Florida School to Homeschoolers:

Sign Up Or Face Criminal Charges

SEE: http://the-trumpet-online.com/school-to-homeschoolers-sign-up-or-face-criminal-charges/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

A number of homeschool parents in Florida have been ordered by a public school district to register their children in classes within three days or face “criminal prosecution” under state law.

A meeting within the next week likely will determine whether school officials will face a lawsuit in response to the threat.

The issue is being addressed by the Home School Legal Defense Association, which said its members in the Santa Rosa County School District received letters demanding information that parents are not required to provide under state law.

The information included Social Security number, race and grade level.

The parents also received a letter demanding they comply with a new district policy requiring them to show proof of residency and to prove they no longer were registered in whatever district they most recently had been under.

HSLDA said its staff attorney, TJ Schmidt, wrote to Terri Moore, who was secretary in what used to be called the Alternative Academics and Continuous Improvement Department, as well as Santa Rosa Supt. Tim Wyrosdick “pointing out that Florida law does not require proof of residency or any of the additional information that the district requested.”

A weeks-long silence by the district suggested to HSLDA that the policy had been changed to comply with state law.

“How wrong we were,” HSLDA said.

The homeschooling families now were receiving “termination” letters from Moore, who had moved on to become a secretary to Laura Austin, principal of the Santa Rosa Blended Academy/Home Education Department.

See what American education has become, in “Crimes of the Educators: How Utopians Are Using Government Schools to Destroy America’s Children.”

The parents were bluntly told the district was “terminating your request to file your intent to home school in Santa Rosa County School District.”

The letter said, according to HSLDA, each family had three days “to register your student in public or private school.”

“Failure of a parent or guardian to enroll a student in an attendance option after termination of a home education program shall constitute non-compliance with the compulsory attendance requirement and may result in criminal prosecution of the parent under Section 1003.27(2), F.S.”

Schmidt reached out immediately to the district and was given the contact for the schools’ lawyer, who responded to a message the next day.

The lawyer encouraged HSLDA to take the case to court, declining to discuss the problem except to say other school districts were doing the same thing, HSLDA said.

“He refused to accept that the Florida Department of Education denies local school districts authority to add to the home education law or listen to the fact that HSLDA has opposed all other districts’ attempts at similar requirements. Some of these other situations have been resolved, and some are still being worked out,” HSLDA said.

When HSLDA asked Wyrosdick to have the item placed on the agenda for the next school board meeting, Nov. 17, he refused, HSLDA said.

Working with a local lawyer, HSLDA convinced the district to “put any action against these families on hold.” Now, Schmidt and Santa Rosa lawyer Stephen Pitre plan to be at the board meeting Nov. 17.

“We are also asking all homeschooling families in Santa Rosa to come to the meeting. We expect a large turnout,” HSLDA said. “Lord willing, the result will be similar to the outcome in Alachua County earlier this year.”

In Alachua County, the district dropped a number of demands and created a committee of homeschooling parents to advise on district policy, HSLDA said.

WND was unable to get an answer at the school district Wednesday afternoon, and a message left at the home of a school board member was not returned.

HSLDA said it was evaluating the need for litigation in the dispute.

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PUBLIC SCHOOL BRAINWASHING;

PLUS NEW AGE MYSTICISM, HINDUISM

Feds Spend $2.5 Million on Mindfulness Intervention for Kindergarteners

Yoga, ‘calm spots,’ and ‘brain breaks’

BY ELIZABETH HARRINGTON

SEE: http://freebeacon.com/issues/feds-spend-2-5-million-on-mindfulness-intervention-for-kindergarteners/; republished below

in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

The Department of Education is spending upwards of $2.5 million to bring a mindfulness intervention to kindergarteners in Chicago, where kids can go to “calm spots” in the corner to watch nature videos.

The National Institutes of Health has spentover $100 million studying the New Age meditation technique, but it is not the only federal agency pouring federal funding into mindfulness. The Education Department has introduced a “Calm Classroom” program into 3,000 schools through its Investing in Innovation fund, costing taxpayers $2,513,093.

“Mindfulness is a secular, psychological mode involving non-judgmental focus on present-moment sensations, and has been shown to have a number of benefits to well-being,” the grant abstract for the project states. “Our project offers an innovative approach not only because mindfulness is unique relative to traditional social-emotional learning (SEL) programs, but also because of added elements designed to replenish children’s focus directly back into the content of school, including always-available ways to take very brief ‘brain breaks.’”

The program involves classrooms doing mindfulness activities three times a day. The exercises include “guided breathing with eyes closed, stretching, yoga-inspired poses, ‘body scan’ visualizations, focus on external objects, and ‘social mindfulness’ exercises involving peer interaction.”

The grant was awarded to the Erikson Institute, a graduate school that specializes in early childhood development.

Erikson invented the “Calm Spot,” or a corner for kids to put on noise canceling headphones and watch “soft fascination” videos of nature scenes on tablets.

“In addition to traditional mindfulness exercises that involve inner focus and require practice, our intervention also includes components involving outer focus on items intended to automatically attract children’s soft fascination and promote attention replenishment, such as videos of animals or nature scenes,” the institute wrote in its grant application. “These scenes, along with occasional, gently voiced reminders (e.g., ‘Are you still watching the spider spin that amazing web?’) will be displayed on tablets stationed in what we call ‘The Calm Spot.’”

“Our Calm Spot is not only for the reduction of ‘big feelings’ such as anger (Smith, 2013), but also for the reduction of internally disruptive experiences such as mental fatigue or lack of engagement,” Erikson said.

Erikson also uses what it calls “At Your Desk Anytime” methods, where children can engage in mindfulness throughout the day.

“They may choose ‘Make a Wish Breath’ during which they close their eyes, make a wish, breathe in, breathe out three times, and then repeat the breathing sequence,” according to the application.

Teachers in the program also have to participate in mindfulness and will be trained how to teach the meditation technique to children. An “impact booster” requires mindfulness exercises to “begin every teacher staff meeting.”

“Teachers are trained on tone of voice, pacing, and on minimizing and addressing problems children may have engaging in the activities,” the application stated. “Exercises are not limited to those that require stillness, silence, or closed eyes. Some involve vigorous motor activity (e.g., ‘Music Scribble,’ ‘Shake Like Spaghetti’), slow motor activity (e.g., ‘Seated Mountain,’ ‘Standing Half Moon”), vocalizing (e.g., “Twist and Count,’ ‘Bee’s Buzz’).”

Other activities include “Looking at One Thing” and “Smile Time.”

Erikson said called the project “invaluable.”

“This is an invaluable project because social-emotional learning in children is just as important as academic learning,” said Geoffrey Nagle, president and CEO of Erikson. “At Erikson, we concentrate on the development of the whole child, and this project will help ensure that disadvantaged children have the tools they need to focus and succeed in school.”

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Project Safe Campus

(Updated) DHS/Police are paying school kids to spy on classmates
SEE: http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2015/11/dhspolice-are-paying-kids-to-spy-on.html?m=1; republished below in full unedited

for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Apparently DHS's "If You See Something Say Something" spying program isn't enough. Now DHS/Police want to turn school kids into spies.

The "Project Safe Campus" (PSC) program is an anonymous CASH rewards program that pays students $100.00 to spy on fellow classmates!

According to a statement from Detroit public schools...

"The goal of PSC is to increase the number of anonymous tips coming from the schools. Students who give tips that result in disciplinary action can earn $100 cash rewards."

This program incentivizes schools and universities to spy on students.

Updated: 11/11:

The Missouri University Police Department (MUPD) asked students to report ‘hurtful speech.’

The MUPD sent an email to students yesterday morning urging them to call them and report any hurtful speech they encounter on the campus. Click here to see MUPD's report a student link.

The MUPD email asked “individuals who witness incidents of hateful and/or hurtful speech or actions” to call the department’s general phone line “to continue to ensure that the University of Missouri campus remains safe.”They suggest that students provide a detailed description of the offender, their location or license plate number, and even to take a picture if possible.

Schools and campuses will RECEIVE $3,000 from PSC for EVERY actionable tip DHS/Police receive:

Image source: DetroitK12

"Now the Crime Stoppers program is awarding tip matching donations up to $3,000 per individual student council for supporting and promoting Project Safe Campus in their schools".

This is an incredibly dangerous program, A school or university that has budgetary issues will now receive $3,000 for every student they report to DHS/ Police!

Watch ex- NBA player and PSC spokesman Willie Burton describe their plans to expand to colleges on "Street Beat" a local Detroit television show. (interview starts at approx. 6:30). Fyi, Burton went to high school in Detroit.

The PSC program is funded by "Crime Stoppers" which is run by DHS. A 'Crime Stoppers and Homeland Security' search returned 108,000 hits. Crime Stoppers is in EVERY police department in the country and will soon be in every school.

DHS is using a clueless ex-NBA player and former Michigan resident to start a new nationwide student spying program, all in the name of SAFETY.

The DHS student spying program goes by a few of different names:

1.) The Louisiana Safe Schools program pays students $2,500 to spy on their classmates.
2.) The Laredo, Texas's Campus Crime Stoppers program pays students $1,000 to spy on their classmates.
3.) Michigan's "Fast Fifty" pays students $50.00 to spy on their classmates.

Isn't it interesting these spy programs, got their start in areas where unemployment is high and incomes are low? Why would DHS/Police target low-income areas like Louisiana, Michigan and Laredo,Texas? Unemployed students eager to make some quick cash, now have an incentive to turn in their friends and family for a "fast fifty" or more.

Who in their right mind, thinks it's a good idea to pay kids and schools to spy on students? Where does it stop? The'Greatest Generation' fought to stop Nazi Germany which turned their school kids into spies.  After WW2 Americans fought against the USSR which also turned their school kids into spies.

Have we learned nothing?

Who stands to profit from this brazen spy for-profit scheme? If you guessed DHS and private stakeholders (companies) give yourself a gold star:

“We know that we cannot do this work alone. That’s why we have expanded our collaboration with key stakeholders not only within the DPS family – including our own police officers, citizen patrollers, academic team, principals, staff, parents, students and our contracted security officers – but among outside partners and police agencies,” said Police Chief Stacy Brackens.

The U.S. Dept. of Education (USDOE) and the Michigan DOE are also using a Restorative Practices program which claims to reduce crime, improve student behavior, restore relationships etc.

Students everywhere will soon be indoctrinated by our governments' Office of Special Education program called "Positive Behavior Intervention."

"The purpose of the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Implementation Blueprint is to guide leadership teams in the assessment, development, and execution of action plans."

Still doubt this is being implemented throughout the country?

Government propaganda teams, sorry I meant Behavioral Intervention Teams are already in K – 12 Schools,Colleges and Universities, and Corporations/Organizations!

Click here to view their "School Climate Transformation Grants" section, which boasts about being in 12 states and 71 school districts.

These so-called 'specialists' who decide whether a kid needs more government or police intervention could have undergone only 5 hours of training! It takes anywhere from 5 hours to two days and sometimes up to four days to become a behavioral specialist! Click here to read more.

Below is a list of positive 'Behavioral Interventions and Supports' (PBIS) core principles:

1.) We can effectively teach appropriate behavior to all children. All PBIS practices are founded on the assumption and belief that all children can exhibit appropriate behavior. As a result, it is our responsibility to identify the contextual setting events and environmental conditions that enable exhibition of appropriate behavior. We then must determine the means and systems to provide those resources.

What they're really saying is, putting your kids in government schools is no longer about education, its about INDOCTRINATION!  This is eerily reminiscent of Nazi Germany who kidnapped over 200,000 children and indoctrinated them.

2.) Intervene early. It is best practices to intervene before targeted behaviors occur. If we intervene before problematic behaviors escalate, the interventions are much more manageable. Highly effective universal interventions in the early stages of implementation which are informed by time sensitive continuous progress monitoring, enjoy strong empirical support for their effectiveness with at-risk students.

What they're really saying is, the police will intervene and monitor EVERY student! Click here & here to read more.

3.) Use of a multi-tier model of service delivery. PBIS uses an efficient, needs-driven resource deployment system to match behavioral resources with student need. To achieve high rates of student success for all students, instruction in the schools must be differentiated in both nature and intensity. To efficiently differentiate behavioral instruction for all students. PBIS uses tiered models of service delivery.

What they're really saying is, it's up to the government to decide which type of behavioral instruction each student will receive!

4.) Use research-based, scientifically validated interventions to the extent available. No Child Left Behind requires the use of scientifically based curricula and interventions. The purpose of this requirement is to ensure that students are exposed to curriculum and teaching that has demonstrated effectiveness for the type of student and the setting. Research-based, scientifically validated interventions provide our best opportunity at implementing strategies that will be effective for a large majority of students.

This is an incredibly misleading and false statement. First off, the "No Child Left Behind" has no scientific validity and hasmany problems. Secondly, not a single 'scientific intervention' has ever been proven to be 100% effective.

5.) Monitor student progress to inform interventions. The only method to determine if a student is improving is to monitor the student's progress. The use of assessments that can be collected frequently and that are sensitive to small changes in student behavior is recommended. Determining the effectiveness (or lack of) an intervention early is important to maximize the impact of that intervention for the student.

What they're really saying is, the gov't is frequently assessing every student.

6.) Use data to make decisions. A data-based decision regarding student response to the interventions is central to PBIS practices. Decisions in PBIS practices are based on professional judgment informed directly by student office discipline referral data and performance data. This principle requires that ongoing data collection systems are in place and that resulting data are used to make informed behavioral intervention planning decisions.

What they're really saying is, our gov't is using student data to assess everyone!

7.) Use assessment for three different purposes. In PBIS, three types of assessments are used: 1) screening of data comparison per day per month for total office discipline referrals, 2) diagnostic determination of data by time of day, problem behavior, and location and 3) progress monitoring to determine if the behavioral interventions are producing the desired effects.

What they're really saying is, every interaction a student has ever had with teachers, police etc., is being recorded.

Students are being given assessments from kindergarten-college

Every student is given a "THREAT ASSESSMENT" by police and school administrators.

"The Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines (V-STAG) is a school-based manualized process designed to help school administrators, mental health staff, and law enforcement officers assess and respond to threat incidents involving students in kindergarten through 12th grade and prevent student violence."

V-STAG was developed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Secret Service, and the U.S. Department of Education.

For more info. about students being given threat assessments read:

"American students are given threat assessments".

"Universities are using data analytics to assess students mental health and much more".

"Common Core creates a womb-to-tomb dossier on kids and families".
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Colorado Sexting Scandal Is One of Many;

and a Reason to Exit Public Schools

BY BOB ADELMANN

SEE: http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/21941-charges-not-likely-to-be-filed-in-colorado-sexting-scandal;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

The district attorney investigating the sexting scandal at a Colorado high school and middle school in Canon City said it isn’t likely that he will press charges as there appeared to be few victims, just willing participants. Besides, under Colorado law, charges filed could lead to forcing those charged with having to file as sex offenders with permanent damage to their futures.

So many students were involved in the sexting ring that the high school’s final football game was cancelled, as officials thought it would be inappropriate in light of the scandal to put their team on the field, especially as many of the players appeared to be involved in the ring.

Fremont County District Attorney Tom LaDoux said that, under Colorado law, individuals under age 18 cannot legally consent to taking or exchanging nude photographs, but he added, “I take the implication of that very seriously and would urge it only if I felt it was absolutely necessary. It is possible there will be no criminal charges filed at all.”

For at least the last three years, students have been hiding nude photographs of themselves and others in a “vault” app in their iPhones, hidden behind innocuous apps such as calculators, and allowing only those with special passwords to access them. Credits were given to those with the most photographs.

Some parents have known about the sexting and brought concerns to the school administration three years ago, but nothing was done until it grew so large and pervasive that finally something had to be done.

The investigation is ongoing, with at least one iPhone being confiscated and a search warrant being sought in an attempt to identify the students by their pictures. It’s expected to take several weeks before a final determination is made about whether charges will be filed in the case.

This is hardly an isolated case. According to Professor Jeff Temple at the University of Texas, nearly 30 percent of American teens have shared at least one nude photo of themselves with another teen on their phones. He added, “I would bet my mortgage it’s happening in every city.”

In Tennessee last week, police charged 16 high-school students in Greenbrier with sexual exploitation of a minor for allegedly distributing nude images of fellow students. In North Carolina two high-school students who were dating were charged with violating child-pornography laws there when they found nude photos on the boy’s iPhone.

Legislators and prosecutors are having difficulty determining what to do about the burgeoning technology that allows sexting to go undetected. In a values-free environment, the question boils down to what is right and wrong. In Colorado it doesn’t matter whether a student took and shared nude photos voluntarily — it’s still a crime. Some states, such as Connecticut, consider sexting a crime but have reduced its status from a felony to a misdemeanor. Other states, such as New York, are requiring those charged to attend a “diversion” program that focuses on the legal, mental, psychological, and social risks and implications of sexting. In simple terms, these students will be forced to undergo state-operated reeducation classes as a result of their crimes.

Psychologists such as Amy Adele Hasinoff, an assistant professor of communications at the University of Colorado, Denver, have struggled to find solutions in the value-free world of public education. In her book Sexting Panic, Hasinoff dances around the moral issues involved and instead focuses on the acceptability of “consensual sharing” and rejects the idea that sexting victimizes young women, encouraging them instead to make their own choices in a value-free world.

But it isn’t a value-free world. It’s a world in which one set of values, or another, will be taught to young innocents. When absolute truth is scoffed at, and relativism is the only truth, “safer sexting” with “trusted partners” is offered by Hasinoff as the only alternative.

This debauchery passing for truth has dismayed Pastor Voddie Bacham of Grace Family Baptist Church in Spring, Texas, for years. Writing at his Exodus Mandate blog, he has urged Christian parents with kids in the secular public schools to quit sending them there:

I am no fan of government education.… I try to make Biblical, philosophical and theological arguments in favor of Christian education as often as possible.

As David Alan Black, New Testament professor at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, put it:

No academic skepticism, no secularist authors, no blatant materialism can so undermine the spiritual life of the country like the completely secularized training of the child under the authority of the state….

If we think we can keep our children in a secular school system and escape the dumbed-down, amoral and immoral results of secular humanism in schools, we are sorely mistaken.

Cornelius Van Til, who spent 43 years of his life teaching Reformed theology at Westminster Theological Seminary, expounded upon the spiritual vacuum that exists in public schools today:

Non-Christian education puts the child in a vacuum.… The result is that the child dies.

Christian education alone really nurtures personality because it alone gives the child air and food.… Modern education philosophy [on the other hand] gruesomely insults our God and our Christ.

How, then, do you expect to build anything positively Christian of theistic upon a foundation which is the negation of Christianity and theism?

The father of Methodism, John Wesley, was equally candid:

Let it be remembered, that I do not speak to the wild, giddy, thoughtless world, but to those who fear God.

I ask, then, for what do you send your children to [public] school? Why? That they may be fit to live in the world?

In which world to you mean — this or the next?

Perhaps you thought of this world only, and had forgot that there is a world to come; yea, and one that will last forever!

Pray take this into your account, and send them to such masters as will keep it always before their eyes. Otherwise, to send them to [a government] school is little better than sending them to the devil.

In five years Freedom Project Academy, developed and nourished by The John Birch Society (the parent company of The New American), has virtually exploded in its enrollment of students exiting the secular public schools in favor of, as the website explains:

the Judeo-Christian belief system as promoted in the Constitution by our Founding Fathers, who strove to guarantee the preservation of our God-given liberties…

We expect our students to be familiar with Biblical history across the Old and New Testaments, and understand the ways that this history has impacted our culture, laws and history — from Genesis to the Ten Commandments and from the Sermon on the Mount, to the Epistles of Paul.

One of the parents frustrated with Canon City High School’s rampant sexting is Heidi Wolfgang, mother of a student there. After learning about the scandal and demanding that the administration do something about it, without success, she did the right thing: She pulled her child from the school and started educating him at home.

The sexting scandals engulfing public schools across the land provide one more reason for concerned parents to do the same. Freedom Project Academy is one attractive and growing alternative for them to consider.

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HIGH SCHOOL SEXTING SCANDAL

(Friday Church News Notes, November 13, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A Colorado high school is being investigated by police for a massive sexting scandal after several hundred indecent images of students were found on cell phones. George Welsh, Superintendent of Schools in the Canon City School District south of Denver, said, “There isn’t a school in the United States probably at this point that hasn’t at some point dealt with the issue of sexting” (“Sexting Scandal,” CNN, Nov. 7, 2015). He is identifying a moral plague, but the authorities only address its symptoms. The root issue is the promotion of moral license at every level of society, particularly by the entertainment industry. It is impossible to effectually deal with sexting without putting moral controls on such things as music, television, movies, social media, and video games. At a deeper level, the issue is the lack of moral authority in a society that is still to a large degree “Christian,” and this is a problem that points to the apostasy and compromise in America’s pulpits. America doesn’t fear God because the fear of God is not preached from most of its pulpits. It was the lack of the fear of God and the spiritual powerlessness of America’s churches that allowed the public schools to be taken over by the godless.