DADI.org

The public education system of today's America is quite interesting – no, let me be more honest – it's downright terrifying. Let's see:

• At Iowa State University you can learn the proper way to asphyxiate during sex in their very own BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Sadism and Masochism) club!

• In Eldon, Missouri, a Montessori School was threatened with closure by the Missouri Department of Health if they allowed parents to send their children to school with homemade box lunches.

• A federal law, FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, ironically allows schools to disclose, "... without [parental] consent, 'directory' information such as a student's name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards and dates of attendance."

Let's begin with Iowa State. The name of the BDSM group is – brace yourself – "CUFFS." CUFFS isn't the first such BDSM "discussion" group at a college or university in the United States. Consider such notables as Columbia University, the University of New York at Albany, and Oberlin College in Ohio, where it was blocked.

How proud the parents of Duane Long Jr., the student leader of CUFFS, must be. At CUFFS in Iowa State, he shows students how to bind a pair of metal-studded wrist cuffs and then demonstrates how to use a leather flogger by thrashing his arm with it. "This one stings. That one makes a thud," he is quoted as saying (Associated Press, Oct. 12, 2003) as he tested out the items.

Their faculty adviser, William Robinson, a philosophy professor, likens such behaviors to skydiving or spelunking – simply as unusual interests.

According to a follow-up article in the Iowa State Daily (Oct. 31, 2001), student participants take field trips to a home-improvement store to find everyday household items that could be used in BDSM activities. And, in stressing that BDSM was really not all about sex, Mr. Long emphasized that "most people in the BDSM community don't have sex with their partners. For them, a spanking in itself is fulfilling."

Where are the school shrinks and administrators when children are so far off base? Violence and pain as a form of intimacy is not considered abnormal, perverted, disturbed and pathetic – screaming out for help? Yikes!

Without God, all things are possible – too many sad and bad things.

In Eldon, Mo., as reported in the Eldon Adviser, the Missouri Department of Health was trying to force a Montessori School (functioning positively for about 30 years) to serve a state-approved lunch (and we all know how healthy public-school lunches are!?) or be shut down. The option of brown bagging it from home was considered unacceptable because the state couldn't control what the mothers put in those mysterious brown bags.

I went on the air with this story, chiding (tongue-in-cheek) the mothers of Missouri for not being competent to make peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches – which is obviously why the state won't let them feed their children lunch ... although ... what about breakfast and dinner? Hmmm. I even went so far as to explain the proper procedure in PBJ construction and to demonstrate my bias for grape jelly.

It is not a secret that I have begged parents numerous times on my program to take their children out of the public-school system – which is more hell-bent on issues such as punishing those who give a child – wheezing and suffocating with an asthma attack – their inhalers, as well as making sure that the children are well indoctrinated in leftist social agendas without parental knowledge or permission.

Happily, media attention to this one turned it around. The students of the Eldon Montessori School can continue to go with their mommies' home-made lunches.

In September of 2003, I received an urgent fax from a parent of the Jackson School District in Canton, Ohio. "As the one person I feel has a far reaching voice and truly cares about the well-being of our children, I am sending you an article which just appeared in a local school district newspaper. I have had arguments with the school district on many issues, but this one tops all stupidity to date.

"Most residents in the district receive the school district newsletter as bulk mail item from the postmaster. I am giving you a part of the actual newspaper page so that you can see how the school board tried to bury this article. It concerns a policy change made 7/03, and this policy does not appear anywhere in the information sent home with kids at the beginning of the school year. If a parent missed this article, they lose.

"Here is what the article says: 'As per Jackson Local Board of Educational policy, our schools make available, upon request, certain directory information which includes student names, addresses, telephone numbers, date and place of birth, major field of study, participation in ... activities and sports, height, weight if student is a member of an athletic team, date of graduation ... Parents and adult students may refuse to allow disclosure of any or all such directory information upon written notice to the building principal within 10 days of receipt of this notice.'"

Ten days of receipt of this notice when it is placed in a bulk mailer? The information is assumed "public" unless the parent shuts it down? I would not have believed this had I not called the superintendent of the school (Cheryl Haschak) my very own self. She quite coldly confirmed that this was the policy. She defended the "bulk mail" communication to parents by saying the federal Department of Education mandate permits this round about way of reaching parents. And so it does. FERPA says, "The actual means of notification (special letter, inclusion in a PTA bulletin, student handbook, or newspaper article) is left to the discretion of each school."

You have got to be kidding. Discretion?

First of all, this information should be private unless and until information is specifically released. Otherwise, the schools are in collusion with pedophiles, kidnappers and identity thieves.

What scares and demoralizes me the most is that as a people, Americans do not express unified outrage anymore. Kobe Bryant – an admitted adulterer and accused rapist – gets a standing ovation from an adoring crowd at a basketball game; hallowed halls of higher education subvert the very meaning of education to give forums to perverts, racists and gender hostilities (which is the definition of a black /Hispanic /women's /whatever studies curriculum) and biased, leftist, anti-Western Civilization courses ... and nothing happens.

Why is that?

(For your answer to that question, please fax me at 818-461-5140)

Dr. Laura Schlessinger is the best-selling author of books focused on successful relationships, parenting ideas, morality and personal ethics. She may be contacted by fax at (818)461-5140, or by writing: Dr. Laura Schlessinger; P.O. Box 8120; Van Nuys, CA 91409.

Back to DA*DI's Home