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The Highland Park High school in Illinois won't let it's girls varsity basketball team go compete in a tournament this coming December because its Superintendent's office doesn't like Arizona's politics.
The Supe's office is doing this despite the fact that the team has had a championship season, won their first conference title in 26 years, and had been selling cookies for months to raise money for it.
District 113 Assistant Superintendent Suzan Hebson gave some lame excuses to the Chicago Tribune, first claiming that Arizona is off-limits because they aren't sure how the new immigration law will be enforced.
Right - well, if that were the case, why wouldn't a mature school administrator simply call the Arizona Governor's office and ask?
Anyone that knows the least bit about doing research, (which we hope the school Supe's office would be up on) would know that accessing state legislation and speaking to state officials is really not hard to do. If one were to take the few steps necessary, one would find out that the supposedly horrid immigration law signed last month in Arizona amounts to nothing more than a mandate that federal law be enforced. If the school officials don't like the federal law, why not simply address their concerns to Congress, and let the kids go play basketball?
Well, Hebson said the "turmoil" in Arizona is no place for students of Highland Park High School.
Right...but...the same school officials approved a student trip to China, where dozens of children have been slashed or hacked to death in four separate incidents in the last two months. The school also doesn't appear to have qualms about the students living in Illinois, which for decades has been home of some of America's worst crime families, or going a few miles south into Chicago, the city everyone in America has come to understand as being the most corrupt in the nation, (next to DC, of course)
- By The Way, weren't state legislators just the other day calling for the National Guard to come and patrol Chicago because it has become so extremely dangerous?
Well...Ms. Hebson says,"We would want to ensure that all of our students had the opportunity to be included and be safe and be able to enjoy the experience. We wouldn't necessarily be able to guarantee that."
Make...me...puke. The safety of the team?? What - do they think the police are running around bullying everyone in Arizona? Of course they don't think that - the Supe's office is just throwing that out as an excuse.
News site Chicagoist.com asked if there are undocumented players on the team, or if anyone associated with the team is in the country illegally. Hebson responded to them that she did not know. However, parents say that there are no players on the team that are illegal immigrants.
The final, and worst, excuse Hebson tried to give the Chicago Tribune was that the trip "would not be aligned with our beliefs and values."
What is that supposed to mean? The Principal doesn't believe Federal laws should be enforced? No, not that?
Well...what are the beliefs? Does everyone in that public school have the same beliefs and values? Does this public school have some sort of political vision statement that everyone is aware of and every school decision is measured up to?
Well, even if this public school administration does have such an illegal political vision statement, apparently the team members and their parents do not.
Parent Michael Evans told Fox News, “The school has sent children to China, they’ve sent children to South America, they’ve sent children to the Czech Republic, but somehow Arizona is more unsafe for them than those places. The beliefs and values of China are apparently aligned since they approved that trip,” he added.
Yes, as much as these administrators might believe that they control all thoughts and values in their 80% white, 80% liberal, but (according to them) "diverse" school, the fact is that both liberals AND conservatives do co-exist within its walls. As much as they would like to constrain dissent and intolerantly keep the school as cookie cutter in thought as possible, they have some renegades amongst them.
Yes, while admitting out loud that one is a conservative in this affluently blue Chicago suburb might be akin to a shameful admission that one was gay or pregnant in years gone by, rebellion still finds way to rear it's ugly head. Parents are saying that regardless of how one feels about the new law, it's not the school's place to make such decisions based on politics.
“I’m not sure whose values and what values and what beliefs they’re talking about," Evans said. "We were just going to Arizona to play basketball and our daughters were very disappointed to find out the trip had been canceled.” Evans added that if for some reason a player was worried about safety, she could always choose to stay home without forcing the whole team to.
As the Chicagoist.com noted, "forcing a boycott as a political statement upon students who might disagree with the stance - especially without giving them a choice in the matter - will only ...[do] more harm than good.
So let me get this straight..in the last week, we've had a Principal sending kids home for wearing American flags on their T-shirts while other students were free to wear Mexican Flags; Principals suspending little girls for eating candy, and now this...a Superintendent office deciding for everyone that a misguided, senseless, and hugely hurtful political statement needs to be made.
Is there any wonder why more and more people are pulling their kids out and homeschooling?
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/12/hoop-dreams-shattered-arizona-safety-fears/
http://chicagoist.com/2010/05/12/highland_park_high_kicks_hornets_ne.php
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