My name is Stephen Miller. I am a sixteen year-old junior at Santa Monica High School, and I was recently a guest on the Larry Elder Show to discuss the rampant political correctness that has consumed Santa Monica High School and the entire Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District.
When I entered Santa Monica High School in ninth grade, I noticed a number of students lacked basic English skills. There are usually very few, if any, Hispanic students in my honors classes, despite the large number of Hispanic students that attend our school.
Even so, pursuant to district policy, all announcements are written in both Spanish and English. By providing a crutch now, we are preventing Spanish speakers from standing on their own. As politically correct as this may be, it demeans the immigrantpopulation as incompetent, and makes a mockery of the American ideal of personal accomplishment.
And while we are on the subject of personal accomplishment, should any student accomplish the opportunity to have sex, our school is happy to help. As district policy says: "Condoms are available to students in grades 9-12 in a manner which promotes greatest accessibility." Problem here?
Legally speaking, sex between minors is statutory rape. Not to mention 14-year olds are a little young to be having sex regardless of the law. And just in case your son or daughter decides at their tender age that they are gay, we have a club on campus that will gladly help foster their homosexuality. Do they notify parents if their teenagers have chosen an alternate lifestyle? Of course not.
Santa Monica High School doesn't always obey district policy though. For instance, despite district policy, our school refused to say the pledge of allegiance in classrooms for years. In other words, they only adhere to the liberal guidelines. It took months of effort to get the School to stop resisting and finally bring back the pledge, and required intervention from the Superintendent. Even then, it is still only said twice a week, while policy dictates it should be said every day.
At least, one would hope, that on Veterans Day or thanksgiving students are taught about our brave US soldiers or the courageous pilgrims. But no such explanations are given. And rightly so, many misguided people would say.
After all, the United States has used our soldiers to kill innocent people, and the same Indians that helped the pilgrims were either shot, or put on reservations. I suppose then, that our country would have been better off if our soldiers never killed anyone, and we watched as our nation was obliterated by the evil in the world, as we sung songs of peace and love.
Or, better yet, we could have lived with the Indians, learning how to finger paint and make tepees, excusing their scalping of frontiersmen as part of their culture. Forget about being the nation that stopped Hitler, brought communism to its knees, and feeds more hungry people around the world than any other country -- forget all of that, and let us just agree that we're a horrible nation. Or, we can raise our flags, lift our guns, and proclaim that we are Americans, that we enjoy personal freedoms Islamic nations could only dream about, we are the land of the free, the home of the brave.
Sadly, my school has forgotten all of this. That is why we do nothing for American holidays but everything for Mexican holidays. That is why history teachers denounce the US as wickedly imperialistic, some supplementing standard history texts with something comfortably more liberal. That is why teachers insult and demean the President. That is why we invited a Muslim leader to the school to explain the splendor of Islam, but no such proclamation was ever made about America.
That is why scarcely a student at my school covered their heart when the national anthem was played in the September 11th memorial, but instead of finding error in that, our school found error in our attack on Afghanistan. The school newspaper condemned our military response. Administrators, worried students might become
patriotic, were also quick to preach non-violence. Osama Bin Laden would feel very welcome at Santa Monica High School.
If you feel, like me, that political correctness has crossed the line, call the school or the district. Ask them to leave their liberal agendas at the front gate. Enough politics, it's time for common sense.
