Striking a Chord... - WILL threatens legal action against Wauwatosa district, other items
Striking a Chord...
Greetings, all. Well, I hope by the time you are reading this, we will know the election outcome. It has been a crazy year (or let’s be real, longer than that) of campaigning and everyone is weary from it all.
Here’s a few news items and other tidbits for the week: - The Wauwatosa School District recently announced plans to close a high-performing charter school and other STEM programs for being too white.
As reported by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) in an Oct. 23 press release, WILL is threatening legal action against the Wauwatosa School District (WSD) and its superintendent after they announced plans to shut down the Wauwatosa STEM School, currently ranked the third-best elementary school in Wisconsin by U.S. News and World Report.
Additionally, WSD plans to close other STEM-specific programs and opportunities district-wide because the programs are too white. Federal law and the U.S. Constitution prohibit school districts from implementing policies to “racially balance” student populations. WILL is prepared to bring a civil action against the district to protect the constitutional rights of parents and students.
According to the district website, a task force is proposing to fix several “challenges” and “concerns” in the district, including the fact that in certain programs and schools, the “student population [ ] not as diverse as the District’s overall population.”
As reported by Milwaukee TV station WTMJ, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction data shows 86% of WSTEM students are white, while 8.4% of students are either African American, Hispanic, or Asian. In contrast, districtwide, 62% of students are white and 30% of students are African American, Hispanic or Asian.
Students at Wauwatosa STEM School are chosen based on a lottery system, meaning anyone who applies has an equal opportunity to get in.
WILL attorney Dan Lennington says that if the school board decides to phase out the STEM school by the 2029-2030 school year, WILL plans to file a complaint to the U.S. Dept. of Education as well as a federal civil lawsuit.
It’s good that WILL is holding the school district’s feet to the fire on this issue, as race discrimination on any level should not be tolerated. The school district should not be allowed to close the school just because it doesn’t like the racial makeup of the school. If the school were to be closed down, it would result in lost opportunities for high-performing students of a variety of racial backgrounds, so everyone would lose out at that point. -We all know of healthy habits we should be doing, but we just can’t seem to make them stick. However, popular YouTuber and filmmaker Matt D’Avella has proposed a rule that might just do the trick – the two-day rule. The rule is simple: when working on building a new habit, you are allowed to skip a day here and there, but never two days or more in a row. This rule takes the pressure off because you don’t feel like you’ve failed after missing one day. It also gives a person more flexibility in their planning.
“The two-day rule works to build habits by creating accountability for your actions – the commitment to practice the behavior regularly; an element of choice and flexibility (so you can plan to have certain days ‘off’ (for example, not going to the gym on a Sunday morning); and the consistency to practice the new behavior at least every other day (and ideally more often),” says Kate Oliver, author and chartered psychologist.
Oliver says that habit formation is about forming new neural pathways. Like treading a path through a field, the more times you walk that same path, the easier it becomes to traverse. The two-day rule keeps you walking that path regularly.
Something to think about if you’re looking to implement a change like a fitness habit or whatever it might be. - Last month, a British army veteran was found guilty of breaching an abortion facility “buffer zone” and will be required to pay 9,000 Euros in legal fees. His crime? Silently praying across the street from an abortion facility. On Nov. 24, 2022, Adam Smith-Connor stopped to pray for a few minutes, as he had lost his son to abortion 20 years prior and wanted to pray about him. He stood across the street from the abortion facility with his back towards the entrance, not trying to engage in conversation or influence people walking by. He wasn’t gesturing or kneeling, or even praying audibly. However, officers still arrived and asked him about the nature of his prayers, leading to a criminal charge, three-day trial and a guilty verdict (as reported by Wold News Group). The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) U.K. is appealing the decision.
The whole situation is scary and gives off Orwellian vibes.
“This isn’t 1984, but 2024 – nobody should be on trial for the mere thoughts they hold in their mind. It’s outrageous that the local council are pouring taxpayer funding into prosecuting a thoughtcrime, at a time where resources are stretched thin. Buffer zone regulation are disproportionately wide, leaving innocent people vulnerable to prosecution merely for offering help, or simply holding their own beliefs,” said politician Miriam Cates.
A recently-passed U.K. law prohibits any attempts to “influence any person’s decision to access or facilitate abortion services” around an abortion facility. The concern is, the word “influence” can be stretched to mean any activity the government doesn’t like – in this case silent prayer.
This incident highlights just how easily freedoms can be lost, even in what we would consider a relatively free country. We would be foolish to think something like that could never happen here in the U.S., although I pray it never does.
