Dear Jennifer,

I have never demanded that Hemant Mehta “curb his perfectly legal expression of a constitutional right to freedom of speech,” as your email suggests I did.

Hemant Mehta is free to promote whatever feckless ideas he wants on his public blog. He is free to promote them using whatever kind of obscene language he wants. He is free to provide a forum to whatever foulmouthed writers he wants, like the offensive Dan Savage. And parents have the right to decide if he, who is a role model for students, is the kind of man they want influencing their children. The First Amendment guarantees our right to speak. It does not guarantee no social consequences for the words we publicly speak.

Teachers, like, for example, our Congressmen, are role models whether they like it or not. If an effective Congressman, in his free time had a blog and on it used obscene language and encouraged teens as young as 14 to do his bidding by engaging in deliberate deceit, his constituency would be livid.

As a mother, you must know that when teens like their teachers, especially if they think their teacher is cool, they tend to be inordinately influenced by him or her. Teens will be less discriminating about, less critical of , and more easily disposed to accept the ideas and views of a teacher whom they like. This is why many parents care deeply about the character of their children’s coaches and teachers–not merely about their competence.

Sincerely,

Laurie Higgins

Director of the Division of School Advocacy
Illinois Family Institute
(815) 519-3808
_________________________________________________________________________________________

My children attended school here in Canada, in public schools. I never would have dreamed of demanding that professionals teaching in a public institution somehow curb their perfectly legal expression of a constitutional right to freedom of speech, based on your comfort level. You have every right to believe what you wish, and shout it to the rooftops. So does Hemant. An articulate opponent, even if he does use cuss words…and if they offend, please feel free not to read his blog…is always better than blind agreement. It is only through real dialogue and dissent and debate that there will ever be any progress on any of these civil rights issues.

If public school teachers were compelled to fulfill their now empty verbal commitments to “honoring all voices,” “fostering diversity,” and “developing critical thinking skills,” there would be no need for a Truth Academy.

My head just exploded with irony.

Yeah. Bitch got issues.
/gangsta

It is outrageous that the public school is trying to prevent the kids from attending a parade. where can I send money to make sure more schools can go, and maybe participate? For T-shirts or a snack, maybe? thank you for bringing this to my attention. Imagine the school trying to teach the kids not to be proud!

Sincerely,
Jennifer Wesson

I’ll post if I get an answer.

I find it amusing that she uses that picture of you. Presumably she wants to freak out very easily scared parents with it.

Any parent that’s scared by that photo of Hemant must also be scared by Smurfs or the Teletubbies! *giggling*

It speaks to your wholesome affable-ness, Hemant, that that’s the ‘scariest’ photo of you she could find

She (and like minded individuals) fail to provide any evidence for the first claim. And active discrimination is not a “religious freedom.”