Heather Callaghan
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| Photo credit: Tom Wait |
In San Bernardino County, southern California, parents got a rude awakening in the form of a flyer from an outraged parent. Yes, for some time, Calimesa Elementary School had a policy unbeknownst to parents that involved making the children kneel down on one knee with arms at the their sides at various times throughout the day.
Principal Dana Carter admits to enacting the policy for children to get down on one knee to be dismissed or admitted (usually after recess) by himself or administration as a safety measure. That’s not how some parents saw it. To them, it felt like an unnecessary subjugation for their kids to practically bow before the principal who would be king.
After some parents spoke up, Superintendent Cali Banks reported that the policy, which was actually described as “positive behavior intervention,” won’t be upheld anymore. Positive for whom? Positively great for conditioning little ones for a future of subordination and yield.
According to the flyer, the students were notified and it asks, “Is it okay for your son and/or daughter to kneel down to them?” Not really clear on how this makes things safer.
A mass phone notification had to be sent out to all the parents to let them know that effective immediately, their children will not be made to kneel.
One mom told a Los Angeles station of her 7-year-old daughter:
She says that she has to drop down on one knee with her hands at her side, wait for the principal to come out, lift his arms and tell them to go to class.
I feel that the principal wants to be like a king, and we don’t have kings in America.
That’s right, sista! We only have one god besides the State that children are now praying to apparently.
As a former school secretary, I can tell you that subtle and not-so-subtle submission tactics take place all the time. It’s part of the public school system fabric – which is why it was mostly openly discussed – because it really does seem normal for the school officials enacting those standards. But notice that parents didn’t receive a mass notification to begin with? It took enough children casually mentioning it before one parent finally spread the word.
So, there’s going to be a meeting for parents to discuss different safety options. That way, parents can choose which way they want the little human resources to submit to authority. I want to emphasize that choice, a common tactic to get children to behave, is going to be used on the parents! Why does there have to be some kind of ritual at all?
What is with the bizarre power-trippy behavior coming from teachers and principals in the last few years? Even Chinese headlines don’t approve. Don’t they know that they, too, are just human resources for the almighty State? Guess it isn’t just the kids who play make-believe….
Heather Callaghan is a natural health blogger and food freedom activist. You can see her work at NaturalBlaze.com and ActivistPost.com. Like at Facebook.
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