School safety is simmering in everyone’s minds during summer vacation. But looking at the individuals on the Federal Commission on School Safety should give us pause. How do they view children?
There’s cognitive dissonance when they say they want safe schools, yet they thought it fine to separate babies and children from their parents in the name of the law.
Here’s a quote from President Trump on the U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Commission’s Safety page.
“Every child deserves to grow up in a safe community surrounded by a loving family and to have a future filled with opportunity and with hope.”
“Every child?” President Trump? Did you say every child?
Everyone on the commission has ties to the border crisis and the separation of children.
Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education:
DeVos did not support undocumented children of immigrant families during her testimony before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
I think that’s a school decision, it’s a local community decision. And again, I refer to the fact that we have laws and we also are compassionate, and I urge this body to do its job and address and clarify where there is confusion around this.
Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., had to point out to DeVos that it’s federal law. Espaillat, came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic at age 9. He was undocumented when his family overstayed their visa.
DeVos came to this job, also with little understanding of school safety. She seemed uninformed about past school shootings and the circumstances around gun control. I think probably there, I would imagine that there’s probably a gun in the school to protect from potential grizzlies,” she said during her confirmation hearing.
That’s when the buzzer should have gone off she should have been swallowed by the hole in the floor beneath her.
Where was she during Columbine? Was she taking a long nap after Sandy Hook? Even after this past horrendous year with Parkland and other school shootings, DeVos dismisses any discussion about guns on the Safety Commission panel.
DeVos is focused on one thing and one thing only. She wants to end public education.
So she cares about children? Either you care for the safety and well-being of all children, or you don’t!
Jeff Sessions, Attorney General:
Concerning children at the border, Sessions said, Persons who violate the law of our nation are subject to prosecution. I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order.
He ignored Matthew 19:14 Jesus said, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.
Sessions is focused on law and order and not children.
He too doesn’t look like he’ll consider gun safety. It appears he loves guns more than children. Here’s his beliefs on the issues.
Either you care about the well-being of all children, or you don’t!
Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services:
Azar said on CNN, about child separation at the border, his department was performing “one of the great acts of American generosity and charity” in its care of immigrant children.
A lawyer and former drug company executive, he showed up in January and Fox News says he is “no nonsense.” I see nothing that cries out that he is a champion of school safety, or children.
Kirstjen M. Nielson, Secretary of Homeland Security:
Nielson stands for “zero tolerance” at the border.
Schools used this term for years. It started out as strict enforcement for firearms and drugs, but turned into a way to punish children even for minimal offenses. Many believed it contributed to the school-to-prison pipeline, and fears were that its application would miss the really serious altercations. Many schools are changing to restorative justice programs.
About the border crisis, she says: And let’s be clear: If an American were to commit a crime anywhere in the United States, they would go to jail and they would be separated from their family. This is not a controversial idea. …parents who entered illegally are, by definition, criminals.
But what about innocent until proven guilty?
If Nielson thinks so little about the individual needs of families, or providing a trial for people, who will she be looking out for on school safety issues? If she thinks it’s fine to use children as a tool, to push parents back or keep them from coming to this country, can we really trust her to consider the safety of children in their schools?
Children are children. You can’t emphasize child safety in one arena, than turn around and accept separating children from their parents.
These folks are focused on law and order, and not on the laws of the heart.
So Alex Azar said “his department was performing ‘one of the great acts of American generosity and charity’ in its care of immigrant children.”
How does he explain this appalling travesty, which I”m sure is not an isolated incident”
“‘I went to the Los Angeles airport, showed my identification, signed some documents and they returned M. [17 months] to me. M. looked scared, he looked absent, he did not seem to capture that he was with me. He would only stare…. When I took off his clothes he was full of dirt and lice. It seemed like they had not bathed him the 85 days he was away from us…. M. is not the same since we were reunited. I thought that, because he is so young he would not be traumatized by this experience, but he does not separate from me. He cries when he does not see me.’”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/ice-officers-to-asylum-seekers-dont-you-know-that-we-hate-you-people-697727/
How can it be that Kirstjen M. Nielson does not understand that being undocumented is a civil offense, not a criminal offense, and that international law asserts that people fleeing violence and persecution have the right to enter a country and ask for asylum. Criminalizing desperate people who have every right to expect due process but instead are maltreated and have their children forcibly removed from them is abusive and intolerable. History will judge this administration harshly, but in the meantime, these children and their families will likely never fully recover from the results of this callousness and arrogance.
Horrible!
The policy was in practice during the Obama administration and continued with Trump. So liberals are suddenly outraged about this and not outraged about separating children from parents by abortion? The pictures that the dishonest press published to start this controversy were pictures of children in cages from the Obama years!! The children are being used by illegals to gain entry. Then they are discarded or sold by illegals. There is rampant child trafficking at the border. Besides they are only temporarily separated because they don’t want to throw them in jail with the adults.
Thank you for commenting, Richard.
For the record, I did not like President Obama’s Race to the Top education policy and have stated so on numerous occasions. From what I read, not everything was perfect at the border under his administration.
But I have also read that the children were not separated intentionally at the border under the Obama administration.
The “zero tolerance” policy is new under President Trump.
Frankly, I don’t give a damn who’s President when it comes to humane treatment of families and children!
There’s no reason why there can’t be proper vetting at the border, to permit those who are fleeing violence and are caring people, into the country. And returning those who are trouble.
This country needs to commit to doing the right thing! The President and Congress should be held accountable!