Brokeback Mountain Didn't Play Well In Chicago

Readers' Note: I try not to hit too many "Can you believe this?" stories. Too many web readers suffer from what I call "outrage fatigue." There is just so much indignation we can muster before we concede and surrender. This one just really sticks out to me, even more than the recent sixth grade teacher gun scare farce. I warn you that I rant a little in this post.

Parents must be involved in their child's education if they have any hope of raising a capable and stable individual. As such, they have a right to question what is going on in their child's school or district. Some even have the ability to level a lawsuit because of a lapse of judgement. Such is the case in Chicago where the Board of Education has been named in a lawsuit by an eighth grader and her parents. They have also sued the principal, a Ms. Jewel Diaz, and a subtitute teacher named Ms. Buford. What did they do? Ms. Buford showed the class a movie called Brokeback Mountain.

Those who have seen the film or read the reviews don't need to be told that the film confronts sexual issues that would best be tackled by parents, the legal guardians of their children. Did that stop Ms. Buford? Of course not. She had the class for that period and they were going to learn what she wanted them to learn. According to the article,

The substitute asked a student to shut the classroom door at the West Side school, saying: "What happens in Ms. Buford's class stays in Ms. Buford's class," according to the lawsuit.

I wonder where she got such a catchy phrase. It sounds akin to what so many internet predators say to their victims, "Don't tell your parents." Such abuses depend on secrecy and shame, and the only way to defeat the abuse is to expose it. If what the suit alleges is true, it's obvious that Buford knew what she was doing. Whether the child was truly traumatized is immaterial to the fact that the parents' rights (in her case, her guardians' rights) were violated. Parents have a right to know what their children are learning in school.

Unfortunately, they don't have a whole lot of control, unlike most homeschooling families. This is what it's broken down to. Unless you want your children exposed to same sex kissing in the halls, Darwinian evolution taught as gospel, and pet projects that involve raising your children to be Marxists, you don't want your kids in public school. I have a feeling a lot of parents don't want all three. Even more parents probably don't want teachers molesting or raping their children, I would wager. Yet this is what happens there. Is the NEA concerned? Nope, they're leading the charge. One education analyst put it to me very bluntly: The NEA is looking to turn the children in their schools into little liberal Democrats. I would add that they're getting paid with our tax money to do it.

I will say it again: Parents have a right to question what is going on in their child's education. Even better, I hope and pray that more parents will take such an interest in their child's education that they begin to educate them from their point of view. Maybe a few will even end up homeschooling.