Schram: Schools should stand up to evangelical group's bullying
For area school districts planning to participate in "Mix It Up at Lunch Day" later this month there is no dilemma and there should be no retreat.
"Mix It Up at Lunch Day" was put together more than a decade ago as a way to help prevent bullying.
The basic idea is for kids to hang out with someone that they normally wouldn't hang out with; getting to know someone they might not otherwise even talk with.
Thousands of schools around the country have latched on to the idea.
Now the American Family Association - an uber-conservative evangelical group - has decided the whole "Mix It Up at Lunch Day" is actually a cover for what it terms is a push to promote the homosexual lifestyle in public schools.
The American Family group is urging parents to keep their kids home from school on "Mix It Up at Lunch Day."
So far, a couple of hundred schools around the country have decided to avoid conflict and controversy and cancel the anti-bullying effort.
How incredibly sad that a fringe group of fear-mongering people would exert their influence to try to squelch efforts aimed at helping kids who are picked on, ostracized and bullied for what may be their skin color, religion, social status and yes, their sexual orientation.
Let's hope that schools here in our area stand their ground and go forward with the "Mix It Up at Lunch" program
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Have something to say to Ken? Login or signup below to post a comment. Just be sure to read the rules and keep things civil. You can also e-mail him at kenschram@komo4news.com. You can also connect with Ken on Facebook.
"Mix It Up at Lunch Day" was put together more than a decade ago as a way to help prevent bullying.
The basic idea is for kids to hang out with someone that they normally wouldn't hang out with; getting to know someone they might not otherwise even talk with.
Thousands of schools around the country have latched on to the idea.
Now the American Family Association - an uber-conservative evangelical group - has decided the whole "Mix It Up at Lunch Day" is actually a cover for what it terms is a push to promote the homosexual lifestyle in public schools.
The American Family group is urging parents to keep their kids home from school on "Mix It Up at Lunch Day."
So far, a couple of hundred schools around the country have decided to avoid conflict and controversy and cancel the anti-bullying effort.
How incredibly sad that a fringe group of fear-mongering people would exert their influence to try to squelch efforts aimed at helping kids who are picked on, ostracized and bullied for what may be their skin color, religion, social status and yes, their sexual orientation.
Let's hope that schools here in our area stand their ground and go forward with the "Mix It Up at Lunch" program
---
Have something to say to Ken? Login or signup below to post a comment. Just be sure to read the rules and keep things civil. You can also e-mail him at kenschram@komo4news.com. You can also connect with Ken on Facebook.
The cruelty really started around the fifth grade and was vicious until senior year of high school. The shortness of the attention span will likely yield maybe two or three notable results at most under the length of time this activity is sustained.
i am reading many falsehoods on here about how many people THINK "Mix It Up Day" works. For those of you who HAVE NOT read the SLPC's website on how to organize this event, here is a sampling i have cut'n'pasted:
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Mixing It Up
Hand out something to each student â color-coded cards, small candies, playing cards, alphabet letters, shapes or symbols â as lunch begins.Decorate tables with matching colors or symbols, so students know where to go.
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Conversation starters
Have starter questions on the tables, either posted or on slips of paper. Offer enough questions to avoid conversational lulls.Conversation prompts should be open-ended, not yes-or-no questions. âWhatâs your favorite ⦠(song, movie, childrenâs book, Harry Potter character, school subject, sport, TV show, restaurant, etc.)?âAnother good word for conversation prompts is âDescribe,â as in, âDescribe your ideal dayâ or âDescribe your perfect vacation.â
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Somehow I'm thinking that " what's your favorite harry potter character?" is not exactly promoting a gay lifestyle, nor is any of the rest of it.
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 Forced to attend Seattle Public School for 8 years in the early 70's Being Bullied in school.  I was told Boys are Boys   your a girl get over it ... No one was willing to help me. Now I hear my grandchildren talk about the Bullies in the schools. The thought of the school making my grandchildren  sit and have lunch  with a bully does not seem like a wise answer , in fact it sounds like stirring up more  problem. I hear Suicide amongst kids that are bullied is growing ( think the news media is now allowed to cover more of those kinds of stories than they were  back in the 70'& 80" )  back then  we were only told  our class mate died ...Â
If someone was kicking your butt  to stealing your lunch money  every day of the week how would you feel about sitting with them at lunch time ???Â
American Family Association   - has decided the whole "Mix It Up at Lunch Day" is actually a cover for what it terms is a push to promote the homosexual lifestyle in public schools. **
They need to get over it or start home schooling their kids because homosexuality is everywhere in our country and those parents need more education than the kids.. ~ I feel sad for their lack of trust from their own kids as well as  trying to link Bullying in with something like homosexuality
No offense Ken, but do you really thinks something will come of this?
Do you condone punishing the students that don't participate? How do you propose to get the nerds and jocks together? Threaten them?
Good job Ken. These are kids and they will naturally gravitate to their own kind. It's A GOOD thing Ken. Leave 'em alone to thier choices.
What you propose is just more social engineering to create a homogeneous society.
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This is rediculous in so many ways. Only a liberal could come up with this kinda tripe.
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 @bobalouie your attempts at redirection do not work on me. Ken Schram is not "proposing" anything. he is commenting on what the AFA is proposing and their actions to sabotage WHAT ALREADY EXISTS.
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you are using a classic misdirection tactic: divert people away from the issue with mistruths and half-truths.
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i, sir, will never buy what you're selling.Â
at whoever...
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How is this an attempt to sabotage anything? Last I heard, we we freedom of choice. Explain to me where making my child sit down with another with a differing view is freeedom of choice.
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Explain why this isn't coercion.
Are you gonna point a gun at my kids head cuz he/she wants to eat alone? Who the hell are you to tell my child who they eat with, or subject them to your point of view?
Who died and made the government god? You? Socialists in Seattle?Â
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I guess freedom of choice no longer has any merit. Do as I say, not as I do. Sit down and shut up.
Agree or it's off to camp.
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So much for the US Constitution. That's just what you want eh?
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 @bobalouie (or whomever) the definition of misdirection via mistruths and half-truths is your line " Explain to me where making my child sit down with another with a differing view is freeedom (sic) of choice."Â
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no one made your child do anything; furthermore, according to the SPLC website dealing with this, the seating arrangements are RANDOM (i.e.; "mix it up"....get it?).
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when i was in school we often had assigned seating. sometimes i did not like the kids seated near me, sometimes i did.Â
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were these schools out-of-line or infringing on my freedom in some way?
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(by the way, i attended both christian and secular schools at various times and had assigned seating in each at times. it seems to be a common, normal thing utilized by, yes, even christians.)Â
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i, sir, will never buy what you are selling.
 @bobalouie You really don't get it do you? Then again, I suppose that as long as one promotes, directly or indirectly, the idea of separation of what is described here, then you also condone the empowerment of those stronger, bigger, more popular, or whatever, over others. The program was to encourage kids to get to "know" one another, and hopefully lead to at least a lessening of problems. And actually, we do similar through civil laws that we use to the aspect of citizen violence against others. Yeah, guess that's what you call "social engineering" isn't it?
I am a Christian, and every time I see a story like this I feel so embarrassed and just cringe. Â Kids need to live in the real world, these idiots can't impose their 'morality' on them forever. Â They need to work at a homeless shelter (where they will meet people who are not all bums), or volunteer at a high school blood drive (where they will enjoy meeting all kinds of kids), or hold a lonely person's hand in hospice (perhaps even someone dying of AIDS), hopefully it would open their narrow little eyes to the fact that God loves everyone, because they seem to be missing that very big fact in their Bibles. Â My inlaws would fall for crap like this, it's just disgusting.
 @Doxie Doxie, you have continually demonstrated a "Christ-like" behavior here that is above reproach. You know I rag on religion, but I don't see you as religious. You're a kind, spiritual person. VERY different.
 @WhatRJDid It's against my faith to be religious.  Haha.  No, seriously.  I hate the word religious.  Spiritual, yes.  Religious, no.  We should all treat each other the way we would want to be treated, no matter what we believe or don't believe, don't you think?  I humbly thank you for your kind words.
 @Seadude333  @WhatRJDid Gee, thanks. It would be a long commute though!  I'm gonna have to save these nice comments up and send them to my husband for 'those' days, because it's not all fairy dust and unicorns here, we are real people with very real faults and bad habits and horrible tendencies!
 @Doxie  @WhatRJDid I agree with whatrjdid. It's refreshing to see posts by Christians (or at least those that call themselves Christians) on here that are not hate filled rants (see pbs7mm and truthpercolates for fine examples). I would go to church with someone like you.
To think Jesus suffered and died on the Cross so his self-proclaimed "followers" can do things like this in His name!
 @Arthur Marriott I think Jesus was a mortal gay man who could have been the original test for the tolerance of the religious.  More and more bible researchers are coming to the conclusion that Jesus was a gay man too. Â
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They beat tortured and nailed him to the cross so I would say they failed miserably . Â They now claim that the murder of the great gay mortal was for the sins they commit today. Â I find that disgusting as they drink the wine that represents his blood and eat the wafer that represents his body.Â
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These extremist spaghetti monster worshipers will insist that everything is created by some fictional creature and that Jesus died for their sins but for some reason no one died for the gays and they see it as their right to lie about, punish, humiliate and degrade Gay people.  Â
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Really... Truly... Disgusting. Â
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So you would think that an organization called, the "American Family Association" would actually be concerned about protecting families. If that were the case, they'd be focused on actual scourges, like substance abuse, domestic violence, and bankruptcy due to un/under-insured health costs. But no, they fight against kids getting along with each other.
@strangel00p For me, I feel the  "American Family Association" is a good organization and a does good work. What I don't like is when they try legislate morality.
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Reading all the posting, I think things have got away from the issue. The fact that they think "mix it up day" is exposed thier kids to gay kids. It is a shame to go against the teaching of christ that all peoples are god's people. To teach their young intolerance and continue the cycle of hate.
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If people teach their children family values in the true christian way, then they should not fear exposure during "MIX it up day"
 @snoopy84 Snoop, I respect your opinion, but like the poster above, please tell us the good things this group does. I'm being sincere, I really don't know much about them.
 @snoopy84 What "good work" (or, should I say, "good works") does the AFA do pray tell?
Bryan Fischer:Â "Political Leadership Ought To Be Reserved For The Hands Of Males"
http://youtu.be/I6PjAYNl24E
 @IslandAtheist  That man is no man at all... Just a little boy obviously threatened by women. Â
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Firstly, there must be more to this story than meets the eye and the Evangelicals aren't (as usual) getting a fair say. Secondly, Never, never, never in Seattle would a conservative group over rule the liberals., so no worries there!
Lastly, so what if a group of parents choose to keep their kids home. I am sure they have good reasons. Each to their own right? Who are they to be judged for their beliefs? Oh, that's right, we can't be judgmental of anyone....that is except the Christian!
 @prettypoppetÂ
"Pity the poor 'persecuted' Christians in today's society eh? For one, the AFA is a Christian organization. For another though, it is also a bit toward the 'radical' side, and frequently engages in extremism on their pronouncements about secular social issues, and then, we have to listen to the type of admonishments from those who agree with them, about others seeming "attacks upon religion". Why is it, that whenever a Christian group, whomever it may be, vents their condemnation of others they disagree with, and they receive countering words, those who voice/write their countering words are called Christian haters, anti-Christians, or, as often the case, even worse invectives?
 @WSims007  Ive been called a hater all day click on http://account.katu.com/profile/1022
 @Andrew Bush I've noticed;-)
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Kind of expected on this sort of issue. Don't forget, one of the most oft ignored Commandment has been the 9th, "thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor". The fundamentalist/Tea Partier seem to always ignore that one.
Ain't diversity great!? Look at all the love it's causing. Way to go Ken.
Communication does work if given a chance. If they have seen positive results from this project then they should continue it. You are not going to make everyone happy all of the time. If there's a way to get kids to
communicate and stop bullying I say go for it.
Remember that Ken does not usually tell the whole story, or even most of the story if one of his favorite âuntouchableâ subjects are involved. There may be a bit more than you read hear involved. Â
 @oldster70 Can you elaborate on what was left out?Â
 @Andrew Bush  @oldster70 One bit Ken didn't mention is that "Mix it up at lunch day" is organized by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is the same group that recently added the American Family Association to its list of hate groups (alongside groups like the American Nazi Party and the Aryan Terror Brigade) for being "anti-gay". That might help explain why AFA is suspicious that SPLC's school program is not just about addressing bullying.
 @relatively  But the American Family Association IS listed as a hate group. Â
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And rightly so. Â
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 @Furd Nope. If I were trying to say that, I'd probably type something like "the SPLC is a hate group."
 @relatively Are you trying to say the SPLC is a "hate" group?
 @relativelyÂ
So now, what does that have to do with the claim by the AFA? And if there is some other definition to the claimed day, then why didn't the AFA show cause with evidence? Having suspicions, which has never been unusual for the AFA, does not mean then that they are right. Proof makes right, and from what I have managed to research, they had nothing.
"God wants sexual promiscuity today to be cured by killing promiscuous people" Â -Â The American Family AssociationÂ
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Unbelievable that these extremists would even utter such nonsense. Â
As their beliefs become increasingly unpopular, these anti-gay groups just get weirder and weirder.
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Seriously, if Bryan Fischer of the AFA really sees homosexuality everywhere he looks, there are probably some personal issues he needs to deal with.
"The basic idea is for kids to hang out with someone that they normally wouldn't hang out with; getting to know someone they might not otherwise even talk with."
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You're still using semi colons incorrectly Ken. They join independent clauses. "Getting to know someone they might not otherwise even talk with," is not an independent clause. Thank you. Â
AFA = Always *FD* UP!!! Talk about bullying - they are a prime example
AFA should be outlawed!
 @Komo Dragon They should be mocked and ridiculed, but not outlawed.
 @Komo Dragon No, they shouldn't. We shouldn't limit free speech but these jerks certainly shouldn't be able to influence policy. Free speech doesn't mean I have to listen to what you say but you can certainly talk to a brick wall if you want.
 @quidproquo this is beyond free speech, it is hate speech
This group has taken a wrong turn down the road to come up with this kind of garbage. These sound like the same kind of group that would all go camping together and drink the kool aid.
mmmm.....refreshing kool-aid
 @NBA_Is_Useless I think they still call it the blood of Jesus. Â
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Between that and the cookie being the body of Christ it all sounds like promoting cannibalism to me. Â
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: )
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 @Funky-Munky You should try logical thinking rather than blind obedience.
 @Funky-Munky  @Andrew Bush beliefs =/= facts.
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Basing your life on beliefs not provable is like building your house on sand.
@Funky-Munky @quidproquo Your dad is god? Who's your mommy?
 @quidproquo I don't pick and choose which parts I follow from my father's teachings. Rather I stumble, pick myself up and try again to heed my father's word(s).
 @Funky-Munky Come on - as someone raised by a catholic mother even i find the euchrist creepy.Â
 @Funky-Munky  umm... okay.Â
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Waves again at the christians. Â