Arkansas Middle School Yearbook Groups Hitler, Bin Laden, and...George W. Bush On 'Worst' List

Guy Benson | June 02, 2011 10:41 AM

This list makes perfect sense to many liberals, of course -- it should include a mass murderer, a terrorist...and Hitler:

Open up the Russellville Middle School yearbook. You'll see the students' pictures, the administration, and a pretty controversial list that's supposed to be covered with a piece of black tape. "My problem is the tape can be removed easily," said School Board Member Chris Cloud. Cloud has two kids in the Russellville School District and one brought home the yearbook.

"I'm furious as a parent and as a board member and as a tax payer and as a resident of Russellville," he said. "It's wrong." The list is titled "Top 5 worst people of all time." The top three, in order, are Adolph Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, and Charles Manson. Numbers four and five are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

The excuses for this offensive misappropriation of history are pouring in:

Superintendent Randall Williams calls the list "an oversight." Parents caught it after the yearbooks were printed. The district's solution was to cover the list with tape. It didn't work.

"Really?" said Williams when told the tape could be pulled off. "Well that's disappointing because the yearbook supplier told us this was a definite fix." When asked if the yearbook sponsor, a paid teacher, thought that it was appropriate to include the list in the yearbook, Williams said no.

"I think it's just hard to explain, and I've talked to the sponsor and she is very very very upset about it. That she didn't pay any attention to that particular part of that particular page," he said. "I think she maybe just scanned the whole page and went on." Williams says the yearbook editing process is under review.

I should hope so! It's stories like this that feed into millions of parents' concerns that their kids' public schools act as mini indoctrination factories. It's an unfounded (or at least overblown) fear in many cases, but isolated, galling episodes serve to cement a very negative perception. Someone should be held accountable for this "oversight." Also, if Barack Obama had been included on this roster of ignominy, I'd hazard a guess that the screeching, accusations, and fallout would be dizzying.