What’s the Matter with Helen?

As has been chronicled by AIA, one of the indicators of potential indoctrination is when parents are shielded from educators’ curriculum or the “teaching moments” to which their children will be exposed.

Consider, for example, Deerfield High School, which once required students attending an assembly on homosexuality to sign a confidentiality agreement that they would not discuss the details of the event with non-attendees.

And, according to Accuracy in Media’s Cliff Kincaid, in Tucson, Arizona, school leaders would not allow students to take home textbooks from their Mexican-American studies class—or allow adults to see the books themselves.

After an open records request was granted, the public found out that required books included Occupied America, Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Prison Notebooks, which included an image of Fidel Castro and references to revolution, reported Kincaid.

Consider then, the recent events regarding Helen Thomas, veteran journalist.

Thomas was originally invited as a Whitman High School graduation speaker on June 14, but after her candid camera comments telling Israelis “get the h-ll out of Palestine” and go back to the European countries where they came from, the school decided to cancel her graduation appearance.

One has to consider, however, the wording of the statement made by Alan S. Goodwin, Principal of the Bethesda-based school.

According to Valerie Strauss with the Washington Post, Goodwin wrote to the school community that

“…In recent days, a controversy has arisen concerning our highly regarded graduation speaker, Ms. Helen Thomas, White House Correspondent for 60 years. Graduation celebrations are not the venue for divisiveness. Graduation is the time for a cohesive and joyous celebration of our students’ achievements; other forums exist for discussions of political issues. I spoke to Ms. Thomas’ representative who indicated that Ms. Thomas understands the tensions generated by the situation and would welcome the opportunity to meet with students during the next school year to share her observations on contemporary affairs, rather than speak at our commencement ceremony. …” (emphasis added).

Thomas announced her retirement on June 7.

“Remember, these people [Palestinians] are occupied and it’s their land…” she said on tape. “Go home” to Poland and Germany, she said, “…and America and everywhere else.”

Bethany Stotts is a staff writer at Accuracy in Academia.