....the campus is predominantly white
a tale of 2 school districts? In Dougherty Valley schools it is mostly a sea of black hair with a sprinkling of 'WASP' students. Very different situation and much fewer of the issues (hmmm?).
curious; those kids who staged the walk out, did they offer a solution or? My mommy taught me never complain unless you provide a possible solution.....

It isn't the student's responsibility to figure out a solution. Their job is to enjoy a safe environment. The School District's job is to make that happen. That's what they are paid for.

.... isn't the student's responsibility to figure out a solution
Nor is it an acceptable option to simply walk out of class. Agree to disagree on the value of just complaining w/o a solution.

The parents and their son have already been publicly humiliated and condemned by people in this community. Many have not seen the video nor know the details about the case. The parents posted their side of the story, but unfortunately it appears that it has not gained much traction because the popular opinion is against this family.

I found their story here. It was originally posted as a reply on the social media site, Facebook, belonging to the parent of the current ASB president who went into great lengths to initiate a smear campaign against the boy and his parents. But later, all the posts were removed, including the reply from the boy's parents. It appears that the current ASB president's parent doesn't want anybody to know the other side of the story. Interesting read. A written apology from the boy is also in the link - written the same day he was pulled into Admin's office. Quite a remarkable apology letter if you ask me. My point is - don't be too quick to judge this family until all the facts are known.

You may have to cut/paste this link.

Web Link

I am so embarrassed that my town has been in the news so much in the last few years; and even more annoyed that the liberal media twists and exaggerates stories. Teachers told their students they can leave class if they want. What student would not leave when given the chance? A lot of students left campus, about 30 to 40 students wanted to make a scene and be loud and protest in front of cameras, about 150 students protested against the protesters making a joke out of it saying things like "2% milk kills" or just around watching and laughing.

Everyone has their own opinion about this subject, but most people have not seen the video. They rely on news media and social media to give them information. But let's all remember, social media platforms are just opinions, and news media manipulates the truth to make it more interesting to come back after the commercial. I've seen headline titles saying "terror video" and "racist video". The truth is, it was just a teenage boy imitating what he sees in movies and videogames trying to be funny and win an election. There is no reason to call this boy any names for the fact that he is only 17 years old, which explains his actions. I blame the school and the leadership teacher for making this a bigger story than it truly is.

Opening this newsletter, I wonder how many student participating in the walk out and rally also attended the Memorial Day celebration........

I have been a Danville resident for more than 20 years. I was raised as a Muslim in a predominantly Muslim Country. It took me decades of questioning the principles of Islam, investigating the life of Prophet Mohammad, and what Islam has done to other cultures and religions throughout the past fourteen centuries, to realize that Islam is not a religion. Islam is a satanic cult that brainwashes people into becoming an ignorant and submissive follower. If the leaders of Islam cannot brainwash you, they kill you. What ISIS has been doing is exactly what Prophet Mohammad did. Killing non-Muslims in Islam is Halal. Halal means approved by Islam, and actually something that is rewarded in Islam. Raping women and children of non-Muslims is Halal in Islam. Taking non-Muslims as slaves and abusing them and selling them as a commodity is Halal in Islam. Islam has zero respect and tolerance for other religions and definitely of those who do not believe in any religion. On the surface, Muslims claim they are peaceful and respect other religions, but what they think and do is actually quite different. I know this because I was a Muslim, although I am really ashamed of having been a Muslim. So, why should we respect Muslims if they do not respect us. Why should we let them propagate in this country when the goal of Islam is to take over the US government and set Sharia law on us? The liberals are so ignorant and stupid that they are digging a grave for all of us by blindly supporting Islam. I have heard about the video, and know for a fact that it is not really insulting to Muslims. However, even if it did insult Muslims, I would not have any problems with it. My concern is that our educational system is turning into a brainwashing institute by the stupid confused liberals. Are these liberals waiting for their family members to get blown up or shot by the ISIS supporters, before they wake up? If anyone wants to know the truth about Islam, make a post here and let me know where you want to meet.

well said,'Ex Muslim' in your post above. I have heard similar from other acquaintances of ours who have come here from the Middle East.
What I find absolutely dumbfounding is how people here get more upset over this supposedly video -who most have not seen- rather than be upset at actual terrorist events going on. Shows that extreme political correctness is still trying to control the truth.

@ Ex-Muslim: I've always felt this way toward Christianity.

Rob U: Good point, question…

Why do liberals/feminists/progressives always say "all we have to do is love them and they'll change their ways", but instead of loving thy neighbor and fellow SRVHS student, they write and say horrible things about a 17-year-old and a family trying to support him?

Thank you, @ex-Muslim, for speaking the truth of your experience.

So much PC BS. To the poster that tries to compare Christians and muslims in the modern day we all knew who the bombers were in the U.K. Before the evidence even came out. Wake up and look at the facts. My guess is you also agree with clock boy and his parents in Texas. The SRVHS kid did nothing wrong. Being a white male seems to be crime enough for so many now.

Tom, hopefully you've been paying attention to the news lately. Who has it been that has killed multiple innocent people in America because of their beliefs? Not Muslims or refugees or anyone with a Middle Eastern-sounding name. Perhaps the one who needs to wake up and look at some facts is you?

You guys are really buying that ex-Muslim is actually an ex Muslim?! Come on people!

I know many will not understand this common, but since our schools have become so PC, we've had more problems. Constantly telling children that they should be tattletales and only their opinions matter, create this mess we are having in our very entitled school district. Kids feel emboldened and do not respect others nor discipline. We need to go back to old fashion conservative values where we teach the golden rule, not make a big issue out of other people's problems, and discipline our children. I am not saying that every issue brought up to our SRVUSD is not important, what I'm saying is when opinions spread on social media they make it bigger than what it is and divides our precious little town.

Dear Sandra---- If you doubt that I am a real Ex-Muslim, then I am willing to meet you in person, and show documents about me being born in a Muslim country and being raised as a Muslim. I would also invite several other Danville residents to be present as a witness. Islam is the cancer trying to overtake the whole humanity. I have felt Islam in my bones, and that gives me the right to criticize it. I am also worried about my children ending up living under the rule of Islam. This is serious. Once the cancer gains enough momentum, it will spread everywhere. It is already happening in Europe.

In response to the resident named Sigh who is comparing Islam with Christianity: I am not a Christian, and I was not raised as a Christian. I only have minimal knowledge about Christianity. However I would not even think about comparing Jesus with Mohammad. Jesus was promoting love not hate. Jesus did not rape 7 year old girls at the age of 58. Jesus did not murder men in order to take their properties and sleep with their wives and daughters the same night. Jesus did not attack defenseless caravans and tribes to kill them and pillage whatever they had. Jesus did not practice slavery. Jesus did not lie and cheat. Do you want me to go on or are you understanding the difference between Jesus and Mohammad? Again, ISIS is doing exactly what prophet Mohammad did. Do you know of any Christian group who is currently doing these things?

@Tom Unfortunate that your finishing statement makes it clear that you are as uninformed as you claim your political opposites to be. The student wasn't white. He is asian. Also, if you don't think white christian terrorists exist, maybe take a peek at the KKK? Or perhaps the men bombing southern churches as an act of racism? Try doing more research before turning to your local community forum in a huff in an attempt to change someone's opinion about a small town protest.

and @Ex-Muslim ? Do the KKK ring a bell darling?

" Sigh"- Your attack on Christianity is appalling. You added your comments to a different article about bullying how horrible you felt when students harassed and bothered you. How do you think us Christians feel reading your venom remarks about our faith? Why is acceptable for liberals to rally to the defense of every case of alleged "ism", but acceptable for them to slander and attack Christianity? You need some sensitivity training on respecting people's religious faith.

Dear SRVHS Student, Are you saying that KKK is following the path of Jesus the same way that ISIS is following the path of Mohammad?!!!! You are young, and being targeted continuously by the brainwashing propaganda of the ignorant liberals. I am well aware of what has been happening at SRVHS. Both of my children graduated form that school. Please please please do not just accept what you are taught or told without fully researching it via various reliable sources. Do not even accept what I am telling you about Islam without fully researching it. Only then you will see that I am telling the truth.

@ ex-Muslim and all his/her enthusiastic supporters:

I've been around the block enough to the tone of the ex-Muslim's statements to infer that they are probably an anti-Islamic regime, virulently pro-Shah Iranian. Those types presume to be vastly knowledgeable about Islam, veritable well-springs of scholarly knowledge in fact. The reality is that most of them truly know little about Islam. Yes, they were born in Iran and raised in a fairly pro-Western environment during the Shah's reign (who systematically purged Islam from Iranian culture) and probably fled the moment the excesses of the Islamic regime took over. From my experience, such self-proclaimed "Muslims" have *never* done any of the following: they have not read the Quran, they have not led a religious life, they have not regularly attended mosque, and they are unlikely to be scholars of religious thought. They were simply born Muslim and are regurgitating well-known critiques of the excesses within Iran or Saudi Arabic but extrapolating that the entire Islamic faith is responsible for the repressive excesses by those governments. Anti-Muslim bigots eat this stuff up. There is nothing better than getting an "ex-Muslim" Uncle Tom to spout their own vitriolic hatred.

As for Christianity ... you really don't want to get me started. I will begin with the vicious, murderous Crusades that not only annihilated the Jews in Spain but eradicated anyone not in step with their their particular version of Christianity. Don't take my word on it, read for God's sake: READ!

Then came colonization in Africa, South America, and the Americas. Christians, raped, kidnapped, murdered, and oppressive in the name of Christianity and did so with impunity.

Let's see, then we come to what Christians did in the Haita, the Caribbeans, the United States, and Central Americia with regard to slavery and the treatment of Native Americans. Christians stole, raped, thieved, murdered, enslaved all these people with impunity. Again, please read your history books -- not Breitbart.

If anyone reading this has any intellectual desire to seek Truth -- not some stereotypical hateful one-sided version of one self-professed ex-Muslim expert, please have the integrity to seek knowledge from a widely-respected scholar. As educated as ex-Muslim might think he/she is, I doubt she's got a degree in religious studies -- let alone a degree in Islamic studies. Take a look at what a moderate such as Reza Aslan has to say. He isn't a Mullah and is a scholar of religion, including the Bible: Web Link

Don't like Reza Aslan because he's an Iranian Muslim? If you only trust white, Western, Christian scholars because that is the open-minded, egalitarian type you are, then by all means, please read real books by true white, Christian, Western scholars such as Karen Armstrong, John Esposito at Georgetown University, or the late, great scholar of religions Huston Smith. Read American history from Howard Zinn from Boston University (though, on reflection, Zinn though white and Western, was a Jew).

Try to be worthy of the blessing of intelligence, wealth, and ease by using it toward bringing people together, overcoming hatred and distrust. Use your apparent free time and ease to begin by reducing your AM Talk Radio listening and your Fox Network watching -- AS WELL AS the main stream news -- but READ! We will all die one day and will be 6 feet under. Ask yourself if you think spending your life and energy attacking an entire religion will win you any brownie points. Is that what
Jesus did? Is it what Mary did?

Oh, yeah. Since some of you love to cherry pick and arbitrarily wave your larger-than-life patriotic flags to remind everyone about the First Amendment *WHEN IT SUITS YOUR WORLD VIEW* ... let me remind you that these students gathered under their First Amendment right to freedom of assembly, freedom of association and, of course, freedom of speech. If y'all don't like that and it rubs you the wrong way, by all means leave the United States and find a fascist regime that will reflect your ideals.

"Faklempt": Your extreme hatred of everything "white, Christian, Western" comes across very clear in your rants. I always wondered how anyone could have such hatred of people they have never met to the point they could blow up bombs and knife and shoot and murder complete strangers who never did them any wrong. It is that kind of extreme hatred and misguided logic that drives their murderous sprees. As a Christian, I pray that you lose your extreme hatred, and that your rhetoric does not encourage anyone to act out violently against others. Instead of focusing on wrongs by Christians hundreds of years ago, I encourage you to start living in the moment, and go to Catholic Charities, or any of the hundreds of community outreach and volunteer programs run by Christians right here in the Bay Area, that help those who need the most help, providing food, resources, housing, assistance, and education. Go talk to those receiving free clothing and furniture from Saint Vincent DePaul, or those receiving food from Catholic outreach programs. It is hard to have extreme hatred of "White, Christian, Westerners" when you actually meet them and see them in action helping those in need.

Slavery, rape, murder, etc., ain’t the product of Christianity. That’s the history of mankind, son.

All them natives was doing the same thing all throughout history.

Europeans just did better, for a spell, with gunpowder and horses.

Nowadays, Christians have put all that nonsense behind them. They’re into loving their neighbors and whatnot.

I got no issues Muslims, so long as they leave me be.

But I learned everything I needed to know about Islam on 9/11.

I don't feel hatred towards people but ignorance and the dissemination of bigotry. I am exercising my right to debate and offer a different viewpoint from that expressed above by many of your compatriots. So sorry free speech irks ya!

I find it pathetic when people who are clearly not very well read about Mideast politics and modern history attribute terrorism and violence to 1.8 billion followers of a world religion without wondering "why is this happening?" Heard anything about regime change and coup d'tats? Let's ignore ancient history and look at modern history to see how state-sponsored violence works:

When the US and the West enters another sovereign nation and destabilizes their form of government and imposes a war, ostensibly for more noble reasons, but in reality for economic gain (OIL), that creates a horrifying, festering vacuum of instability. It happened in Iran with Mossadeq in the mid-50s when the US helped overthrow the democratically elected Mossadeq in order to ensure that he wouldn't nationalize oil and keep it out of our grubby, greedy fingers. So, we overthrew the democratic process and then scratch our heads and pretend to act confused when a repressive and extreme form of government takes over there a few decades later. If we had left them to their own devices, we might be dealing with a secular democracy in Iran (which it would have been had Mossadeq been permitted to govern). Don't take my word for it: Web Link

What about Iraq? Saddam was our darling for many years and we provided him with tremendous support until we decided that we needed to punish someone for 9/11. Saddam with his tremendous oil reserves was getting to be a little troublesome and although his secular Bathist regime was authoritarian, it had no role in the 9/11 nightmare. So, we overthrew a government, plunged it into 14 years of war and instability and wonder, gee whiz, why did ISIS originate there? It must have something to do with their religion even though it is a real coincides that ISIS was born right around the same time that Iraq was plunged into utter chaos.

These are the ingredients for extremism: Instability, lack of governance, war, oppression and the soil and after our meddling, Iraq's soil ripe for the horrifying birth of ISIS. Being glib and superficial in your understanding of the Middle Eastern politics and modern history by attributing terrorism and violence to an entire religion is painfully ignorant. Overthrowing governments for greedy economic prerogatives is the real reason we meddle and that creates a dangerous breeding ground for evil extremists that manipulate religion (and anything else they can) to meet their nefarious goals. Don't want extremists? Stop meddling, stop stealing national resources such as oil and allow sovereign nations to rule as they see fit.

By the way, I don't hate Christianity as a faith. I offer those examples as rebuttals to your assertions about Muslims. I have worked with Catholic Charities closely, have profound respect for Pope Francis (especially his pluralistic and unifying respect toward all faiths and care for the poor and disenfranchised), and have a particular interest in the interactions between St. Francis of Assisi and the Egyptian Sultan of the time. I'm using a rhetorical tool when I show you how ridiculous it is to blame an entire faith based on the violations of a some.

Who is in charge of teaching our kids nowadays? They need to stop filling their heads with nonsense.

Look at this poor kid.

First of all, let’s get something straight. Mossadeq was a gob dam Commie. Let this be a lesson to you son, the only good Commie is a dead Commie. We was doing the world a favor. And the funny thing is, our coup failed. The Iranian military had to finish the job. So quit blaming us.

BTW, the U.S. didn’t give a crap about Iran in the 1950’s. You’re confusing us with the British. That was British oil, not ours. And it was the British who discovered that oil in the first place, not them goat herders. The British had every right to keep it.

As for Iraq, yes GW was a gob dam fool for invading that rat hole. He should’ve listened to Schwarzkopf. You break it, you bought it.

And you’re wrong about ISIS. We have ISIS because the Sunnis and Shiites effing hate each other. That ain’t our fault. Blame Muhammad.

Gramps,

1. I categorically disagree with the use of violence towards someone espousing a different and opposing viewpoint. I ain't a Communist but I find the notion that you stated, "The only good Commie is a dead Commie" to be beyond the pale. You have succeeded in leaving me (verbose creature that I am!) wordless!

... but only for a moment:

2. Of course the British were involved in Iran and not just in the 1950s ... their tentacles in Iran predate the 1950s and they were involved in meddling in Iran a century before.

3. As for the assertion that the Americans were not involved in the coup d'tat, I am sorry to inform you that the CIA published declassified information that suggests the opposite but don't take my word for it: Web Link

4. As for the ripe conditions for extremism, creating the hell-hole that you so aptly describe, the U.S. does have responsibility. Just the way the U.S. has responsibility for training their then-darling Osama bin Laden and his rag-tag bumbling al-Qaeda precursors in Afghanistan for years during their proxy war against the USSR. We trained him, created the monster he became, allowed Afghanistan to be ravaged in this proxy war and then, again, scratch our heads and say "how did al-Qaeda develop in Afghanistan?" We help destroy a country, create chaos, train monsters, and then wonder when the monsters don't behave properly.

5. While I do enjoy a rousing verbal joust, sadly, I must end by clarifying that I didn't acquire my information from SRVHS but I do enjoy reading books! It's annoying isn't it?!

Gob dam right we were involved in the Iran coup. I said as much. No need to post a link to CNN (a.k.a. the Commie News Network).

Back in my day, they used to teach about a fellow who said, give me liberty or give me death.

If someone tries to take your liberty, you got every right to stop them. Communism is the opposite of liberty. Mossadeq got what he deserved.

And we didn’t create Al-Qaeda just because we taught Bin Laden how to defend himself against the Russians. By that logic, the U.S. Marines are responsible for JFK’s death because they taught Lee Harvey Oswald how to shoot a rifle.

Where do you kids dream up these crazy ideas?

If you enjoy reading books so much, I suggest you stop spending so much time in the fiction and fantasy section.

Hermie,

Mossadeq wanted to nationalize his own country's oil reserves. Your grasp on liberty must be terribly wobbly if it would get obliterated by an independent sovereign nation on the other side of the planet deciding for itself that they were not going to allow foreign usurpers to enter their soil and rape their resources. How that impacts YOUR liberty is beyond me.

As for your Lee Harvey Oswald analogy, it's inept: The U.S. didn't simply train Osama and his goons (al-Qaeda precursors), they destabilized the entire country by waging their proxy war there for years. It is the combination of destabilization for years and military training that makes Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries ripe for extremism.

If it makes you feel better to blame everything on religion -- go for it. It is an intellectually lazy answer but one that appeals to the ignorant masses.

As for me, I don't have much more to say to someone who seems to channel McCarthy. (This snarly, snarky attitude toward communism is a little passe, isn't it? After all, your president is in bed with a diminutive Russian communist).

And with that, Hermie, I bid you adieu.

Dear Faklempt, I had no plan for continuing these discussions, but you left me no choice by accusing me of not knowing enough about Islam or Quran. I am an old man who has spent decades thinking and reading about Islam. I know exactly how Mohammad stole the preliminary concepts of Islam from an old scholar with the name Zaid Bin Amr Bin Nufayl, and how he claimed that he had come up with a new religion called Islam a few years after that old man passed away. Mohammad did not know how to read or write. I know who wrote most of the Quran for him by plagiarizing the other religious books of the time. Open your eyes and come out of the brainwash of Islam. Many scholars have read Quran in detail and have discovered many conflicts within it and many wrong statements. Of course, Muslims have killed these scholars violently. Just two years ago, several of these scholars were attached by knife and killed brutally in Bangladesh. Open your eyes and find the real facts about Islam. I have discovered that the stories that are the basis of Prophet Mohammad's life history were just made up, such as his bravery in the wars that were just fake. I was not raised as a Christian, and therefore I have no right to criticize Christianity. But I was raised as a Muslim, and I gained the right to investigate it and expose the truth about it. I am looking at the world right now, and I see behavior by the Muslims that is totally against humanity. I am fully aware of the game of politics that is played by all the governments in the world. Do you think ISIS would have been this ruthless if violence and hatred was not part of Islam? Blame Christians as much as you want but can you say Jesus promoted hatred, rape, murder, slavery,and so on? In contrast, Mohammad did all of that and some more. Open your eyes, open your mind, find and read books and writings, and determine the facts. I did it, and now I am ashamed that I was raised as a Muslim. You will reach that conclusion too.

Do you not know about how the Soviet Union killed millions of people and took the liberty of millions of others?? Their ultimate goal was to take our freedom. Eisenhower and Churchill took action in Iran and elsewhere to stop them.

Listen to yourself talking about “nationalization” of resources. Nationalizing is another word for stealing.

Mossadeq wanted to steal oil that belonged to BP. He was on Soviet payroll.

Mossadeq was still wetting his bed when British investors paid for the oil concession rights from the Shah of Persia. It was the British who figured out oil was there. They invested the money, worked in the 120 degree heat, braved smallpox and bandits.

Soviet tanks roll over Afghanistan and you say the U.S. is responsible for destabilizing the country?

You bid me Adieu? Adieu???

This is America, Jack. Speak English.

Lets talk about modern day Christians and Islam shall we? Pretty sure we can all agree that the majority that practice Islam are peacful but there is a very real minority that do not. There is no such equvilent in the current Christian world.
For a moment lets say 2% of Muslims are or will become Jihadist. How then can you allow millions of refugees in knowing the statistical likelyhood of violence.
What about how modern day Muslims think about gay and women rights?
How to left leaning people so hate Christians and are so open to Islam based on the values you say you are for?

Mosaddegh: Web Link

In my opinion, he was a great man.

i rest my case...

Herman Glates' fascinating attempt at disparaging all Persians as "goat herders" belies his own glaring ignorance. Time to disavow your trailer park origins and get "edumacated" Mr. Glates:

Web Link

(Btw, do you troll all message boards as a full-time profession or is this a dedicated hobby of yours?!)