattern of intimidation and harassment by the UW administration, usually carried out by the University Police who answer directly to Chancellor John Wiley and his bureaucracy in Bascom Hall.
This is a pattern which we must end, instead of merely dealing with on a case-by-case basis. It was recommended by a friend that we file a court injunction against the University Police, the Administration including Chancellor John Wiley and the Assistant Dean of Students Yolanda Garza, to deter them from falsely arresting or disciplining anyone for exercising First Amendment Rights.
I was wondering if the ACLU would be able to help us with this, because I have attempted to contact a private lawyer, recommended by a member of the local Green Party, but he said he can’t help us, and that we should contact the ACLU. I cannot personally be a plaintiff in the case, because I am not currently enrolled in classes. However, there are many other individuals in our group who are, and I’m sure several of them would be more than willing to be a plaintiff in a court-injunction or lawsuit.
How long would it take to file a court injunction against the UW Police and Administration? What is the first step? Please contact me as soon as is reasonably possible.
Thank you,
Bill Anderson
Fri Nov 25, 07:57:00 PM CST
FYI: The above is the description from my Case Complaint to the ACLU of Wisconsin.
Fri Nov 25, 07:57:00 PM CST
Hey Bill, did you have to write a letter to the ACLU as part of a 3rd grade project?
Sun Nov 27, 02:56:00 PM CST
No. I went to a Catholic Grade school. They didn't like people who questioned authority.
Sun Nov 27, 09:25:00 PM CST
Actually, come to think of it, we did write letters to the president in 4th grade, against Abortion, since it was a Catholic school, of course.
Sun Nov 27, 09:46:00 PM CST
I'm all for avoiding indoctrination in public schools. But then the pledge of allegiance and all that should also go out the window, don't you agree?
Mon Nov 28, 06:03:00 PM CST
bill-
with regards to your first comment, "Although there were students knocking on the door, none of them were
members of Stop the War. There was a large contingent of local high
school students there, who are unaffiliated with Stop the War, who did
most of the pounding on doors."
maybe next time Stop the War shouldn't ask "non members" to participate in its rallies and protests. if Stop the War chooses to advertise its rallies and protests to the public and encourage public participation, it should take responsibility for the people that join them.
Mon Nov 28, 11:57:00 PM CST
enzo-
I agree. A little history on the pledge, for you:
Since I know some here don't like Socialists... the pledge was written by a Christian Socialist
How ridiculous is the liberals desire to take out "under god"... ABOLISH the fascist pledge, don't reform it
The way young Americans originally pledged their loyalty to the U.S. government before Hitler made the gesture unpopular.
Tue Nov 29, 05:16:00 AM CST
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