Hillsborough County School District is AWOL
on Celebrate Freedom Week and Constitution Day
John Adams once advised, “Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people.”
Ronald Reagan warned, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
Every year for the past three years and now for the fourth time this year, I have set out on a mission. A mission that is appropriate, essential for our youth, implored by our Forefathers, and that will have great implications for the future of our country as a free nation. I know I am not alone in understanding the need for what I am seeking since both state and federal law mandates that school districts comply. The mission I am referring to is to compel the “powers to be” at the School District of Hillsborough County (SDHC), Tampa, FL, to insure that all schools in the district comply with, take seriously, and participate in Celebrate Freedom Week and Constitution Day. I feel that this is imperative as a means of facilitating the education of our youth on the important principles of freedom, liberty, rights, and the founding principles of our nation.
Every year administrators in the SDHC react to my efforts with indifference, excuses, arrogance, and a lack of definitive action. Every year they promise to “do better next year”, and each year passes with little improvement. In light of current world events and the many threats to our liberty, one can only wonder why they are so recalcitrant. I will say more about that in a minute.
It is not a secret that today many Americans, especially our youth, have little knowledge or understanding of the founding principles of our nation such as the source of our rights, the concept of freedom, and the role of constitutional government in relation to the will of the people.
A recent study by the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that only about one in four Americans (28 percent) can name more than one of the five freedoms protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution yet more than half (52 percent) can name at least two members of the “Simpsons” cartoon family. The survey also found 41 percent of those surveyed could name the three “American Idol” judges but only 8 percent could identify three First Amendment Rights.
Some legislators in both the state and federal government have recognized the importance of educating our youth on the important concepts of freedom, liberty and rights and have passed laws to require this instruction. For example, Section 233.0659, Florida Statutes, requires participation by all public schools in Celebrate Freedom Week each September and requires the reading of a portion of the Declaration of Independence daily by students during that week. The law is part of Title XLVIII, K-20 Education Code for the state of Florida. The law states, “The last full week of classes in September shall be recognized in public schools as Celebrate Freedom Week. Celebrate Freedom Week must include at least 3 hours of appropriate instruction in each social studies class, as determined by the school district, which shall include an in-depth study of the intent, meaning, and importance of the Declaration of Independence. During the last full week of September, at the beginning of each school day or in homeroom, public school principals and teachers shall conduct an oral recitation by students of the following words of the Declaration of Independence”: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
The intent of this important legislation is to require public schools to provide instruction to students in the values, truths, and principles on which our nation was founded so that they are better equipped to be diligent in protecting and defending them against encroachment.
A federal law, Public Law 108-447, also requires all schools that receive federal funds to hold Constitution Day instruction on or about September 17. The Constitution Day provisions appear at 118 Stat. 2809, 3344-45 (Section 111). It states in part, “(b) Each educational institution that receives Federal funds for a fiscal year shall hold an educational program on the United States Constitution on September 17 of such year for the students served by the educational institution.”
Currently the SDHC leaves the decision on whether to comply with these statutes up to the individual school. This has resulted in a mixture of compliance ranging from none, to minimal and half-hearted, to a commendable effort at a few schools. Parents should be asking why compliance with these state and federal laws is optional within our school district. I for one think this is inexcusable.
D.H. Lawrence once stated, “Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves. “
Fredrick Douglass said, “Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.”
Our future liberty as a nation depends on educating our youth on these important concepts of liberty. Parents should flood the SDHC main office with calls and ask why it appears that they do not agree, why compliance with these statutes is optional in many schools, and why they are allowing our children to miss this important training. Why are not more parents doing this?
Why is the SDHC so reluctant to comply with these laws and provide this important instruction to our children? What is real reason they are derelict in this important duty? What are they trying to hide from our children, and why? My thoughts are that they do not want children to learn certain principles that formed the basis of the founding of our nation. They do not want children to learn that there are “self-evident truths”, after all, that would conflict with the “moral relativism” and “situational ethics” that the public school system is constantly indoctrinating into their young minds. They do not want children to learn that individuals “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights”, after all, the mere thought of a Creator conflicts with the “godless myth” and “secular humanistic faith” of evolution that is drummed into children daily in our public schools. They do not want children to learn that “governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”, for that would undermine the public school system’s efforts to ingrain a false belief that our rights come from government and that the people are subservient to the “all-powerful government”. They cannot have children thinking that the will of the people is superior to the almighty government.
I could go on but I think you see my point. When leaving the Constitutional Convention in 1776, a woman outside asked Ben Franklin, “Sir, what have you done for us today?” He replied, “We have given you a Republic, if you can keep it.” Our Forefathers knew that the survival of our individual freedom under God, the protection of our “God-given unalienable rights”, and our freedom from government oppression, depended on an educated populace that understood the founding principles of freedom. This education would assure that the populace remained diligent in protecting our freedoms from those in government and special interests that would attempt to subvert those freedoms through unconstitutional laws and regulations. How can we expect our youth to understand this when our public school systems are abrogating their responsibility to teach our youth these very concepts?
How much longer will we, the people, tolerate this egregious behavior by arrogant elected officials and unelected administrators in our public school systems, or have we too forgotten these important concepts of liberty?