Lumberton ISD Mother Says Bullying (even by Teachers) at School Needs to Stop Being Ignored (VIDEO)

This mother addressed the Lumberton School Board at the 3/7/2013 meeting. This meeting was attended by many Lumberton parents who wanted to talk about the Muslim Burqa Lesson incident and the District's use of the flawed CSCOPE curriculum.
She was very upset and wanted to tell the School Board what was going on and ask for help and for answers.

I  am not going to comment on this video, I just want to post it here for everyone to see and come to their own conclusions.

Lumberton ISD Reponds to CSCOPE & Muslim Burqa Lesson - Blames Texas, Starr/EOC Tests, School Choice (Video)

Lumberton ISD School Board Meeting 3/7/2013

Superintendent Valastro Responds to Angry Parents who packed the
meeting demanding answers to many questions. Some Parents were
upset that the School uses CSCOPE, which has recently been exposed
as a flawed lesson plan that lacks transparency, was designed by
liberals, and contained pro Islam lessons and lessons that have
students draw a communist flag. Some parents were upset about the
situation in which Lumberton Students put on Muslim Burqas at the
school without being informed that Burqas are oppressive objects that, in some countries, must be worn by women or fact death. Some were not as upset at the Burqa lesson as they were upset about the handing of the Burqa incident
such as no parental notification and bullying by teachers and
students. Others felt that teachers are punished if they speak out when things have happened in the past at Lumberton schools.

Mr. Valastro had a long presentation that put the focus for the
problems, and needing to use CSCOPE, on money hungry testing
corporations, the Texas Legislature, too many testing requirements
and school choice.

I am not going to give my opinion about what was said at the
meeting. I simply want to post the response from Mr. Valastro in a fair
way for everyone to see and come up with your own conclusions.

Lumberton Students told to call 9-11 Hijackers 'Freedom Fighters' and NOT call Holocaust 'Genocide'

Click on the article below from Todd Starnes to read about these important updates to the story from yesterday about Lumberton Students wearing Muslim Burqas as part of Lumberton ISD (Texas) lesson.

Students Told to Call 9-11 Hijackers “Freedom Fighters” | FOX News & Commentary: Todd Starnes

Lumberton ISD (Texas) Students Told to Wear Muslim Burqas in CSCOPE High School Lesson

Update: After Muslim Burqa Lesson, Student Pulled From Lumberton School - minor students cried today after being forced to sign incident report about what happened without parent notified or allowed to be at the meeting, parents furious - the school says this lesson seems to be a Lumberton lesson and not CSCOPE lesson, but CSCOPE Experts say it was CSCOPE influenced - Senator Dan Patrick Investigating

read more updates here: http://www.texasconservativerepublicannews.com/2013/02/update-after-muslim-burqa-lesson.html

original story:

Wow, I don’t even know what to say. I just read a news story by John Griffing on WND.com about my very own Hometown High School in Lumberton, TX (Lumberton ISD) making students wear Muslim Burqas as part of a History class this past week. (picture displayed below is from a Lumberton Student taken when they had to wear Burqas in class) 

I took down the original picture and put one up with faces blurred

 

Update: After I wrote this article I was contacted by a Lumberton resident with a student in this class, she said this Burqa incident was part of the regular CSCOPE lesson taught to the students and not just some extra curricular activity or student led project. The students were not forced to wear the Burqas, but the Burqas were there as part of the lesson and students were encouraged to try them on. That being said, it was confirmed that everything else being reported as happening in this Lumberton class are true, including the students were taught not to call a terrorist a terrorist and instead call them freedom fighters. Also, the teacher I hear was upset that she even had to teach the lesson and told the students she did not agree with it so I am not out to bash the teacher. Clearly this lesson has been forced into the classroom by someone and it needs to be corrected. This is outrageous!

Earlier this Month (February 2013), BEFORE this Burqa lesson was ever taught, I first learned that Lumberton ISD uses CSCOPE and I wrote this article: Lumberton ISD uses Liberal CSCOPE that teaches Allah is God and Boston Tea Party was Terrorism like 9/11

Right after I wrote that article, I went to the Lumberton School Board meeting and spoke to the School Board at the beginning of the meeting. I explained to the school board the problems with CSCOPE and asked them, at least, to have a hearing about CSCOPE and whether or not it should still be used at Lumberton ISD. The school board members did seem concerned and asked the Superintendent questions about CSCOPE. The Superintendent, John Valastro, assured the Board that the CSCOPE program was not used very much and they had not run into any issues with bad lessons getting taught by teacher.

Not even a month after I was assured at the LISD School Board meeting that there were no CSCOPE lesson problems at Lumberton ISD, I get emailed this article from WND with a picture of Lumberton ISD students in Burqas with quotes from students saying they were even told by the teacher that “we are going to change your perception about Islam” and the teacher in the Burqa lesson, according to a student, also said, “I do not necessarily agree with this, but I am supposed to teach you that we are not to call these people terrorists anymore, but freedom fighters.”

The lesson teaches that Burqas are just an alternative dress style that Muslims wear when in reality, women in Muslim countries are oppressed and FORCED to wear these Burqas or face even possibly death. At the end of class, the students were assigned to write a paper about Egypt. According to one student, they were instructed to discuss “how Egypt was a good country until democracy took over, and that things were finally corrected when the Muslim brotherhood came into power.”

I believe Mr. Valastro and do not think he or the School Board deceived me. I do think they probably being deceived though. I do believe there have been bad lessons that have not been brought to his attention and I believe some teachers use, and are even forced to use, CSCOPE lessons on a regular basis instead of just minimally.  That is the problem with CSCOPE though. There is no transparency! Everything is online and there are thousands of lessons that teachers can pick to use without even having to get it approved. Some of these lessons ARE bad lessons. Even the Superintendent and the school board did not know about what was going on with CSCOPE at LISD. Hopefully, now that this Burqa incident has happened and will be on the news all across America, there will be some action taken regarding CSCOPE being taught at Lumberton ISD. Yes there are legislative fixes that should be coming this year, but until then, Lumberton ISD should really consider having a hearing or something to discuss CSCOPE being used at LISD and whether or not it should even be used anymore until the problems get fixed.

also read these related articles from the last couple of years:

Lumberton Teacher Chastises 6th Grade Students for Watching Fox News Instead of CNN

Sexually Obscene Play shown Lumberton ISD

Lumberton ISD uses Liberal CSCOPE that teaches Allah is God and Boston Tea Party was Terrorism like 9/11

After this Lumberton school board meeting earlier this month where I informed the School District about possible bad Islam lessons going on in Lumberton classrooms, there have been some very shocking updates:

Update: After Muslim Burqa Lesson, Student Pulled From Lumberton School - not CSCOPE, or was it? - Senator Dan Patrick Investigating

Lumberton ISD (Texas) Students Told to Wear Muslim Burqas in CSCOPE High School Lesson

Original Story:

Update: I just got back from the Lumberton ISD meeting. I was very pleased with the response from Superintendent Valastro and the School Board. Lumberton uses CSCOPE minimally so they have not encountered any of the bad lessons, they are aware of some of the issues and address the issues when they come up, they are following the hearings in the Legislature, and they allow parents to come see CSCOPE lessons.

I highly encourage all other Texans to go to their local School Board Meetings and use the public forum section at the beginning of the meeting to let them know how you feel about CSCOPE and ask the board to address the issues.
 

previous story:

Please contact the Lumberton Independent School District and ask them to stop using the liberal, flawed, anti-American curriculum called CSCOPE. 

This Texas curriculum is not vetted by the State Board of Education, it is full of errors, it teaches outrageous things such as calling the Boston Tea Party a terrorist attack like 9/11, it teaches students that Allah is the true God without any comparable lessons on Christianity, and it even has students draw their own communist flag.

I found out about this bad curriculum about 6 months ago but I had no idea that my hometown school district, LISD, was using CSCOPE. Well, I just found out that they are using CSCOPE. It is very disappointing that my tax dollars are going to pay for this. 



Let me be clear, I do not believe that the Lumberton school board members or the superintendent would have approved of CSCOPE if they knew all of the problems with it when it was approved. I am not here today to attack any board members. I like the job Mr. Valastro has done and I know some of the Board members personally and I do not believe they would have approved of CSCOPE knowing the problems with it. Most people in the entire state did not even know of the problems with CSCOPE. All these problems with CSCOPE have recently been revealed in the last 6 months. I do believe though that, now that these issues have come to light, CSCOPE should be suspended pending further review by the School Board via a hearing and also until after the Texas Legislature has finished their investigation into CSCOPE.


Many school districts do not use CSCOPE and there is no need for CSCOPE because the curriculum standards (TEKS) are on the Texas Education Agency website along with many other excellent helps that teachers can use to prepare their students for the new STAAR/EOC tests.

The Texas Legislature is even currently conducting investigation hearings into CSCOPE and the CSCOPE controversy has reached national headlines.

SO WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PROBLEMS WITH CSCOPE?

The following information about CSCOPE is from what was revealed in the Texas Senate Hearing on CSCOPE and from http://www.txcscopereview.com/

There is a growing demand in school district all over Texas to remove CSCOPE from local public schools due to evidence of substandard instructional material, illegally plagiarized lessons, anti-American sentiments, lack of transparency, financial impropriety, anti Christian bias, and even mistakes in the lessons such as math lessons that do not add up to the correct answer.

CSCOPE was originally produced in 2005-2006  by outside consultants, one of whom was Linda Darling-Hammond who is tied to Obama and the Common Core Standards which is a takeover of the public schools by the federal government.

Problems with Transparency and Oversight:

CSCOPE did not seek legal counsel from the Texas Attorney General’s office nor from the Commissioner of Education at the Texas Education Agency, in 2009 when CSCOPE was incorporated as a 501(3)(c) non-charitable organization under the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative (TESCCC). When a governmental body seeks to form a 501 (3)(c) it should have seek legislative authority. None was sought for CSCOPE. 

The Texas Attorney General's office has said that the TESCCC is a governmental body yet it is using public funds to develop its product; uses public dollars to pay its ESC employees;  has no TESCCC business office; does not post its agenda; does not allow the public into its meetings; and will not allow public access to its minutes. Even worse, the TESCCC attempted to silence teachers by imposing a contract threatening legal action against teachers who allowed parents to view lesson content, which is in direct violation of Texas Education Code Chapter 26 E, Section 26.006. 

Why would CSCOPE not want parents to see their children's lesson plans?

There has been no outside, independent review of CSCOPE to make sure that its lessons align with the SBOE-adopted curriculum standards (TEKS) upon which the new STAAR/End-of-Course tests are based. 

It even took the chair of the Texas State Board of Education six months to get a password to CSCOPE, and other State Board Members were denied access completely.

The Elected Officials on the Texas State Board of Education are supposed to approve all curriculum standards in Texas. CSCOPE is a curriculum and has not been reviewed or approved by the State Board of Education.

Problems with Content of Lessons - Anti-American, Anti-Christian

One CSCOPE lesson teaches that the Boston Tea Party was a terrorist attack comparable to 9/11. One lesson alleges that police officers found drugs in Paul Revere's home. One lesson teaches the 5 Pillars of Islam, a lesson in which students role play a trek to Mecca, a lesson that teaches Allah is the same as Almighty God. It is important to point out that there are no lessons in CSCOPE that teach students about Christianity. There is a lesson on Christopher Columbus that cherry-picks his diary to take out any of his references to his belief in God. There is even a lesson in which students are instructed to design their own Communist/Socialist flag.

Conclusion

Many School Districts in Texas have already held public hearings to determine whether or not to halt the use of CSCOPE, at least until the Texas Legislature finishes their investigation and gives CSCOPE oversight and transparency.

Some of these outrageous CSCOPE lesson plans have been removed recently because of the national attention it has received, but with no oversight there is no way to know what other bad lessons are still in CSCOPE and they could return at any time.

I do not believe that the school board members or the superintendent at Lumberton ISD were aware of the problems with CSCOPE. I know a couple of y'all and I am sure you would not have approved a lesson plan that promotes communism. Now that the Lumberton School Board DOES know, I do believe action should be taken to address and correct the issue.

also read these related articles from the last couple of years:

Lumberton Teacher Chastises 6th Grade Students for Watching Fox News Instead of CNN

Sexually Obscene Play shown Lumberton ISD

   

Thank You Lumberton ISD for Honoring Fallen Soldier David Drake

Lumberton, TX lost a Hero. PFC David Drake, 21 Years Old, was killed in Action fighting in Afghanistan.

He received a Heroes welcome when his casket was flown back to southeast Texas.


The streets were lined with people and the Patriot Guard Riders accompanied the hearse as it made a loop through Beaumont and Lumberton.


I specifically wanted to thank Lumberton ISD for allowing Lumberton Schools to release the students from school to go stand along the road as the casket with fallen soldier David Drake passed by.

That was a great way to honor David Drake and also instill in students GOOD American values of honoring and supporting American Soldiers and the sacrifice that they make when they VOLUNTARILY join the military

Thanks!

Sincerely,
David Bellow

New Law Would Require Texas Schools to Do More to Document and Prevent Bullying

UPDATE: For the record, I would be against any national regulations. This is a state level law. I would also be against any requirements to specifically target people who are bullied based on their sexual preference. I believe bullying is bullying and it should not be tolerated no matter what the reason for the bullying. Special treatment of gay bullying (which is only a percentage of all bullying) would open the door to promoting a homosexual agenda. Bullying should be dealt with and not just one type of bullying. There should also be special provisions to allow people to genuinely speak their beliefs against homosexuality. No homosexual deserves to get beat up, but there students should also be able to believe and civilly express their beliefs against that chosen lifestyle. Michigan passed an anti-bullying law recently with a great provision that protects religious beliefs. That section of the Michigan Law reads: (8) This section does not abridge the rights under the First Amendment of the constitution of the United States or under article I of the state constitution of 1963 of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil's parent or guardian. This section does not prohibit a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil's parent or guardian.

The Texas Senate passed a bill that will require School Boards to develop specific methods for reporting and investigating bullying, including allowing school boards to transfer bullies to another classroom or campus.[1]

This is REAL reform.

No longer will a teacher at Seagoville High School in Dallas, TX be able to watch a kid get beat up by a bully and not even report the bully.[2]

No longer will a Principal at Lumberton ISD be able to tell a concerned parent that there is no bullying in his school and that it is “kids having fun.”[3]

With this new law, these schools will have to document and investigate every potential instance of bullying. Now parents will be informed about what is going on at school. Now schools can transfer bullies away from the kids they are bullying.

No more excuses, no more ineffective and politically correct policies that do nothing to prevent bullying. Now schools will actually have to start DOING something about bullying. A Lumberton High School Principal Mr. Bilberry (the same one who said bullying was “kids having fun”) did a play last year that was completely inappropriate.[4] It contained many vulgarities and sexually explicit jokes that had nothing to do with bullying. Even the principal in the play used vulgar language, as if that has to do with bullying. Mr. Bilberry defended the play because it had an “anti-bullying” theme. First of all, the anti-bullying theme was buried in the vulgar language and talking about putting an online ad up to get laid. Second of all, the play does not do anything to actually investigate, report and prevent bullying. Schools don’t need an inappropriate play to do something about bullying, especially since the play was completely ineffective. Schools need real policy to stop bullying. Not even a couple of days after the play a kid got beat up at the school and, over the last few month, students say bullying in Lumberton ISD has not gone down at all.

This law will force all Texas schools to start doing something real to PREVENT and INVESTIGATE bullying. No more talking the talk. It is time to walk the walk.


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[1] http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Texas-lawmakers-approve-anti-bullying-legislation-1392136.php

[2] http://texasgopvote.com/restore-families/security/shock-video-dallas-teacher-watches-and-does-nothing-bully-attacks-student-002846

[3] http://hardincountyconservatives.blogspot.com/2011/03/sexually-obscene-play-shown-lumberton.html

[4] http://hardincountyconservatives.blogspot.com/2011/03/lumberton-isd-lies-about-obscene-play.html