Homeland Security Ads Urge Parents To Talk Terrorism

USA Today | November 23 2004

Between spoonfuls of cereal, a little girl in pajamas looks across the kitchen table and innocently asks her mother some chilling questions: "What if something happens? Should I stay where I am and wait for you?"

She may not understand the implications, but she's talking about terrorism. Now the government wants parents to provide answers.

In a series of new TV, radio and print ads, the Department of Homeland Security is encouraging parents to talk to their children about what to do if disaster strikes. (Related video: Ad 1 | Ad 2 | Ad 3)

The public service ads, unveiled by the Ad Council on Monday, are aimed at parents. Stations are being encouraged to air them only during adult programming. "It is certainly not our goal that these run during Saturday morning cartoons," said Kathy Crosby of the Ad Council.

But some experts say the ads could frighten children who see or hear them. The ads could make children worry that a terrorist attack is likely, said child psychologist David Fassler of Burlington, Vt. "Parents need to emphasize that's simply not the case," he said.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said parents talk to their kids about other issues, including crime and speaking to strangers.

"We don't think this will be any different than anything else parents have been asked to do for a long, long time," Ridge said. "This is only a difficult subject if the parents make it a difficult subject."

The new campaign is part of a government effort to get families to plan for emergencies. In one ad, three siblings ask whether they should go to a neighbor's house and how to keep in touch if the phones are out.

An adult voiceover says: "There's no reason not to have a plan in case of a terrorist attack. And some extremely good reasons why you should." It refers parents to www.ready.gov for information.

Marsha Evans, president of the American Red Cross (news - web sites), called it "a powerful way to use children to get to adults." But Ronald Stephens of the National School Safety Center said: "Children have very tender and fragile hearts. You want them to grow up with a feeling of security and safety without feeling that the big, bad boogeyman is going to get them at any moment."

10-year-old girl arrested, handcuffed for taking scissors to school

School district officials said the fourth-grade student did not threaten anyone with the 8-inch shears, but violated a rule that considers scissors to be potential weapons.

Administrators said they were following state law when they called police Thursday, and police said they were following department rules when they handcuffed Porsche Brown and took her away in a patrol wagon.

"My daughter cried and cried," said her mother, Rose Jackson. "She had no idea what she did was wrong. I think that was way too harsh."

Police officers decided the girl hadn't committed a crime and let her go.

However, school officials suspended her for five days. Administrators will decide at a hearing whether she may return to class, or be expelled to a special disciplinary school.
http://www.zerointelligence.net/archives/000483.php

Aaron Dykes & Alex Jones
Jones Report
Wednesday, November 8, 2006

A fifth grader named 'Mark' reported to Alex Jones' Infowars TV show by phone that he had been sent home with a disciplinary report for visiting 9/11 Truth websites such as Infowars.com.

The 10 year-old Steiner Ranch Elementary student, in Leander I.S.D. near Austin, Texas, says that he was browsing such sites during his Computer Lab class period when a fellow student informed on him, as though he were doing something wrong.

"He just ran up to my teacher in front of the whole class, saying 'he's searching terrorist stuff about 9/11'.

His teacher was "all shocked" and said, according to the student, "Mark, you shouldn't have been looking at conspiracy theory websites."

Alex Jones has confirmed the student's story

Mark said, "I was just searching the government websites which tell the truth, which they think is a conspiracy, and I get in trouble for it."

The student was sent to the Principal's office to face disciplinary measures. Steiner Ranch Elementary Assistant Principal Amy Moore was reportedly surprised that the school's IP filters hadn't blocked the sites.

"They should have," the Principal said to Mark while at the office.

He says that his principal checked the web history in his school web account, and was 'surprised.'

"I was going to websites that tell the truth about 9/11. She thought it was all a conspiracy; I confronted her," Mark said. "'No, it's all the truth,' you know. Bush, and its not just him, a lot of other people, and they're just trying to cover it up."

The assistant principal then told the 10 year-old, "Don't talk back to me" before sending him to sit in the hall and later back to class.

"He came home, and I couldn't really be mad at him," his father, who also spoke to Jones during the television program, admitted. "I just told him he should stay on task."

According to the Steiner Ranch Elementary Student & Parent Handbook, students are restricted from accessing websites considered to be abusive, obscene, sexually oriented, threatening, harassing, damaging to another's reputation, or illegal. It is also against the rules to 'attempt to circumvent content filtered according to the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA).'

However, the school regulations call for no attempt to stifle political content, news media or public information on government activities, which would violate American rights to free speech.

So, by that yardstick, this student did absolutely nothing wrong, yet was subjected to scolding and accused before his peers.

This is part of a chilling effect to nullify even the pursuit of freedom of speech. How does it reflect upon the nature of discourse in a free society when even the principal of an elementary school feels the need to crush the desire of enquiring young minds who are simply trying to learn more about the seminal event in American history?

Schools are being transformed into prisons where freedom of thought and expression in education has given way to an enflamed environment of paranoid suspicion.

This school, and far too many others, have descended into a point where children are treated as subjects who need to be taught the correct way to act and think and not to think for themselves.

Mark's father revealed that the school has also approached him, recommending a psych test for behavior such as "running" and "making farting noises." Meanwhile, schools like Lee Middle School in Wyoming, Michigan conduct drills where police officers point guns at children's heads, all without informing the students or the school beforehand. "Some parents," the AP reported, "were upset."

"Some kids were so scared," said Marge Bradshaw, the mother of one of the students, "they wet their pants."

There are even cases such as Jerseyville, Illinois where a teenager "carrying a bible" was shot twice, and fatally, by a police stun gun. This incident did not happen on campus, but still shows how the community regards its youth.

Click HERE to see RCMP terrorising high school children..... Is your child their next taget?

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