via Parent: School demanded ‘waivers’ after WND report.
Parents in a Texas school district are
reporting officials told their children to sign “waivers” for their
participation in a class where they wore Islamic burqas following a WND report on the activity.
Last week, WND reported that a school in
Lumberton, Texas, had underage students wear burqas as part of a lesson
on Islam in a ninth-grade high school geography class. A photo of the
students in burqas was included in the report.
Now parents report the students were
required to come to the principal’s office and sign “incident reports”
without the option to refuse. They stated wearing the burqas was
voluntary and not mandatory.
April LeBlanc, mother of student Madelyn
McLemore, feels that the principal at Lumberton ISD violated parental
consent requirements. LeBlanc recounted her confrontation with the LISD
principal to WND:
“I asked the principal why she thought it
was okay to take a written statement from my daughter without me
present? She stated to us that it is a normal procedure they do at
Lumberton High School when incidents occur. They have children sign
statements all the time without parents present; that it is their
procedure. I told her that it was not ok and that this was not a typical
‘incident’ like a classroom skirmish or a disobedient student.”
According to LeBlanc, “The principal
eventually told me that it could have been handled better, and that she
probably should have called the parents.”
Madelyn told WND that she felt coerced and
pressured into writing the incident report. LeBlanc noted that her
daughter had called crying from the restroom, telling her mother that
she had been dismissed for the day as in a disciplinary action.
LeBlanc also noted that she had been denied access to the principal at first, and had the sense that she was being put off.
“When I arrived at the school and asked
the front desk clerk for the principal, she stated she [the principal]
was not there. I then told her that a statement was just taken from my
daughter and she needed to get someone to the front to speak with me.”
LeBlanc continued, “The principal’s
secretary then told me that the principal was gone but she could take my
name and number. I refused. I told the secretary to get the principal
on the phone.
“The front desk clerk then picked up her
phone and called to the principal’s secretary and said in a low tone
‘Those parents are here,’” said LeBlanc.
“Did we do everything right? Probably not,
but we attempt to teach our students critical thinking skills so they
can judge for themselves,” he said. “I can honestly say, to my
knowledge, Lumberton ISD has never converted a single student to Islam.”
David Bellows, a Lumberton resident, however, challenged whether the lesson involved “critical thinking.”
He told WND Valastro disallowed a Bible history course previously, an apparent violation of a Texas statute, in 2008.
Read it all (and if you have young children consider home schooling, ASAP!).
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