Pro-Palestian Propaganda Speakers Defended By ACLU For Public High School
If the Gideons leave a box of tiny New Testaments in a box outside a school cafeteria for students to voluntarily take or leave, the ACLU will be up and arms before you can say “proselytize”. However, When a Palestian propaganda group packaged to indoctrinate hatred for Israel and the U.S. is cancelled because no opposing views were to be presented the ACLU sees it as a worthy cause to be defended.
At Andover High School in Massachusetts, Ron Francis, the physics teacher is stirring up controversy once again. In the past he has paid his students to work for his anti-Israel political organization, defended the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, and joked about becoming a suicide bomber. I guess this is what liberal elites consider a quality teacher in our public schools.
Now he is stirring up more attention with his latest brainwashing attempt, and getting the ACLU involved to boot. He invited the group Wheels of Justice, a pro-palestian/ anti-Israel group to speak at the Highschool. Now that the school refused due to no opposing ideals being presented, the ACLU threats have appeared and the school looks to cave in.
Last Month the Wheels of Justice human rights group was blocked from speaking at Andover High school because pro-apartheid (Jimmy Carter’s words ! now) forces, including the ADL and other zionists, pressured the Andover Public Schools Administration to not allow the Wheels of Justice peace group to speak at Andover High School.
In a dramatic turn-around, that decision has been reversed today thanks to the intervention of the ACLU and several social studies teachers who were prepared to go to court over the matter. Negotiations between the School Committee lawyer and the ACLU led to the school administration agreeing to have the Wheels of Justice speak at the high school and also paying the expenses to bring the Wheels of Justice back.
Eric Danis has an excellent article explaining the situation at Front Page Magazine.
It was Francis who originally contacted the WoJ to speak at his high school’s social studies conference. Despite the impropriety of a teacher turning a school-sponsored conference into a de facto political rally, Francis has never been publicly reprimanded by the school’s administration.
However, after receiving complaints from a local rabbi and the Anti-Defamation League, the school’s administration has at last taken action against Francis’s brainwashing attempts by canceling the WoJ’s appearance. One of the factors cited in support of the cancellation was a lack of balance, since no pro-Israel speakers were scheduled to speak at AHS (although there were vague claims about an unnamed “second group of presenters at a later date.”)
The school’s decision won broad community support. In the aftermath of the cancellation, the two most influential Andover newspapers, the Eagle-Tribune and the Andover Townsman, published editorials agreeing with the decision to cancel the WoJ‘s appearance. “Allowing outside groups of any ideological stripe to come in and proselytize students detracts from the educational function of schools. Teachers who claim they merely seek to provide a range of world perspectives but refuse to permit opposing views are not interested in education. They’re seeking indoctrination of students,” said the Tribune’s editorial board.
Francis rebelled from the school’s decision and attempted to rally his students in protests against the school. Tommy Meyers, the president of the Andover Teachers Union and one of Fracis’s allies, was the one to contact the ACLU about the matter. He believed the school’s decision to refuse brainwashing propaganda violated his free speech.
Despite the school’s attempts to remedy the situation by providing a forum with speakers on both sides of the issue, Meyers is still threatening to sue if the original seminars do not take place as planned.
“Prohibiting Wheels of Justice to speak at the school violates the First Amendment, he said.” Such statements make the idea of Meyers as a free-speech advocate difficult to credit. He clearly rejects a balanced forum that would allow pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian speakers to be heard. Like Francis, Meyers supports free speech — unless it is used by defenders of Israel.
Their dubious motivations notwithstanding, the various threats by Meyers, Francis and the ACLU have apparently been effective. The high school administration has once more agreed to host the WoJ. According to a statement by the school principal, Peter Anderson, WoJ will come to Andover High for one in a series of three forums, each of which will allegedly offer varying perspective on Middle East conflicts.
It really isn’t surprising that the ACLU would jump right into the middle of this mess. They have a history of defending anti-Israel/ Pro-Palestian militant groups like the PLO, and have been advocates for anti-American propaganda to be available for our school children. Just don’t try bringing any Bibles around.
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