The girl’s lacrosse team at Blacksburg High School in Virginia wanted to honor their coach, who had spent ten summers volunteering in Ukrainian orphanages.
So, t-shirts were designed and created – adorned with a simple, but profound message: “Pray for Peace.”
The young student athletes had no idea the t-shirts, which they wore during warmups, would land them on the frontline of a raging cancel culture battle.
Montgomery County Public Schools sent every team member an email ordering them to never again wear the shirts. Ever.
“The Girls Lacrosse Team is no longer permitted to wear the Pray for Peace t-shirts at home or away events as warm up gear,” the email read. “The message conveyed by the shirts, although positive in nature and well meaning, can be interpreted as religious and political in nature.”
The school district said the shirts were too religious and too political. A double-whammy.
Parent Clare Levison said the girls offered to replace the word “pray” with the word “play.” However, that compromise was rejected.
The Roanoke Times reported that the school’s librarian was ordered to remove a display sign that featured books about Eastern Europe. The sign read, “Stand for peace.”
“Apparently, the administration of Montgomery County Public Schools wishes to remain neutral on praying, playing or even standing for peace,” Mrs. Levison wrote on her Facebook page. “
That’s why she bestowed upon the school board a special commendation: the “Insult My Intelligence Award.”
“Pray for Peace is not a religious statement that requires separation of church and state,” she wrote on Facebook. “It is one that all presidents in power, regardless of political party, reference on a regular basis.”
In February, President Biden announced that both he and the First Lady were praying for the “brave and proud people of Ukraine.”
“The prayers of the entire world are with the people of Ukraine tonight as they suffer an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces. President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,” the president said. “Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its Allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way. The world will hold Russia accountable,” the president said.
Not only did President Biden violate the school board’s edict on prayers, he also took sides in the war.
“Pray for peace is neither a religious nor political statement,” Mrs. Levison wrote. “It is a universally accepted sentiment.”
But that’s not how the school board sees the matter.
“What is the peace from?” interim superintendent Annie Whitaker told The Roanoke Times. “A war. And a war is rooted in what? It’s a political war, from people who have differing views.”
Essentially, Montgomery County Public Schools has decided to remain neutral in the war between Ukraine and Russia.
“Could someone please let the Jews know that Hitler just had a different view than they had,” Mrs. Levison wrote. “Could someone please let the Buddhists know that Pol Pot just had a different view than they had? And could someone please let the Russians who were sent to the Gulags know that Stalin just had a different view than they had?”
The people in charge of Montgomery County Public Schools are a bunch of godless, cancel culture, groupthink zombies. Everyone has their own truth.
I wrote about this terrible malady that has inflicted our nation’s public education system in my book, “Culture Jihad: How to Stop the Left From Killing a Nation.”
The school district truly believes that Ukrainians have their version of the truth and the Russians have their version. Who are we to take sides?
As I wrote in “Culture Jihad,” right and wrong - morality - cannot exist when there is no absolute truth.
“There isn’t really a reason within a sports team to be wearing school issued uniforms that are promoting anything other than the sport,” she said. “The purpose of that sport is to play that sport.”
“When the top administrator of our county’s education system takes the stance that even peace is controversial, our moral compass hasn’t just been broken. It’s been shattered into a million tiny pieces,” Mrs. Levison wrote.
There’s only one way to facilitate a course correction in Blacksburg – every person on the school board must be removed from office and replaced with fair-minded, freedom-loving patriots.
Let’s see how neutral Montgomery County Public Schools will be when parents declare war on the school board. Pray for peace, indeed.
Todd Starnes is a best-selling author and award-winning journalist. He is the host of The Todd Starnes Radio Show weekdays 12 p.m. – 3 p.m. His website is www.toddstarnes.com.