Saturday, August 26, 2017
First grader sent to office for 'misgendering' fellow student (Bringing America Down)
A first grader at a California
charter school was sent to the principal’s office this week after she
accidentally “misgendered” a classmate in what’s being called a “pronoun mishap.”
The incident occurred at Rocklin Academy, a school
roiled by controversy after a kindergarten teacher led an in-class
discussion on transgenderism that included a “gender reveal” for a
little boy who was transitioning to a little girl.For kindergartners.
Parents were furious because they were not informed in advance and were not given the chance to opt their five-year-olds from the classroom transgender activity. However, school leaders informed moms and dads – they were not allowed to opt-out – and the state did not require them to notify parents.
The latest incident occurred during the first week of school when a first grader came across a classmate on the playground. She called the student by his given name – apparently unaware that the boy now identified as a girl.
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“This innocent little first grader sees a classmate, calls him by the name she knew him last year and the boy reports it to a teacher,” Capitol Resource Institute’s Karen England told me. “The little girl gets in trouble on the playground and then gets called out of class to the principal’s office.”
Capitol Resource Institute is a California-based public policy group that specializes in strengthening families. And they are working with a number of parents at Rocklin Academy upset about the LGBT agenda being forced on their children.
I reached out to Rocklin Academy numerous times, but they did not return my calls.
England said the first grader was investigated by the principal to determine whether or not she had bullied the transgender child by calling him by his original name. After about an hour it was determined the little girl made an honest mistake and she was not punished or reprimanded.
But she was terribly traumatized by the incident, England said.
“The daughter came home from school upset and crying – saying, ‘Mommy, I got in trouble at school today,’” England told me.
The little girl’s mother, who asked not to be identified, immediately contacted the school to find out what had happened.
“She was told that whenever there is a pronoun mishap with this biological boy who now claims to be a girl -- the school must investigate,” England said.
Capitol Resource Institute provided me with a letter the mother wrote – expressing her extreme concern over how the situation was handled.
“I stressed over and over with the principal that I am all for protecting the rights of [the transgender child], but my children have rights as well,” the parent wrote. “It makes me sad that my daughter felt like she was punished for trying to be kind to the kid.”
England said Alliance Defending Freedom, a nationally-known religious liberty law firm, is currently investigating the playground incident as well as the classroom lesson on gender identity.
“Our focus is on ensuring that every student’s privacy is protected and that parental rights, including the right to be notified that before children are exposed to gender identity teaching, are respected by the school officials,” an ADF spokesman told me.
What’s happening at Rocklin Academy is an example of how schools have become indoctrination grounds for the LGBT agenda.
And the only way to stop the indoctrination is for moms and dads to take a stand.
It may be unpleasant and it may be uncomfortable, but we’ve got to stand up to these activist bullies.
Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary. His latest book is “The Deplorables’ Guide to Making America Great Again.” Follow him on Twitter @ToddStarnes and find him on Facebook.
Trump issues guidance on transgender military ban
President Trump has ordered the military to stop
admitting transgender individuals into the military, sending guidance to
the Pentagon on Friday that the White House wants implemented by March
of 2018, Fox News has learned.
The president signed and
transmitted his directive to the Department of Defense, which includes
the Army, Navy and Air Force, as well as the Department of Homeland
Security, which oversees the Coast Guard.
It directs the secretary of defense and secretary of homeland security to make changes by March 23.“In President Trump's judgment, the previous administration failed to identify a sufficient basis to conclude that terminating long-standing policy and practice would not hinder military effectiveness, disrupt unit cohesion, tax military resources."The directive reinstates the ban on military service for transgender individuals. It also halts military expenses on sexual reassignment surgery, except for those who have already begun medical procedures, and implements criteria for whether transgender individuals already in the military should be allowed to continue to serve.
Transgender service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year when then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, during the Obama administration, lifted the prior ban.
“In President Trump's judgment, the previous administration failed to identify a sufficient basis to conclude that terminating long-standing policy and practice would not hinder military effectiveness, disrupt unit cohesion, tax military resources,” a senior administration official said Friday.
Trump first announced the transgender policy on Twitter on July 26, posting a series of tweets reinstating a ban on transgender individuals in the military that was lifted by then-President Barack Obama at the end of his second term.
The president praised the armed forces in his weekly presidential address, released Friday.
“Every person who puts on the uniform makes our nation proud,” Trump said. “They all come from across our land. They represent every race, ethnicity, and creed. But they all pledge the same oath, fight for the same cause, and operate as one team – with one shared sense of purpose.”
White House imposes fresh sanctions on Venezuela 'dictatorship'
President Trump Friday signed an executive order
imposing sweeping financial sanctions on Venezuela in a move meant to
ratchet up pressure on the country's president, Nicolas Maduro, as he
tries to prevent a debt default.
The new sanctions prohibit
financial institutions from providing new money to the Caracas
government or state oil company PDVSA. It would also restrict PDVSA's
U.S. subsidiary, Citgo, from sending dividends back to Venezuela as well
as ban trading in two bonds the government recently issued to
circumvent its increasing isolation from western financial markets.
"These measures are carefully calibrated to deny the
Maduro dictatorship a critical source of financing to maintain its
illegitimate rule, protect the United States financial system from
complicity in Venezuela's corruption and in the impoverishment of the
Venezuelan people, and allow for humanitarian assistance," the White
House said in a statement.A senior Trump administration official said additional sanctions would be imposed if Maduro doesn't reverse course and meet opposition demands that he roll back plans to rewrite the constitution, free dozens of political prisoners and hold fair and transparent elections.
In a call to brief reporters on the measures, the official said the United States has significant influence over Venezuela's economy but does not want to wield it in an irresponsible manner that could further burden the already-struggling Venezuelan people.
Reflecting those concerns and a strong lobby effort by the U.S. oil industry, Friday's action stopped short of cutting off U.S. imports of Venezuelan oil that are crucial both to Venezuela's economy and to Gulf refiners.
The sanctions follow through on Trump's threat last month that he would take strong economic actions if Maduro's increasingly authoritarian government went ahead with plans to create a constitutional assembly that is made up wholly of government loyalists. The opposition boycotted the vote to elect the body's 545 delegates.
Since the assembly was seated, it has voted by acclamation to oust the nation's outspoken chief prosecutor, take lawmaking powers from the opposition-controlled congress and create a "truth commission" that many fear will be used to target the government's political opponents. Several prominent opposition mayors have also been removed or ordered arrested by the government-stacked supreme court.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence signaled the move earlier Friday, tweeting that the U.S. "will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles."
"The birthright of the Venezuelan people has always been and will always be libertad," he wrote, using the Spanish word for "freedom."
The sanctions are likely to worsen a crisis that has already seen Venezuela's oil-dependent economy shrink by about 35 percent since 2014 — more than the U.S. economy did during the Great Depression.
Maduro, who is among some 30 senior officials already barred from the United States, seemed almost resigned to the possibility. He warned this week that the Trump administration was readying a "commercial, oil and financial blockade" in the mold of the one that has punished Cuba for decades. He said it would be meant to pave the way for a U.S. military intervention.
"The economic measures the U.S. government is preparing will worsen Venezuela's economic situation," he told foreign journalists Tuesday, vowing to protect the population from the worst effects of any sanctions.
There was no immediate government reaction Friday even as some leaders of the opposition expressed satisfaction.
"Venezuela's increasing economic and political isolation has a sole culprit: Nicolas Maduro," recently ousted Caracas-area Mayor Ramon Muchacho said in a tweet from exile in Miami.
David Smilde, a Tulane University sociologist who has spent decades researching Venezuela, said blanket sanctions that cut off the government's cash flow and hurt the population are likely to strengthen Maduro in the short-term.
"It will bolster his discourse that Venezuela is the target of an economic war," said Smilde, who supports Friday's more limited sanctions targeting future indebtedness.
But with Venezuela's streets calmer than they have been for months, and the opposition reeling from its failure to prevent the constitutional assembly from going forward, action from an increasingly concerned international community represents the best chance of reining in Maduro, he added.
Maduro is already struggling to combat widespread shortages and triple-digit inflation as oil production has tumbled to its lowest level in more than two decades. Any economic sanctions, however mild, increase the risk of a default on Venezuela's ballooning debt.
The government and PDVSA have about $4 billion in debt payments coming due before the end of the year but only $9.7 billion in international reserves on hand, the vast majority consisting of gold ingots that are hard to trade immediately for cash.
Venezuela has taken desperate steps to remain current on its debt throughout the economic crisis, and the president has blamed his enemies for spreading rumors about any impending default.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio wins pardon from Trump
President Trump granted a pardon to Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz., on Friday.
Arpaio, 85, was recently found
guilty of criminal contempt for defying a judge's order to stop traffic
patrols that allegedly targeted immigrants.
He had been charged with misdemeanor contempt of court for allegedly willfully defying a judge’s order in 2011 and prolonging his patrols for another 17 months.Arpaio acknowledged extending the patrols, but insisted it wasn't intentional, blaming one of his former attorneys for not properly explaining the importance of the court order and brushing off the conviction as a "petty crime."
He was expected to be sentenced on Oct. 5 and faced up to six months in jail if convicted.
"Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now 85 years old, and after more than 50 years of admirable service to our Nation, he is worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon," the White House said in a statement.
"I am pleased to inform you that I have just granted a full Pardon to 85 year old American patriot Sheriff Joe Arpaio," the president tweeted on Friday night. "He kept Arizona safe!"
Arpaio thanked Trump in an earlier tweet, saying that his conviction was the result of a "political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama justice department."
Known for his controversial takes on many issues, including his "birther" campaign against former President Barack Obama and for housing inmates in desert tent camps, Arpaio is best known for his approach to battling illegal immigration. In 2009 he claimed to have arrested 30,000 illegal immigrants since starting his efforts in 2005.
At a rally in Phoenix, on Tuesday, the president asked supporters in the crowd if Arpaio was “convicted for doing his job?”
The crowd cheered.
“He should have had a jury, but I’ll make a prediction: He’ll be just fine,” Trump said. “But I won’t do it tonight, because I don’t want to cause any controversy.”
"We’ll see what happens," Arpaio said amid discussion of the pardon.
“[I]t doesn’t matter because I’m still going to support him as long as he is the president of the United States because that’s the way I am," Arpaio said. "I don’t desert for political reasons. I’ll stick with him.”
But Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who has had a public feud with Trump in recent weeks, was unsupportive of the move.
"Regarding the Arpaio pardon," Flake wrote on Twitter. "I would have preferred that the President honor the judicial process and let it take its course."
During the presidential campaign, Arpaio showered Trump with support. Trump, meanwhile, has invoked Arpaio's name in his calls for tougher immigration enforcement and used some of the same immigration rhetoric and advocated for tactics that made the former Arizona lawman a national name a decade earlier.
Arpaio appeared for Trump at rallies in Iowa, Nevada and Arizona, including a huge gathering in the affluent Phoenix suburb where the sheriff lives. Arpaio also gave a speech at the Republican National Convention in which he said Trump would prevent immigrants from sneaking into the country.
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