The Liberated Learner – Column by Suzanne Kearney
On April 20, 1999, two teen gunmen, wearing shirts emblazoned with the words “Wrath” and “Natural Selection,” ravaged their school in Columbine, Colorado. After murdering twelve students and one teacher, the young men took their own lives. In the aftermath, the country reeled in shock and disbelief, groping for answers.
But then it happened again. And again. And again… such that, tragically, these grisly massacres have become commonplace. Only a few days into this school year, yet another shooting occurred at Georgia’s Apalachee High School, and we have already nearly forgotten it. Politicians blame guns; pundits, social media or video games; psychologists use the elusive catch-all “teen mental health;” some even charge and sentence parents, all in hopes of solving the problem. But it only gets worse.
It deserves to be asked: has anyone looked into the schools?
In an effort to be “neutral,” public education has suppressed traditional Judeo-Christian values in favor of a postmodern version of secular humanism. Students are taught that the material world is all that exists, that they evolved from lower lifeforms, and that everything in the universe can be explained in terms of natural causes. “Science” is the sole arbiter of truth and God has been pronounced dead. Unfortunately, secular humanism is anything but neutral – its premises, when taken to their logical conclusion, destroy all moral absolutes, accountability, meaning, and purpose. But since it is “religious dogma” to teach children that they were made for a reason by a Creator who loves them, nihilism, instead, is the philosophy du jour.
No wonder kids are hopeless.
Now stir into the pot a heaping dose of woke indoctrination. Hyper-sexualization, identity politics, race baiting, victim/oppressor pigeonholing, the “green” agenda, and disgust for America and its Christian roots (accompanied, ironically, by a shameful ignorance of the nation’s history) are all key ingredients.
The National Educator’s Association (NEA)’s homepage calls teachers “activists” and lists “racial and social justice” (aka Marxist indoctrination) as one of its key issues. Social Emotional Learning, a trojan horse for bringing Critical Race Theory into the schools, and climate alarmism, a leading cause of anxiety among young people, are standard fare in districts across the nation. Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), a set of curriculum standards promoting explicit sexual content and high-risk behaviors, teaches children that sexual pleasure is a human right and implies that they need be no different than animals in their justified quest for self-gratification; it undermines traditional values, parental rights, and promotes all imaginable forms of sexual perversion.
Furthermore, under the guise of “right to read” and “free speech” campaigns, cultural Marxism in the form of anti-white racism, LGBTQ “pride,” socialist propaganda, queer theory, dialectical materialism, progressive activism, anti-American revisionist history, and everything meant to destroy the good, true, and beautiful is being shoved down students’ throats via their school libraries.
No wonder kids are depressed, anxious, and self-loathing.
Now add the final layer of psychotropic drugs. Presently, the percentage of children between the ages of 5-17 taking psychiatric medications is around 1 in 10, and the number has been increasing steadily for many years. School counselors often play a part in identifying and referring students for suspected conditions such as ADHD, anxiety, depression, and other mental disorders, and parents may feel pressured by the system to medicate their children.
In addition, the transgender ideology currently being pushed in schools often leads students down the path of chemical interventions such as cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers. Many have pointed to psychotropic drugs as a suggested impetus in suicidal and violent behavior. In fact, the link between school shootings and psychotropic drugs has been suggested for years, most notably in a report by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which completed a meta-analysis on over 30 studies “that link antidepressants, antipsychotics, psychostimulants, mood stabilizers and sedative hypnotics to adverse effects that include hostility, mania, aggression, self-harm, suicide and homicidal thoughts.” In fact, Columbine shooter Eric Harris’ autopsy showed the presence of fluvoxamine at the time of death. One could argue that a vicious cycle is created where schools help create hopeless, depressed, anxious youth, who are then prescribed drugs, which in turn make them worse.
Put it all together, and in the words of north Idaho podcaster Todd Herman, one could conclude that the schools are producing “angry, racist, drug-addicted sex-bots” who have been taught to hate God, hate their country, hate others, and hate themselves. In the name of “neutrality,” “love God and love thy neighbor” has been replaced with unfettered moral relativism and survival of the fittest, resulting a generation whose only faith is in “science” and only hope is government.
Is it any wonder that they lash out?
Another day, another school shooting. Who is to blame? While the factors leading to teen violence are obviously complex, the schools may be playing a huge part.
Why are your kids still in these schools?
