00:03:50.240We are really kind of continuing the conversation that we had yesterday with Kirk Cameron.
00:03:55.960He is, he has recently finished a documentary about the homeschool awakening that is happening across the country.
00:04:03.020And he has been targeted by the left because of that, because he has talked about the problems with our public education system in the United States.
00:04:11.240If you haven't listened to that episode, definitely go listen to yesterday's conversation with Kirk Cameron.
00:04:17.700But this is kind of, this is kind of a part two of that in really highlighting the serious issues that we are having in public education in the United States.
00:04:30.180And just some of the progressive craziness that is coming out of our education system.
00:04:36.420We really need to be aware as parents, whether or not your kids are in public school, of what kind of ideology is really pervading our schools.
00:04:47.440Because you might think you're insulated because you live in a conservative area and you know your kids, your kids teachers, or maybe your kids go to private school or maybe your kids are homeschooled.
00:05:00.120It's actually very relevant to all of us because we share a society.
00:05:03.780We are not kind of in these little segments that don't overlap just because your kids go to private school and not public school.
00:05:13.280Like the future generation, how they're educated, the things that they are learning, the values that are being instilled in them, that has an effect on all of us.
00:05:21.920That has an effect on the future of our countries.
00:05:24.200It has an effect on the future of elections.
00:05:27.720It has an effect on their own mental health.
00:05:30.860And so we really need to be paying attention because the vast majority of young people in this country do attend a public school.
00:05:38.460And just the rot and the toxicity that we have seen characterizing so much of the curriculum that is being taught in these public schools, it's really troubling.
00:05:51.980All right, let me tell you about some of these crazy stories that are happening in the education system.
00:05:59.700And also, after we have the conversation with Rose Rabideau, I'm going to give you a little bit of an update on the whole formula crisis that's been happening.
00:06:07.840This is, I guess, if you wanted to put this episode under one umbrella, it would be a message to moms and the things that are affecting kids and the policies that are specifically affecting kids.
00:06:20.940And again, another example of why politics and the so-called culture war issues happen so or matter so much.
00:06:30.060So there was, there is a Christian school in Louisville, Kentucky.
00:06:34.420There's a Christian academy there that is under fire by the mainstream media.
00:06:40.660I first read this story, I think, in the Courier Journal.
00:06:44.240They are under fire because they gave an assignment to middle schoolers that encouraged them to write a letter by citing scripture to a friend who has decided that they are gay.
00:06:59.420So let me read you some of the assignment and then I'll explain why people are freaking out.
00:07:05.320Although when I read the assignment, you're probably going to be able to understand why progressives and people who are not Christian, people who don't have this belief system are freaking out about this.
00:07:16.280So this was assigned again to middle schoolers at this Christian academy in Louisville.
00:07:21.600This is a letter to a homosexual friend.
00:07:23.920The qualification for this being an excellent letter would be that the letter communicates truth lovingly and clearly from scripture with obvious logical argument to persuade.
00:07:34.480Good would be considered a letter that communicates or a letter that is good that is considered good would be one that communicates truth in a way that lacks love or clarity loosely based on scripture and logic to persuade.
00:07:46.920Fare would be fair would be fair would be fair would be fair.
00:07:58.140Fair would be letter communicates at least one truth with little love or clarity without reference to scripture or the use of logic and persuasion.
00:08:05.660And so that's kind of the summary of the assignment and the qualifications for excellence.
00:08:17.980And that kind of tells you what the goal is, that these students are to learn how to present
00:08:25.040an argument that is loving, that is gentle, that is kind, and yet is solidly based on
00:38:06.180In education, in middle school, First Amendment rights apply, but they're different.
00:38:12.000It's not the same as in the real world.
00:38:13.360So a school can discipline teasing and bullying when that happens, even though the government generally couldn't punish somebody for teasing outside of the education context.
00:38:23.760But again, it should be dealt with informally with the family, not through sexual harassment.
00:38:29.300And there's just nothing here that comes even remotely close to sexual harassment.
00:38:33.760Could a public school basically force, through the threat of school discipline, a child to use someone's preferred pronouns?
00:38:44.540And that would be a very clear First Amendment violation.
00:38:46.880And that seems to be what the district is doing here.
00:38:49.380Their position seems to be that once a student announces their preferred pronouns, any misuse of pronouns, so-called misuse, is punishable speech.
00:38:59.220And they are weaponizing the Title IX process into the threat to force students to comply with that.
00:39:06.520And that's totally inappropriate, a pretty clear First Amendment violation.
00:39:50.940And if they don't and they end up following through on this and punishing the students, then this could become a federal lawsuit.
00:39:56.220I hope it doesn't have to get to that level.
00:39:58.040But we're just going to have to wait and see.
00:39:59.440And say that they were successful, which I just don't see that happening for the reasons that you have already listed.
00:40:07.460Would this be something that is on the students' record, sexual harassment, for the rest of their lives?
00:40:14.160Like, how would it potentially affect their future?
00:40:17.060Yeah, that's not entirely clear to us yet.
00:40:20.540The school hasn't given any of us clear answers about how this goes on the students' records and when they turn over records and who they turn them over to.
00:40:29.580And so that's something we're going to work through with the school district after we get through the initial investigation.
00:40:36.140So hopefully they will just dismiss it and remove the charges and it will all be over.
00:40:39.580However, if they follow through and threaten to leave this on the students' records, then, you know, again, it may end up in a federal lawsuit again.
00:40:47.500I hope it doesn't get to that level, but we're just going to have to work through that with the district.
00:40:52.140Well, Rose, I just want to say that, I mean, you as a mom, you're doing what all moms would do.
00:41:00.880I know that comes at an emotional cost, at least to you, not to mention the financial piece of this, that even if this is dismissed,
00:41:08.240this has been a serious disruption in your families and in your son's life during a very formative year.
00:41:14.940After, by the way, the past two years of all different kinds of disruptions for kids across the country because of pandemic restrictions and things like that.
00:41:22.860And so how is your son dealing with this?
00:42:45.520You know, doing the right thing is not easy, but it seems to be harder than ever for young people to go against the grain, to swim upstream,
00:42:55.120especially when it comes to very sensitive issues like this because of because of social media, because of the various pressures that come from that.
00:43:08.000And unfortunately, the political pressures and what I think is a politicization of the district and what seems like a political agenda on their end.
00:43:17.620I just can't imagine what your son must be feeling if we want, if people in this audience, because we've got a large audience of moms who are going to empathize with you and are really going to feel a lot from hearing your story.
00:43:32.500If they want to send you words of encouragement, if they want to support you guys in any way, how can they do that?
00:43:38.540What's the what's the best medium for them to go through to send you words of support?
00:44:02.500And so there are going to be many, many families who are praying for you guys who are paying attention to this story and sending every kind of support that they possibly can.
00:44:11.040So I appreciate you both for coming on and for sharing your story.
00:44:14.960And I will be praying about this, too, because, gosh, it's it's heartbreaking.
00:44:19.980And I know you guys need a lot of encouragement.
00:44:22.320And I'm thankful, Luke, also for what you do and just defending people's rights, their constitutional rights.
00:44:29.340Gosh, that's more needed now than ever.
00:44:35.060OK, so I guess I'll end this with some good news.
00:44:42.880Today was a little bit of a maybe a sad episode because there are so many dark things that are going on in our world that seem to be specifically preying on children.
00:44:53.020And that's why we continue to raise a respectful ruckus.
00:44:56.300Raising a respectful ruckus, guys, about the baby formula shortage actually worked like that's why it is so important to make our voices heard, to complain about things, to even use social media as a platform to sound the alarm about important things that are going on.
00:45:10.760Because for some people, the formula shortage was literally a matter of life and death, their babies were starving, they were diluting their baby formula, which you're not supposed to do just so that they have enough so their baby doesn't starve.
00:45:22.220We talked about, well, we'll link the episode on the baby formula shortage and what I think was actually causing it that we did last week in the description of this episode.
00:45:29.580But the good news is, is that apparently Abbott Labs, which has been closed down by the FDA, because according to the FDA, they weren't following the guidelines and they contaminated some of their formula, which led to infant deaths and other infants getting sick.
00:45:46.860Abbott Labs, I think, has disputed that and said that it was not a manufacturing error.
00:45:52.180This manufacturer, a large manufacturer of baby formula, has been shut down for three months.
00:45:57.080And so the question was, like, why? Why? Why did it take three months?
00:46:01.340Why has it taken so long for the FDA to say, OK, you can open back up?
00:46:05.600I also think there are just sketchy things going on with the FDA, including the fires at the food processing plants.
00:46:12.500That's not a conspiracy theory. That's just a guess as to why those things are happening.
00:46:15.840It's either incompetence, which is probably the better guess, or malice coming from this, coming from the FDA.
00:46:24.180Like, we've had a formula shortage for several months now before there was a recall and a shutdown of the formula that Abbott Labs was producing back in February.
00:46:38.480And so we still don't fully know why there is a shortage supply chain issues, a labor shortage, low labor participation rate.
00:46:48.180Yes, this recall. But there also seems to be a very sketchy portion of this perhaps coming from the FDA.
00:46:55.580And what I also think is sketchy that after everyone was complaining about it, this really kind of blew up over the past few days saying,
00:47:02.480hey, this administration needs to do something. There were journalists asking the press secretary about this.
00:47:08.620Really, both sides were talking about this. And there was just a big uproar about this.
00:47:14.580Now, now Abbott Nutrition, according to CBS News, has said that it's been shuttered since February,
00:47:21.140said that they are likely to resume operations in two weeks, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
00:47:27.780Under fire from parents and politicians, President Joe Biden's administration on Monday announced an agreement to reopen the largest domestic manufacturing plant of infant formula,
00:47:35.980as well as to ease import rules to allow supplies from overseas amid a nationwide shortage.
00:47:40.860Now, I am glad that the respectful ruckus has moved it in this direction.
00:47:47.820Why did it take people talking on their podcast, people talking on social media, people sharing stories of not being able to feed their kids for this administration to do this?
00:48:37.160It should not take people talking about it on social media for the administration, for these government agencies to do something that they to solve a problem that has been persisting for several months.
00:49:36.080You shouldn't be feeding citizens of another country instead of, in addition to is fine, but instead of American families, that's just wrong.
00:50:41.520Good job to all of you for raising a respectful ruckus about this and for recognizing how much these things matter and how much our voices really do matter and can help the most vulnerable.
00:50:54.600We will continue to do that on this podcast however we can and encourage you to do the same thing.
00:51:00.520Make sure that you reach out to our new friends, Rosemary, and her family through her lawyer to send them some encouragement and to know that you are there for them.