A Queens fifth grader made headlines last week after he was prohibited from giving a speech on same-sex marriage to an assembly of first through fifth graders at his school. It should come as no surprise that progressives are up in arms over the alleged restriction of free speech this student faced in what many on the left are calling ‘hate.’
Beryl Bailey, principal of P.S. 195 in Queens, New York, decided that 11-year-old Kameron Slade’s speech about marriage equality was not appropriate for the first through fifth grade audience, and the boy was instead allowed to read the speech on Monday at a fifth grade only assembly.
“When did all the disagreements in this country become hate,” Glenn asked on radio this morning. “Since when if I don't agree with a certain lifestyle is it hate? Or even, even if it's just that I don't want my 10 or 11 year old kid subjected to certain things before I feel they're ready as a parent, or I don't want them subjected to it at all at school, because I want to talk to my children about those things, how is that hate?”
While the Kameron and his mother have accepted the compromise put forth by the school and thanked the Department of Education for their attention to the matter, others are still not satisfied. New York City Council member Dan Dromm is now accusing Bailey of hatemongering.
New York City school’s chancellor, Dennis Walcott, is defending Baily’s decision. “It's something that the principal felt she needed to do more diligence with her parent community because of the topic of the speech itself,” he said.
The question here is not whether or not Kameron had a right to give this speech, but rather if the content of the speech was age appropriate for the audience at hand.
“Now, this kid sounds like an incredibly intelligent, mature fifth grader,” Glenn said. “But does he have the constitutional right to say whatever he wants in class to first graders? The answer is no. No, he doesn't.”
“How is it possible that that is hate,” he continued. “I had a first grader. I don't want them talking about sex. I don't care if it's heterosexual sex. I don't care. How is that hatred?”
The problem is that it is this issue has absolutely nothing to do with hatred, nor could it be considered hatred under any logical circumstance. “This is all part of the progressive effort to shut you up,” Glenn said. “Only one side gets the discussion. Any way they want it, anytime they want it, with anyone they want it with. But if you say that's inappropriate, that's hate.”
“We have to use common sense and be rooted not in the passion of the day but in the truth,” Glenn concluded. “You have to change the words. If you're a progressive, you have to change the meanings, you have to shout people down and shut them up because you can't win on principles or logic.”
“So they try to win by ending all discussion by just claiming hate. But they can't. They can't shut people up anymore because we're not going to sit down. We won't shut up. We won't be shouted down. We're awake now.”
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