Hawaii Pre-School Reaches Out To Teach Homeless Children

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HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - If the kids can't come to the classroom, the classroom will come to the kids. At Keaau beach park in Waianae, a traveling preschool teaches youngsters their ABC's and 1-2-3's right along the shoreline. The children – who are under age five - are homeless or live in nearby shelters.

"I think our families deserve every bit of the pre-school that everybody else gets in town. I didn't want to compromise our location and compromise the type of education our families get," says Danny Goya, who heads up Ka Pa'alana, the non-profit group that runs the traveling pre-school.

Dawn Tyquiengco and her four year old son, Kawika, live at a nearby homeless shelter. Without this preschool, Kawika wouldn't get the head start he needs. Tyquiengco says, "Oh, school, I said, ‘Yes, I'm going to take him to school', and he likes it."

Tyquiengco's family became homeless three months ago, shortly after their rent was raised. Like many in shelters or who live in tents at Keaau park, they just couldn't afford housing anymore. In fact, new census figures show Hawaii has the highest median rent in the country at $1,293 - more than 400 dollars higher than the national average of $842.

"The economy has really hit people hard here," explains Goya. "We always catch the backlash, and there are more and more families in need."

Poverty in Hawaii is the highest it's been since 1997, and that's had a big impact on little ones. Census figures show the poverty rate among children in the state has jumped to 19 percent. This traveling school is one way to reach out and help educate the youngest living on the streets. Dozens of children come to learn, and about 85 percent of the students served at the pre-school are Native Hawaiian.

The tent and tarps that create the walls and floor of the school are put up four days a week, rain or shine, year round. At the end of the school day, it all comes down. Funding for the school comes from Kamehameha Schools, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and through federal grants.

Teaching assistant Piilani Victor knows what these parents and children are experiencing. She once lived in a shelter and has three young boys of her own. She's now training to be a social worker.

"It's pretty awesome to service the families where I once used to be. You know, it feels really good to give back to the community, " says Victor.

The hope is these homeless children will someday go to the head of their class, too.

SupremeCourt To Rule On Westboro Baptist Church's Protest Of Military Funerals

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YORK, Pa. – One thing Al Snyder wants to make clear: His boy fought and died for freedom in Iraq, but not for the right of some "wackos" to spew hate at soldiers' funerals under the protection of the Constitution.

"It's an insult to myself, my family and the veterans to say this is what our military men and women died for," Snyder says, barely concealing his anger.

Yet more than four years after the death of his only son, Matthew, Snyder is in the middle of a Supreme Court case that raises almost precisely that issue.

The court is set to decide whether members of a fundamentalist church in Kansas who picketed Matthew's funeral with signs bearing anti-gay and anti-Catholic invective have a constitutional right to say what they want.

Or, in intruding on a private citizen's funeral in a hurtful way, have the protesters crossed a line and given Snyder the right to collect millions of dollars for the emotional pain they caused?

The justices will hear arguments in the case next Wednesday.

The case is shaping up as a potentially important test of the First Amendment. "The difficulty in this case is that the speech occurs at the most personal and sensitive of times," said Cliff Sloan, a First Amendment expert at the Skadden, Arps law firm and the former publisher of Slate magazine.

Margie Phelps, a daughter of the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church and the lawyer representing her family members at the Supreme Court, said that if the justices reinstate the $5 million judgment to Snyder, anyone who says anything upsetting to a mourner "is subject to a crushing penalty."

But Snyder said in an interview with The Associated Press that if he had the chance, he would tell the justices "that this isn't a case of free speech. It's case of harassment."

Snyder's nightmare began on a late winter night in 2006 when he flipped on the porch light and saw two uniformed Marines standing at the front door of his home in this small south central Pennsylvania city.

He knew right away that Matthew was dead, after just five weeks in Iraq.

He could accept his son's death because Matthew always wanted to be a soldier.

But Snyder was not prepared for what came next.

Eleven hundred miles away, in Topeka, Kan., the Rev. Fred Phelps and other family members who make up most of the Westboro Baptist Church decided that Snyder's funeral at a Catholic church in Westminster, Md., would be their next stop.

Phelps and his small band of followers have picketed many military funerals in their quest to draw attention to their incendiary view that U.S. deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are God's punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

They showed up with the usual signs, including "Thank God for dead soldiers," ''You're Going to Hell," ''God Hates the USA/Thank God for 9/11," and one that combined the U.S. Marine Corps motto, Semper Fi, with a slur against gay men.

The church members drew counter-demonstrators, as well as media coverage and a heavy police presence to maintain order. The result was a spectacle that led to altering the route of the funeral procession.

Several weeks later, as Snyder surfed the Internet for tributes to Matthew from other soldiers and strangers, he came upon a poem on the church's website that attacked Snyder and his ex-wife for the way they brought up Matthew.

That's when he decided to take action and soon filed a lawsuit accusing the Phelpses of intentionally inflicting emotional distress. He won $11 million at trial, later reduced by a judge to $5 million.

Then the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., threw out the verdict and said the Constitution shielded the church members from liability.

The idea that the picketers' rights might trump his own led Snyder to continue the lawsuit. "They want to use the First Amendment as both a sword and a shield and that's not right," he said.

The Supreme Court gave him some hope that, in deciding to hear the case, the justices might say that funerals are different.

Phelps and his followers do not limit themselves to funerals. They have been protesting for decades, about homosexuality, abortion, Catholics and Jews. The court is made up of six Catholics and three Jews.

The Phelpses have even picketed unlikely targets, college students and breast-cancer survivors, to call attention to their belief that God is angry with the United States.

When Chief Justice John Roberts appeared in Lawrence, Kan., in 2008, Westboro protesters were there as well.

Asked about free speech cases that day, Roberts said, "It's certainly the responsibility of the Supreme Court to uphold freedom of speech, even when it's unpopular."

Media organizations, including The Associated Press, are urging the court to side with the Phelpses despite what they call the church's "deeply offensive" message.

The groups said that "to silence a fringe messenger because of the distastefulness of the message is antithetical to the First Amendment's most basic precepts."

Other groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, are not taking sides, but say the case is a poor one for making any broad pronouncements about the First Amendment that could inhibit religious expression. Some conservative groups are concerned that a ruling for Snyder could be used to limit anti-abortion protests.

On the other side, all the states, except Maine and Virginia, and veterans groups say that the court should stand behind state laws that limit funeral protests and recognize that mourners at a funeral have a right to be left alone.

Oklahoma Couple Wins Fight Over Bible Signs

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TULSA, Oklahoma -- A Tulsa couple says it does pay to fight Tulsa City Hall. They were told signs at their business violated city ordinance, but they appealed and won Tuesday.

They say it was never about a city ordinance for them, it was about religious freedom.

The sign squabble started because the couple, who sell mobile homes, wrapped the ends of some of them with large pictures that contained a Bible verse and a picture of a family reading a Bible.

The city didn't get complaints, but sign inspectors told the couple the signs required a permit. The city of Tulsa Board of Adjustment didn't agree.

Mobile homes need plastic around the ends to keep them protected from the weather. Over time, that plastic can rip and tear and looks pretty ugly.

So, Mike and Brenda Harrison decided to replace it with wraps, as a way to make it more attractive and to share their Christian beliefs.

"The intent was to promote what I feel is important. I mentioned to a lot of folks that if someone saw a picture of a family reading a Bible, they might think, I want to sit down and do that," said Mike Harrison, LifeWay Mobile Homes.

City sign inspectors say the wraps were promotional business signs that draw attention to the business, so require a permit.

The Harrisons' attorney argued the wraps don't promote the business because there's no company logo, no price, no anything about the mobile home business on them.

"It's simply a photograph promoting Mr. Harrison's belief in God, nothing else," said Brad Barron, Harrisons' Attorney.

The inspectors argued even signs promoting non-commercial items must meet size limitations. After an hour long discussion, it boiled down to an exemption in Tulsa's sign ordinance that says if it's a work of art or if it's a symbol of a religious organization, the sign doesn't need a permit and doesn't have a size limitation.

Three of the four board members agreed the wraps fall under those exemptions. Mike says it's more than a legal victory to him.

School Teachers In Uproar Over New Rap, Hip Hop Program Saying It's Offensive

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OKLAHOMA CITY -- Some Oklahoma City teachers said their latest teaching tools are inappropriate and offensive.

It's a program called Flocabulary, and a small group of teachers is calling the content into question. However, it's not just the content that is in question, but how funds were approved and spent.

In Oklahoma City, the program is used for at-risk students.The alternative students can be anyone from a hospitalized student to a student in juvenile detention. It serves students in alternative educations from grades 3 to 12.

The idea behind Flocabulary is using hip hop and rap music to help students learn facts. The method is something educators agree on, but there are concerns about how the material is written. The idea of a program that will grab the attention of students is positive.

"Kids learn differently. One thing we definitely want to do as a school district is use different techniques," said Oklahoma City School Board Chairperson Angela Monson.

The Flocabulary system features vocabulary books, math books and social studies. It cost the Oklahoma City School District $95,000 in federal funds.

A concerned teacher spoke out about the books because of his concerns over content. He is worried for his job and wished to remain anonymous.

"The public has been cheated. The students have been cheated. Teachers have been cheated," he said.

One of the chapters in the U.S. history book is called O.D.W.M., which stands for Old Dead White Men. It's a section that aims to teach students about past presidents.

"Our founding fathers deserve a little more respect than that," said the concerned educator.

Each section of the textbooks comes along with an original rap that centers on the chapter's subject. One about pilgrims refers to "Sipping Henny." The phrase is later defined as sipping Hennesey Cognac.

"I just don't think it's appropriate. I don't think any parent would want their child looking at that material," the anonymous teacher added.

The vocabulary books quote real rap songs. Other books reference rap artists like Tupac and his song "Hit Em' Up." The quotes used in the material are clean but come from lyrics full of profanity, sex, and violence. Some of the raps referenced use incorrect grammar.

"I think some of it is very questionable, and when the district hears or someone brings something like this to our attention we respond immediately," said Angela Monson, Oklahoma City School Board Chairperson, who first heard about the Flocabulary concerns on Tuesday.

Monson said an investigation will soon be underway.

"We need to find out to what extent it is being used, how it's being used, and make sure any inappropriate use stops," she said.

While the school board commented on the issue, district officials did not have any comment.

Flocabulary is based in New York. The founders said it's being used and is successful in around 10,000 schools across the county, but critics in Oklahoma said they don't want it here.

McDonalds Happy Meals On Trial In San Francisco

McDonalds Happy Meals are put on trial in San Francisco Saying that they entice children to eat bad food through offering them prizes and toys with their meals. So does this mean San Francisco Will also be taking Cereal Companies to Court for putting prizes in cereal boxes too? This whole thing is nothing but a socialist movement to gain more and more control over the American People and what we can and can't eat and buy to eat.

Parents Express Their Anger and Concerns About School Wanting To Teach Sex Ed To Children As Young As 5 yrs old

Parents of Helena School Students Express Their Concerns About new Sex-Ed Classes the school wants to teach to children as young as 5 years old.

Georgia Teen Banned From Libraries For Proselytizing

click to read full story from Eagle Tribune

By Allison Kennedy McClatchy Newspapers McClatchy Newspapers Sat Sep 25, 2010, 12:20 AM EDT

COLUMBUS, Ga. — A 16-year-old boy has been banned from all branches of the Chattahoochee Valley Regional Library system for six months for proselytizing.

According to a letter from Kirsten Edwards, acting manager of the North Columbus Public Library, Caleb Hanson repeatedly asked patrons "about their religious faith and to offer biblical advice."

Caleb received the letter through his parents, Tim and Elizabeth Hanson, who are in Columbus on furlough from mission work.

He said he was given several warnings, since June, from the library on Britt David Road.

"At first (library employees) warned me not to do it," he said. "Then they took me into an office and told me not to do it."

He said he then began talking to people outside the library, and patrons continued to complain.

Claudya Muller, the director of the Chattahoochee Valley Regional Library system, said the ban "had nothing to do with what he was saying, but he was warned multiple times. ... As people came in, he would approach them. He prevented people from simply using the library."

In addition to the North Columbus branch, the system includes the Columbus, South Columbus, Mildred L. Terry, Cusseta-Chattahoochee, Lumpkin, Marion County and Parks Memorial public libraries. The ban was effective Aug. 28.

Jury Acquits 4 Missionaries Of Inciting Crowd At Muslim Festival

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A jury acquitted on Friday four Christian missionaries who were accused of inciting a crowd while videotaping themselves proselytizing to Muslims at the Dearborn Arab International Festival in June.

Nabeel Qureshi of Virginia, Negeen Mayel of California and Paul Rezkalla and David Wood, both of New York, were acquitted of breach of peace, 19th District Court officials in Dearborn said after the verdict. Mayel was found guilty of failure to obey a police officer's order.

The four are members of a Christian group called Acts 17 Apologetics, who, according to the group's Web site, "refute the arguments of those who oppose the true gospel, most commonly the arguments of Muslims and atheists." They maintain that Islam is a false religion and inherently violent.

They were charged in July with disorderly conduct after police said they received a complaint from a Christian volunteer working at the festival who said he was harassed by the group.

Dearborn Mayor Jack O'Reilly Jr. said Friday night that he respects the decision, but the missionaries were anti-Muslim bigots pulling a publicity stunt to gain attention on YouTube in order to raise money.

ACLU Court Order Criminalizes Christianity

click to read full story from World Net Daily

By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

The Florida dispute over a "Consent Decree" adopted by school officials that critics charge violates the First Amendment and abridges the rights of teachers and students alike has been escalated to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where a petition is asking the judges to strike it down.

The newest filing in the long-running dispute over complaints of prayers at some off-campus events in the Santa Rosa County School District was filed by Liberty Counsel.

The document is on behalf of efforts by the Christian Educators Association International to intervene in the case. The organization has interests in the outcome and had tried to enter at the trial court level, but was rejected by the judge.

The case originated when two high school seniors in 2008 brought the complaint under the pseudonym of "Doe." The solution adopted by the school board was a "Consent Decree" crafted by the American Civil Liberties Union which since then has been used to threaten employees with fines and jail time for something as personal as praying over a meal.

For example, Liberty Counsel was successful in 2009 defending Michelle Winkler on contempt charges brought by the ACLU after her husband, who is not employed by the district, offered a meal prayer at a private event in a neighboring county.

Also, on Constitution Day, Liberty Counsel successfully defended Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and Athletic Director Robert Freeman on criminal contempt charges. The ACLU complained that Freeman offered a blessing for a lunch for some 20 adult booster club members.

According to Liberty Counsel, under the decree and the official district guidelines, "teachers are always considered to be acting in their 'official capacity' whenever a student is present, even at private functions off campus. Teachers cannot pray, bow their heads, or fold their hands to show agreement with anyone who does pray. Teachers and staff cannot 'Reply' to an e-mail sent by a parent if the parent's e-mail refers to God or Scripture. Teachers either have to delete such references from the original e-mail or reply by initiating a new e-mail. Teachers and staff are also required to stop students from praying in their own private club meetings. During witness testimony, Winkler cried as she described how she and a coworker, who had recently lost a child, had to hide in a closet to pray."

As a result, Liberty Counsel also initiated a separate lawsuit against the district on behalf of faculty, staff and students whose rights "are infringed" by the decree.

Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, said, "Public schools are not religion-free zones, yet this ACLU-crafted court order criminalizes Christianity and censors religious expression, even outside of school time. We will not rest until this unconstitutional order is overturned."

The appeal brief argues that the district court was mistaken, because the "Consent Decree" involved resolution of a case involving those two students alone, and it was not a class action case. Therefore, when they graduated and separated from the school, the case should have ended.

"The Consent Decree must be vacated as moot and the action dismissed for want of jurisdiction," the brief contends. "It is well-settled that graduation moots the interest of former students in declaratory or injunctive relief against their former schools.

"It is now undisputed that both plaintiffs graduated on May 30, 2009, and have 'no continuing contacts [with] Pace High School and/or the school district,'" it says.

WND reported weeks ago when Florida lawmakers got involved in the case. They adopted a new law that reads, "District school boards, administrative personnel, and instructional personnel are prohibited from taking affirmative action, including, but not limited to, the entry into any agreement, that infringes or waives the rights or freedoms afforded to instructional personnel, school staff, or students by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, in the absence of the express written consent of any individual whose constitutional rights would be impacted by such infringement or waiver."

Staver called the Consent Decree "the most unconstitutional order I have ever read."

"It was written as though the First Amendment does not exist. It is only a matter of time before this Consent Decree is overturned," he said.

The claims against Santa Rosa County School District began in August 2008 when two anonymous students sued with the help of the ACLU over longstanding practices at the school allowing prayer at some off-campus events. The school's separate counsel had agreed to a Consent Decree that "essentially bans all Santa Rosa County School District employees from engaging in prayer or religious activities," Liberty Counsel reported.

Liberty Counsel lawyers said they volunteered to work for free for the school to protect the First Amendment rights at issue.

"But the school district decided instead to shake hands with the ACLU, pay the ACLU $200,000 in legal fees and voluntarily enter into the consent decree that obliterates religious freedom and makes a mockery of the First Amendment," Liberty Counsel said in its description of the conflict.

White Decendents Of 1st U.S African American Doctor Gather To Put Tombstone On His Unmarked Grave

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NEW YORK – White descendants of the nation's first professionally trained African-American doctor gathered in a cemetery on Sunday to dedicate a tombstone at the unmarked grave where he was buried in 1865.

"Right now I feel so connected in a new way, to actually be here," said Antoinette Martignoni, the 91-year-old great-granddaughter of James McCune Smith. "I take a deep breath, and I thank God, I really do. I am so glad to have lived this long."

Smith, born in New York City in 1813, wanted to be a doctor but was denied entry to medical schools in the United States. He earned a degree from the University of Glasgow in Scotland, then returned to New York to practice. Besides being a doctor, he was celebrated in his lifetime as a writer and an anti-slavery leader.

Although scholars have written books about Smith, who set up a medical practice in lower Manhattan and became the resident physician at an orphanage, his descendants knew nothing about him until recently.

The story of why Smith was nearly overlooked by history and buried in an unmarked grave is in part due to the centuries-old practice of light-skinned blacks passing as white to escape racial prejudice. Smith's mother had been a slave; his father was white. Three of his children lived to adulthood, and they all apparently passed as white, scholars say.

Greta Blau, Smith's great-great-great-granddaughter, made the connection after she took a course at Hunter College on the history of blacks in New York. She did some research and realized that James McCune Smith the trailblazing black doctor was the same James McCune Smith whose name was inscribed in a family Bible belonging to Martignoni, her grandmother.

Her first response was, "But he was black. I'm white."

Blau, of New Haven, Conn., concluded that after Smith's death, his surviving children must have passed as white, and their children and grandchildren never knew they had a black forbear, let alone such an illustrious one.

Blau contacted all the Smith descendants she could find and invited them to join her Sunday for a ceremony dedicating a handsome tombstone at Smith's grave at Brooklyn's Cypress Hills Cemetery.

Eleven of Smith's descendants went to lay flowers at the cemetery, the final resting place of other notables including baseball player Jackie Robinson and actress Mae West.

Blau's aunt Elizabeth Strazar said she had grown up believing her ethnic heritage was English, Irish, Scottish and French.

"Now I can say I'm English, Irish, African-American and French, which I feel very proud of," she said.

Joanne Edey-Rhodes, the professor whose course led Blau to discover her ancestor, said Blau had written about Smith in her paper for the course.

"She was writing about this person and didn't realize that that was her very own ancestor," Edey-Rhodes said.

Edey-Rhodes, who's black, said that to be black in America in Smith's time "was a horrible condition."

"Black people were a despised group, and to many we still are a despised group in the world," she said. "I think that it is so important that at this time in history, that a family that is classified as white can say, 'I have this African-American ancestor,' and be able to do it without any shame, without having to hide it."

The tombstone dedication was followed by a panel discussion at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Harlem. Smith was an active member of the church, which was at another location in his lifetime.