Crossroads School, a K Through 12 School Sponsoring Left-Wing Rally?

Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences, a K-12 facility in Santa Monica, California, is tired of all the political insanity out there. To help ameliorate this state of affairs, the school has decided to use its campus assets, its school email system, and its teachers to sponsor a Jon Stewart-styled rally to “restore sanity” in its area.

Luckily for Santa Monica such “moderate” voices as 60s counterculture activist Tom Hayden, progressive talk show host and activist lawyer Jim Lafferty of the National Lawyers Guild, and others are going to be on hand to shout down the “extremists” out there. But with this list of speakers, “moderation” is the last thing that can be expected.

This rally raises many questions. Why is a school for younger children advocating adult political issues to its students by hosting a list of left-wing, radical speakers and presenting them as “moderates”? How can a school that claims to be interested in fostering “diversity” be lending itself to a rally lacking diversity of thought? Does this school get any federal or state money? If so, how can it justify the use of its teachers, technology, and facilities for a partisan, left-wing rally?

The Crossroads school, a private institution with tuition from between $22,806 and $27,210 per child, per year, has announced its rally on a Facebook page and has it planned for an off class day, Saturday, October 30. (My emphasis)

The Crossroads’ Political Union Club will be hosting “Crossroad’s Rally to Restore Sanity” a day of Music, Food and Speakers. This event will mimic Jon Stewart’s rally in Washington D.C. and will take place on October 30th from 10 AM until 5 PM in the Crossroad’s alley. This event is open to the public. So far Davis Guggenheim (director of “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Waiting for Superman”), Tom Hayden, Jim Lafferty (Head of the …National Lawyer’s Guild and talk show host on KPFK), Sharon Baradaran (Poly Science professor at UCLA and founder of the Israeli Studies program), Jim Miller (producer of “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price”) and Kelly Carlin Crossroads Class of 81′ (author, performer and host of “Walking from the American Dream” on NewDissidentRadio.com) will be speaking. There will be a lot of student bands as well as The Jane Carrey Band (Ian Sloane ’06, Terry Goldber ’06, Jane Carrey and George Krikes). This is an event organized primarily by students with the help of Humanities teacher Carole Winter.

The aim of this event is to inform greater Los Angeles, most importantly students, about the issues facing the country today. Instead of listening to the media’s portrayal of the extremists on both sides, it will be a day of sane discourse with an emphasis on moderation.

Now in the Statement of Philosophy on its website, the Crossroads school affirms that it wants to instill “independent thought,” and “diversity” in its students. Further the school claims it wants to foster “social, political, and moral understanding.”

To do that one would think that all sides of an issue would be presented so that students could learn the reasons behind the thinking of the world’s leading philosophies. But the announced list of rally speakers does not inspire confidence that any level of “understanding” is the goal for this school-sponsored rally. Rather, this list of left-wing speakers seems to indicate some amount of indoctrination as opposed to a balanced presentation of politics or philosophy.

Yes, it is pretty amazing that this school can claim that 60s yippie Tom Hayden is a “moderate” voice. It is just as absurd to claim that an activist lawyer like Jim Lafferty is in any way a “moderate.”

Let’s take a quick look at just some of these folks that Crossroads School thinks will offer “sane” and “moderate” discourse for this rally.

Tom Hayden: Hayden is well known as a 60s radical. He collaborated with the Vietcong during the Vietnam War, he was a key figure in the riots during the 1968 Democrat Party Convention in Chicago, and he is a 9/11 truther.

Jim Lafferty: Lafferty hosts a “progressive” radio show on KPFK radio, an outlet of the left-wing Pacifica Radio Network. He has also in the past spoken at events sponsored by pro-terrorist, socialist, and communist organizations such as an event held in LA in 2005. He is also a member of the National Lawyers Guild, a group that has sought out accused terrorists in order to represent them in lawsuits against the US government in its efforts to battle terrorism.

Jim Miller: Miller was a producer for the anti-capitalist movie “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.” He has worked on projects for the National Breast Cancer Coalition and has worked on other films in Hollywood.

Kelly Carlin: Daughter of famed comedian George Carlin, Kelly hosts a radio show called “Waking from the American Dream” on DissidentRadio.com. She is also a blogger for the left-wing website Huffington Post. In one post she said that the USA has been “f**ked up for a long time” thanks to Bush and conservative policies.

Davis Guggenheim: While Guggenheim is currently the toast of conservatives for his film “Waiting for Superman,” he is no conservative. Davis is a long time left-winger and also helped Al Gore make his global warming fantasy epic “An Inconvenient Truth.”

None of these people will be presenting a balanced, moderate opinion on the issues of the day. So why not include some others that might do so? Where is Larry Elder, or Star Parker, Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt or Andrew Breitbart, for instance? How about David Horrowitz? Maybe even John Fund of the Wall Street Journal?

There is at least one product of the Crossroads school that has been in the news of late. Crossroads graduate Comedian Jack Black has recently been in the news for his disdain for those Tea Party Americans that he seems to dislike. Apparently Black to exemplifies the left-wing teaching that is going on at the school.

Certainly there are a lot of questions about this left-wing event soon to be unleashed at the Crossroads school. Questions from the propriety of providing and promoting an all left-wing program on a school campus are extant.

This rally belies the claims that the school wants “diversity,” and “independent thought” while using school money (and perhaps state or federal funds) to sponsor a partisan political event on its campus, a lot of questions need to be answered.

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