There was no word if he was whisked to Room 101 for personal interrogation by O'Brien or if he has been shipped off to a re-education camp yet. But a high school student at Chief Sealth International High School in Seattle recently got a lesson in Newspeak and a firsthand experience with Leftist authoritarianism.
The unidentified student was taking a quiz in his Ethnic Studies World History class. The quiz was called “Understanding Gender vs. Sex.” What gender and sex have to do with world history is beyond me. But then again, we are talking about left-wing ideologues running a high school in Seattle. One can be fairly certain students cannot eat lunch without gender issues popping up somewhere. One may also safely assume even the parallelograms in geometry class have preferred pronouns.
Jason Rantz at KTTH in Seattle notes that many of the questions centered on pronouns. Examples of questions included: "When someone uses ‘they/them’ pronouns, what does that mean about their gender identity?” and, “True/false: Transgender people are gay." You know, the issues that routinely surface during the study of world history.
There were two true/false questions that landed the young man in hot water. Question 4 read, “All men have penises.” The student marked the question "true." Question 7 was, “Only women can get pregnant.” Again, the student chose "true." He chose those answers because they were correct. And he has countless centuries worth of biology to back him up. Not to mention common sense. Be that as it may, his teacher marked both of those answers as wrong. But that's not all. The student's mom wrote to Rantz and told him about the boy's experience.
She said various teachers have called her son, “f****d and racist,” a “product of the patriarchy that teaches young boys not to care about anything,” and that “he shouldn’t use the term straight to identify as because it's offensive.”
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Predictably, the school district is standing by the quiz. A spokesperson told Rantz:
Seattle Public Schools is dedicated to establishing inclusive environments that allow exploration of contemporary issues, specifically examining the impacts of power systems such as racism and patriarchy. This commitment extends to fostering welcoming and inclusive settings where students, staff, and families have the freedom to express their authentic selves.
Nothing says inclusion and authenticity like calling a student "f*****d" and "racist" and telling him not to identify as straight. The boy's mother said he has been singled out for being white and for his "privilege." Not only is the student being penalized for recognizing biological truths that are evident on a chromosomal level, but he is apparently being harassed for the mere crime of existing. And, after this incident, I doubt the boy's teachers will make life any easier for him. Retribution of the overt and passive/aggressive forms will dog him throughout the rest of his time at Chief Sealth International High School or the Seattle Public School District, even if he chooses to go elsewhere. The boy's mother calls herself a moderate liberal who is proud of her son for refusing to "answer against his beliefs." Forget beliefs: we're talking about biological facts. The boy is being penalized for holding true to reality. The mother is concerned about teachers bringing their beliefs into the classroom and pushing their own points of view.
The school says that the quiz will not be used to determine the boy's overall grade for the class. But the process was the punishment. The boy is not just being singled out for what he said, but for who he is.
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