Tag: california

California Classrooms:  From “Yes, Ma’am” to “F Off”

California is fighting back.  No.  Not against crime.  Not against sky-high gas prices.  Not against overregulation.  My home state is fighting back to keep obstinate, disruptive kids in classrooms with your kids. 

In a Los Angeles Times article by Daniel Miller, he explains that President Trump signed an executive order on April 23 that directed the Education Department to “root out school discipline frameworks based on discriminatory equity ideology and issue new commonsense practices in the nation’s K-12 schools.”  In other words, President Trump does not think school discipline should be a matter of skin color.  The state of California worries that this will lead to legal challenges, because their school discipline policies were changed in 2019 based entirely on woke, racial ideologies.  They passed a law that year that banned suspending students who were “willfully defiant.”   

Willful defiance is not an accident.  It is, by definition, a purposeful act.  Imagine a teacher who sees a kid with his cellphone out during class and tells him to put it away.  In the past, kids would say, “Yes, Ma’am,” and put it away, knowing they had been caught.  If they instead kept tapping at their phone and told the teacher to “F Off,” that would be willful defiance.  Until 2019, schools could respond to such bad behavior by suspending the kid from school.  After 2019, that student could not be suspended.

Why would California want to protect a willfully defiant student like that?  The answer should not surprise you.  California is woke, and based its decision on twisted, misused, and incomplete statistics on race and suspensions.  Miller writes that “President Obama had directed schools to avoid enacting discipline policies that disproportionately punished underrepresented student groups – a stance later supported by President Biden.”

The state of California is allowing willfully defiant students to disrupt your child from learning because they say that black students are more likely to be suspended for willful defiance than white students, once again falsely implying that racism is rampant in our country.  Here is the problem.  California bases its claim that black students are disproportionately punished on twisted statistics.  Miller’s article says that “Black students accounted for 17% of total suspensions in California – despite making up less than 6% of the student population.”  That does not mean that black students are disproportionately punished.  The article does not give you the relevant information to know that.  The implication is that since only 6% of the students are black and 17% of the suspensions are black, those students are overrepresented by 11%.  The problem is, the 6% number is entirely irrelevant, and the one statistic that is important is not even mentioned.  The statistic that you actually need to know is the percentage of willfully defiant students who are black.  That number is likely right around 17%.

To make it easy to understand, say there are 10,000 students in your school district.  If 6% of the students are black and 94% are white, that means 600 students are black and 9,400 are white.  Then, say that 100 of the students are willfully defiant; 17 blacks and 83 whites.  According to the logic of Obama, Biden, and California, if you do not suspend 94 whites and 6 blacks, that would be disproportionate and racist.  That would mean you have to let 11 of the willfully defiant black students get away with it, and worse, you would have to suspend 11 innocent white students.  While this solution makes perfect sense to Democrats, they realize it would be hard to explain to the public, and especially to the parents of those 11 innocent white students.  That led them to an alternative solution; to stop suspending any of the willfully defiant students.  Now, the 9,900 other students have to sit in class with willfully defiant brats disrupting them, both black and white.

As you can see, the relevant number in that scenario is not the percentage of the 10,000 students who are black.  It is the percentage of the 100 willfully defiant students who are black that is important.  The article does not tell us that number.

The divisive left does the same thing when talking about people in prison for murder.  They often claim that there is a disproportionate number of blacks in prison for murder than whites because more than 50% of the people in prison for murder are black, and only about 12% of the U.S. population is black.  The 12% statistic is, of course, irrelevant.  They fail to mention the one relevant fact, that more than 50% of murders are committed by blacks.  That means that the number of blacks in prison for murder is proportionate to the number of murders they commit.  Hopefully, their solution is not the same as it is with willfully defiant students; to stop putting any murderers in prison.

The list of reasons you should never let your child attend a public school is as long as Santa’s naughty and nice lists put together.  The fact that they have to deal with willfully defiant students in class can now be added.

My Endorsement for the California Recall Election

October is my favorite month of the year.  I spend most of the month playing baseball tournaments in Arizona and watching postseason baseball on television.  Last October was even better because I got to escape the tyrannical lockdown orders in my home state of California that destroyed businesses, ended friendliness by covering up smiles with mask rules that do not even work, turned record employment numbers into record unemployment, crushed the dreams of young athletes, and kept people from enjoying meals together by forcing the closure of restaurants.  That is, unless you were the worst governor in the nation, Gavin Newsom, who proved that he did not believe in his own dictatorial mandates by eating with a group of lobbyists at a swanky restaurant, The French Laundry, where they ran up a $12,000 bar tab. 

It is obvious that California is a mess.  People and businesses are fleeing the state in droves.  As you all know, we are now less than a month out from a special election to recall Governor Newsom.  There are two questions on the ballot.  Question one asks whether Governor Newsom should be removed from office.  VOTE YES!  His failures are so clear that the vote should be unanimous.  Question two asks who should become governor if Newsom is removed.  Over 40 candidates are running, and that is what brings me back to Arizona last October.

During one of my stints in the Phoenix area, I noticed that radio host Larry Elder would be doing a screening of his movie, Uncle Tom, at a local theater.  As a big fan who had listened to Larry Elder for years, I bought a ticket and headed downtown for the night.  The film is excellent and I highly recommend you take the time to watch it.  It explores how black conservatives are marginalized and disparaged by Democrats and the media in America.  Larry Elder produced, co-wrote, and starred in the film.  Before each showing of the film, he did about a half-hour talk, introduced the film, and answered some questions from the audience.  He knows his stuff! 

His focus then was on ending racial division, strengthening families, and because it was a week before the election, President Trump and Joe Biden.  Larry Elder is now one of the candidates running for governor of California.  He is running on a platform that includes giving Californians back our freedom, improving the homelessness crisis that was exacerbated by the current governor’s policies, giving parents the choice of where to send their children to school, reducing wasteful government spending and regulations that harm our economy, and lowering California’s skyrocketing crime rate.

Wait, there’s more.  I know that many people are less worried about policy than they are about personality.  I don’t understand that myself, but I have good news for you.  The best part of my evening at the theater last October was when I met Larry Elder after the movie.  I have been to events with other celebrities and radio personalities, and they will usually shake hands and sign a copy of their book or DVD for the guests in attendance, but Larry Elder did more than that.  He stood there in the lobby of the theater and had a real conversation with every person who lined up to meet him.  He wasn’t running for anything at that point.  He didn’t have to stand there all night.  He genuinely took an interest in two theaters full of strangers.  When I got to the front of the line, he spoke with me for literally a few minutes.  I was wearing a Dodgers jacket, so he talked baseball with me, and actually knew what he was talking about.  I gave him a copy of my book, The God Bet, and he asked me about it.  He kept asking me questions about myself long after most people would have moved on to the next person in line.  I was very impressed.  He has the personality and character to go along with the solid policy positions that I want in a leader.

California would be lucky to have Larry Elder as the next governor.  This is why I am proudly and enthusiastically endorsing him in the September 14 special election.  If you live in the state, vote YES on question one, and vote for Larry Elder on question two.  If you don’t live in the state, you might as well come vote anyways.  We don’t check ID here!  (To be clear, that was a joke.  I do not condone cheating.  What do you think I am, a Democrat?)

Father’s Day in California

Have you ever had the feeling you were on some kind of a hidden camera show?  One of those times where everything around you seems so ridiculous that you think somebody is just messing with you for laughs?  This Sunday was one of those days for me. 

My day started out normal.  Well, not normal.  A normal Sunday would begin with me going to church.  Since apparently they had it wrong in 1776 that liberty is endowed by our creator and we no longer have the freedom to attend church without a mask, I watched the service on my computer.  It was after church that things started to get weird. 

Sunday was Father’s Day and my dad picked his favorite pizza place for lunch, so I said I would drive up and meet them there.  I parked my car and saw theirs so I knew they were already inside the restaurant.  When I walked in an employee rushed over and stopped me. 

“They’re already seated,” I said as I walked towards the tables. 

“You need to put on a mask,” he replied. 

“I don’t have one,” I said. 

He persisted, “You have to have one on until you get to the table.  Here, we have some for you to use,” as he grabbed a box on the counter. 

Two thoughts crossed my mind in the next couple of seconds.  First, I thought about how completely gullible and illogical so many people are to go along with this.  Apparently, if I walk 20 feet to a table without wearing a mask, everybody in the restaurant will be dead.  Yet, if I get to the table, remove the mask, and eat for an hour, then everything will be fine.  Insanity.  The other thought was that my family is going to make fun of me but I have to do the right thing.  We can’t let the bad guys win.  “Never mind,” I said, and I turned around and walked out.

I think my dad was annoyed, amused, and proud at the same time.  When he came out to walk down to the bakery to get dessert I was sitting on a bench outside.  I walked with him. 

“We missed you at lunch,” he said. 

“Yeah, me too,” I answered.  “You know why I’m like this?  Why I stand up for what I believe like that?”

“McDonald’s?” Dad asked.

“Yep,” I said, and he busted out laughing.

You see, when I was a kid my mom would occasionally take us to McDonald’s because they were the first fast food place to put in a playground.  In August of 1987 Joan Kroc, widow of Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s, made a $1 million contribution to the Democratic National Committee.  At the time it was the largest single contribution to the party ever.  Dad heard about Kroc’s donation and banned us from going to McDonald’s until George Bush defeated Michael Dukakis a year later.  We gave my dad a hard time about that for years.  Now look at me, Dad!

Side note:  As a general rule, I don’t like to boycott businesses for disagreeing with me politically except under certain circumstances.  I think it’s a bad precedent to set to make everything about politics.  For example, I still eat Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.  I like it.  Plus I get a kick out of the fact that two Vermont leftists got rich because of free market capitalism.

After lunch we went to my parent’s house and watched Hondo, the John Wayne western.  Then dinner was even more entertaining than lunch.  My parents, my sister’s family, and I went to a Mexican restaurant.  My parents and I arrived first and I ordered a margarita.  When my drink came out I was disappointed to find one of those awful paper straws in it.  You know the ones.  They make whatever you’re drinking taste like cardboard and then they get soggy and mushy.  So far not funny, just annoying.  Then I noticed my mom’s iced tea had a real, plastic straw in it.  I asked the waitress, “Can I please get a real straw like hers?”  I couldn’t tell if she had a look of confusion on her face because, well, she was wearing a mask, but she walked off for my straw.  A minute later she returned to our table with two straws.  Two more PAPER straws!  I was not wearing a mask so I’m sure everyone could see the perplexed look on my face.  Was she messing with me?  Did she not understand me?  Was Ashton Kutcher hiding around the corner? 

“No.  I meant a real straw.  Like that one,” I said as I pointed at my mom’s tea. 

She looked at me blankly, followed by some unintelligible mumbling from beneath her mask about not having any.  I asked if that was the last one in my mom’s drink.  She mumbled again, nodded, and walked away.  My family laughed hysterically because I was so confused.  I glanced around again for Ashton Kutcher.  Nowhere.  Oh well.  I guess Mom had gotten the last real straw. 

A minute later the waitress brought my nephew his water because he had gotten there a little later.  My Dad said, “Hey Steve, look at his straw.”  Sure enough, in my nephew’s glass was a real, plastic straw.  Laughter ensued.  Ashton Kutcher never popped out.