Texas School Forces Students to Sign Waiver Stating "Burqas Were Voluntary"

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.

Superintendent John Valastro has made public statements on the issue.

“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.

Earlier reports connected CSCOPE – the controversial curriculum used by  Lumberton ISD and 875 other public schools in Texas – to the incident in  Lumberton High School. CSCOPE has come under fire for its content, including  accusations of multiple lessons demonstrating a pro-Islamic agenda. CSCOPE  representatives had claimed that such content had been “taken out of context” or  that they were “old lessons that have since been taken down.”

Proponents of CSCOPE have defended the curriculum management system,  previously releasing a 72-page study claiming that a Christian – not Islamic – bias exists in lesson content.

But critics counter that the report was written by Region 10, a division of  the TESCCC, which designs and sells CSCOPE to schools. Critics also contend that  Lumberton may be in violation of a binding SBOE resolution forbidding  pro-Islamic subject-matter in Texas public school classrooms.

In a statement last week, the district explained, “Lumberton ISD has  purchased the CSCOPE curriculum however; the teachers are not required to teach  the lessons that are provided. The school district follows the Year at a Glance,  a scope and sequence of the adopted Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, as  well as the Instructional Focus Document which explains the Rationale, Common  Misconceptions for students, TEKS, and the Key Academic Vocabulary that supports  conceptual development.”

CSCOPE critic and education expert Jeanine McGregor, appointed by the State  Board of Education to research CSCOPE before the Senate hearings some months  ago, told WND that the LISD release was not telling the whole story.

McGregor contends, “The Lumberton ISD [burqa] story reaffirms what I was told  by Gifted and AP teachers from across the state. They were not required to teach  CSCOPE but they were required to follow the VAD (Vertical Alignment Document  from CSCOPE) which dictates when a subject will be taught. So, in essence, they  do have to follow CSCOPE. The Lumberton teacher stated in the news article that ‘I have to teach you this’ – that means someone was forcing her to use those  terms. Who? That is a question I would ask next if I were a parent.”

CSCOPE also said in a new statement it would not be granting parents direct  access to lesson content – something CSCOPE representatives had promised during  state Senate hearings to do.

The curriculum organization explained: “We believe that this would actually  undercut teachers’ ability to customize a lesson to best serve the students in  their classrooms. The teacher should always be a parent’s primary contact in  discovering what resources are being used in the learning environment.  Ultimately, the teacher and district decide if a CSCOPE lesson will be used in  full, in part, or not at all…The TESCCC does not wish to do anything that could  generate confusion among parents and teachers. The TESCCC strongly believes and  supports local decision making within school districts and insists that the  member districts have the ability to release any CSCOPE content  themselves….”

The position conflicts with the recent requirement imposed by the Senate  Education Committee that CSCOPE must make all lesson content directly accessible  to parents, officials said.

source:  http://www.wnd.com/2013/03/parent-school-demanded-waivers-after-wnd-report/

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