Teacher Punished for Objecting to Girl in Boys Locker Room: Mat Staver is joining us from Liberty Counsel to talk about a new case he”€™s dealing with. We”€™re also talking about the rise of globalism and changes in the educational system of today. Tune in now for more!

Air Date: 12/11/2018

Guest: Mat Staver

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith And The Culture

Rick:

You”€™ve found your way to the intersection of faith and the culture. It”€™s WallBuilders Live where we”€™re talking about today”€™s hottest topics on policy, faith, and the culture. We always do that from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective.

We’re here with David Barton, America’s premier historian and our founder here at WallBuilders. Tim Barton”€™s with us, national speaker and pastor, and president of WallBuilders. And my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas legislator.

Check us out at WallBuildersLive.com and also WallBuilders.com. The Live.com site is where our radio information is. You can get a list of all of our stations across the country and our archives. And then over at WallBuilders.com you get all kinds of great tools for yourself and your family. And at either site you can make a donation to help spread this good news across the country. So, be sure and check that out there as well.

David and Tim, Mat Staver will be with us when we come back from the break a little later. Another crazy case. He gets some of these really outlandish ones. I don’t know if he just attracts those are what, but I’m so glad he’s willing to stand up for this. People going to be shocked at what public schools are asking coaches to do and teachers to oversee in this particular case.

David:

Yeah, it”€™s a really weird philosophy going on. We’re seeing a kind of a globalism in several areas. Immigration – “€œHey, there shouldn’t be borders. You shouldn’t be able to stop people coming into your country.”€ So, whether it”€™s the EU over in Europe, or what people protest in here with what’s going on the caravan there shouldn’t be borders of any kind. And there’s this kind of government thing we should all be the same kind of government everybody should be socialist because it’s so fair for everyone.

It”€™s All Globalism

David:

All of this globalism is going on and what it does is it really it takes the individual out and it puts the state in control and we’re really seeing that an education we’re starting to see in America now a real manifestation of what European education has been for a while.

The European philosophy is parents, they exist to serve the state. The state doesn’t serve the parents, it”€™s the other way around. So, whether it be in Germany, we’ve seen instances of parents being jailed for homeschooling their own kids because the state says, “€œNo, no, no, they”€™re our kids. You can’t homeschool our kids.”€ In Scotland we have instances of where the government goes in and registers those kids when they’re born because the government makes all the important decisions.

So, we’re now seeing that in schools in America where the schools are taking extreme steps. We would consider, they don’t see anything wrong with it, but we would consider extreme steps to keep parents out of the process to make sure parents do not know what’s happening in the process.  

Rick, what you’re describing even with coaches. It’s going to be kind of shocking for some people, but you need to understand – this has been going on for a while. This is not just an isolated instance. This is what is now happening with the philosophy of education across the country that parents need to go out and we the school need to tell you what your kids need to know.

Rick:

It’s a direct result of the decision to say the state makes a better decision than parents and the decision to say that there is no gender, there is no biology. This shouldn’t be a shock to us that this confrontation is taking place.

Just to set this up as Mat Staver is going to be with us when we come back from the break, he’s representing a coach, a teacher, that refused to oversee a girl coming into the boys showers claiming to be a boy and literally undressing in front of him and the other boys. And he says, “€œI’m not going to participate in that, I’m not going to go watch a girl undress.”€ And he is being reprimanded for that. Thankfully Mat Staver and Liberty Council have stepped in.

Let’s get this crazy story when we come back. Stay with us, folks. Mat Staver from Liberty Counsel here on WallBuilders Live.

Join Us In Israel!

Hey guys what are you doing January 28th through February 7th? If you said you don’t know, let me give you an idea. We are going to Israel. Rick Green, my dad, David Barton, Tim Barton, our families are going and we would love for you to go with us. We are going to the Holy Land if you’ve ever been to Israel this is something as a Christian that will make you forever read your bible differently.

To see where Jesus walked, where He lived, where He did miracles, where so much of the Bible took place. If you’ve ever read through the Bible and you’ve given it a mental picture, the mental picture will not do justice of what happens when you’re actually on the ground. If you’ve ever thought about the story of David and Goliath and you”€™ve envisioned what it looks like, we’re going to go to the actual field where it took place.

There are so many things that you will see that literally makes the Bible come to life. In fact, that’s the name of the tour group we”€™re going with is The Bible Comes to Life. Go to CMJacksboro.com. You can click on the link, it has an Israel itinerary, all kinds of details. Hope to see you on this trip this coming year.

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Mat Staver is back with us from Liberty Counsel. Always good to have you, Mat, thanks for your time today, man.

Mat Staver:

Good to be with you.

Rick:

Hey, so you got another kind of crazy case here. Actually somebody trying to do the right thing, a teacher, a male teacher, saying, “€œI’m not willing to oversee a girl going into a locker room with the guys and taking showers because she’s claiming to be a guy.”€ The teacher gets in trouble for this? I thought that–

The Teacher Gets in Trouble?!

Mat Staver:

The teacher gets in trouble, yeah. And we actually have public records requests now that reveal all of the internal back and forth from the highest levels that wanted to terminate this teacher and make him an example. Why?

Rick:

Wow.

Mat Staver:

Because he wouldn’t listen to what they wanted to do. He would not stand watch over a naked girl showering in the boys open locker room. Unbelievable that they would even ask him. Unbelievable that they would say that this girl has a right to shower in an open shower with the boys. And unbelievable that they told this teacher and others, “€œParents can’t know and you can’t warn these young boys that a girl is going to be nude in their locker room.”€

This girl says that she wants to identify as a boy and so the school, Pasco County Florida, says, “€œYou have a right to be able to be called a pronoun of your choice whether it’s “€˜he”€™, or “€˜she”€™, even though it’s opposite, or even “€˜they”€™ if you’re neither– get this– male or female. And you have a right to be able to use whatever facility not only on campus, but also off campus.”€

So, if you are taking a field trip, or a sports athletic event, or a band, or a concert, and you’re staying overnight, well then the girl has a right to sleep with the boys and the boys with the girls if they say, “€œWell, I identify as the opposite gender. It’s absolutely absurd and it goes all the way back to the so-called “€œgender support plan”€ and the “€œbest practices guide”€ that was created by Jackie Jackson Dean, a school psychologist that was hired by the Pasco County School Board.

We”€™ve Lost Our Minds

Rick:

I, Mat, I don’t even know what to say. You’ve warned about this for years as you saw this coming down the pike. We’ve talked about it here on the program. We’ve lost our minds. So, this is– did the teacher, I guess, let let’s back up. So, here’s the teacher– what age are we talking about here anyway?

Mat Staver:

We’re talking about the Middle School framework. But this particular process applies across the board. So, these are young students. And this school psychologist actually is someone who’s very connected with the so-called “€œGLSEN”€ – The Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network which is a very radical propaganda organization trying to infiltrate into the public schools. And unfortunately, doing a pretty good job of infiltrating and this is one example of it.

Rick:

And they’re actually writing the playbook.

Mat Staver:

Yeah, they have the curriculum, they”€™re writing the playbook. And they’re giving instructions to their representatives on how they can get this LGBTQ whatever into the schools and not inform the parents. And in this particular situation you can’t have an aspirin that you give to a young boy or a girl without parental permission. You can’t have an overnight field trip, or even participate in a sport event, unless you have parents permission.

So, what they do here is they try to get around that and they are referring these kids to off campus organizations that are very radical that will also give them drugs for HIV, give them other kinds of so-called gender altering drugs, hormone kind of drugs, and the school is referring these kids without the parents permission. And the guidelines, the so-called “€œbest practices”€ that the parents should not be informed unless the student tells them.

The Parents Don”€™t Know

Mat Staver:

So, here’s your young girl as your daughter coming to school and you don’t know that she’s being called a boy or even “€œthey”€, believe it or not, plural, you don’t know that she’s actually showering in the boys locker room unless somehow it leads back to you by some of the boys that are there and it gets out. Because the school is not going to let you know if that girl says, “€œI don’t want my parents to know.”€ This is absolutely absurd.

And even this Jackson Dean psychologist and the other school officials say that someone who resists this program needs to be swiftly and immediately punished.

Rick:

Wow.

Mat Staver:

Thus you see what’s happening to this P.E. teacher. We have shined the light on this particular situation and we have documentations even though they might say, “€œWell, it’s been blown out of proportion.”€ If it’s being blown out of proportion, how do we have these e-mails and these other statements that they have communicated internally to one another about their plans to punish this teacher and make this P.E. teacher an example for noncompliance? The noncompliance is the teacher says, “€œI should notify the boys”€™ parents that a girl is going to shower nude.”€

Rick:

Right.

Mat Staver:

“€œPlus, I’m a male. I’m not going to oversee and watch a naked female shower in the boys locker room.”€ That’s just absurd to even ask that of the teacher.

Not A One School Situation

Rick:

I guess on one hand this is exactly what we’re warned about throughout scripture – being given over to a depraved mind. We’ve lost our common sense. It’s just amazing to me. But I guess now that we’re in this environment, and I’m– I would assume, Mat, this is not a one school situation.

Mat Staver:

No.

Rick:

These folks are pushing this agenda all over the country. And I would give a warning to those that think– you know, I live in what used to be a small town and we always thought this kind of stuff wouldn’t come to our school district, but it absolutely is. Same kind of agenda being pushed. And it starts with what they make you think is small little just you’re respecting the child’s wishes, and it ends like this where you’re going to actually participate in this whether you believe in it or not and we’re not even going to tell the parents. This is how bad it gets.

So, how now do you fight this kind of thing? I’m assuming our listeners are hopefully shocked that this is happening. But then how do you respond? What are you guys asking the school to do?

Mat Staver:

Well, we’re asking them to step away with and denounce this so-called “€œbest practices”€ plan. They need to change this so-called and throw out this “€œgender support plan”€. They need to respect the rights of individuals who refuse to participate in a lie. And it is a lie for the government to tell a school employee or a teacher that you have to refer to somebody by a pronoun, not a name, but a pronoun, and you have to treat them as the opposite sex even though you know it’s a lie. That is just absurd.

So, we’re asking the school to radically change. And I’m not talking about even radically. We’re talking about going back to common sense.

Rick:

That’s right.

Popping Up All Over the Country

Mat Staver:

What they’ve done is radical and they need to step away from that because we will not allow these teachers, or even the students, to be forced under government coercion to participate in a lie and a charade that is absolutely harmful to these young people who are pretending and confused about how God created them. This is, like you said, we’ve lost common sense. Once we reject God we lose the ability to even have commonsensical communication and logic. And that’s what you see happening here.

But you’re right, Rick, this is not just located in Pasco County Florida. This program from GLSEN is national. And we have seen this begin to pop up all over the country.

So, check out your school because you may be surprised even though it’s not a policy, it may be a practice. And find out what’s going on. Find out if there’s a GLSEN representative or some kind of LGBT radical agenda that’s seeping into your school and make sure you let other people know about it. Because when people do know about this they are shocked. And they need to go to their school board and they need to tell them, “€œStop this.”€

Rick:

Yeah.

Mat Staver:

“€œTeach our kids, but don’t indoctrinate them with this nonsense.”€

Rick:

You touched on the parental rights part of this. As you step back and look nationally at how to deal with these kinds of things. We used to as a nation tend to agree with the idea that, hey, if something is going to be done at the school that’s controversial or may go against your beliefs at home, the parents should know about it, they should have the option of opting out of that. That that seems to have gone to the wayside. How do we get that back into the policy? Are you recommending legislature stepping in in these situations and protecting parental rights? Or as you kind of plan for the next 10 years of dealing with this stuff, what do you recommend?

Mat Staver:

Well, I think certainly the legislature can step in, but in many of these cases the legislature has already stepped in. And the legislature has already indicated that when it comes to human sexuality it is abstinence only and it is parental notification. So, in many of these cases these schools are already violating state law. And that’s exactly what’s happening here in this Florida case. And that’s, frankly, what’s happening elsewhere. But we may need some additional legislation to put a little bit more teeth into this.

The Parents Don”€™t Even Know

Mat Staver:

So, certainly, legislation may be something that we need to consider and pursue. No question. But on the other hand we need to enforce the legislation that’s on the books now because the schools, they have to get permission if a boy or a girl wants to sign up to play intramural soccer. And yet they won’t give them permission, they won’t even let them know, if their son or daughter wants to dress, or be called, or visit and participate in the opposite genders facilities or pronouns.

Rick:

Yeah, I don’t know if you saw the story out of the UK from that school district where a teacher basically is being a whistleblower now. And even liberal newspapers are reporting this surprisingly where she”€™s saying like 17 kids in this school are now wanting to transition. And it turns out a lot of those kids are kids with autism that these older kids have essentially–

Mat Staver:

Yeah.

Rick:

–as she put it, “€œgroomed”€. And again, same thing, no parental notification or involvement. The parents don’t even know that this is happening to their children.

Mat Staver:

Yeah they don’t even know. And  sometimes these young boys or girls because of pressure, or because of fads, and just because they’re going through finding out who they are as an individual fitting in with their peer group–

Rick:

Yeah.

Mat Staver:

–they go through these questions. And some of these are natural questions. Parents need to know–

Rick:

Yeah.

Funneling Kids Toward Gender Confusion

Mat Staver:

So that they can walk their young children through it. But what these schools are doing is they’re shutting out the parents and they’re funneling these kids toward gender confusion as the only option.

Rick:

That’s right.

Mat Staver:

That’s dangerous.

Rick:

Yeah.

Mat Staver:

And some of these are being even funneled, unbelievably, toward private organizations that will give them drugs without their parents”€™ knowledge or consent.

Rick:

And, in fact, that was one of the complaints of this teacher was that she unwittingly pointed these kids to a third party organization. And it was one of these radical organizations, she just didn’t realize it. It’s– people have got to be aware of it. If your kids are in public schools you need to know what’s going on there in your local community.

Mat Staver, I’m so thankful for you and Liberty Counsel being on the front lines. LC.org is the website. Folks, get to the end of the year here and you’re planning your end of year giving – LC.org. Make sure you check them out. They are doing great work for us across the country. Help them continue that that work.

Mat, thanks for coming on, brother.

Mat Staver:

Thank you. God bless. Good to be with you.

Rick:

Stay with us, folks. We”€™ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

This Precarious Moment Book

David:

This is David Barton. I want to let about a brand new book we have called This Precarious Moment, Six Urgent Steps That Will Save You, Your family, and Our Country. Jim Garlow and I have co-authored this book and we take six issues that are hot in the culture right now.

Issues that we’re dealing with, issues such as immigration, race relations, our relationship with Israel, the rising generation Millennials, and the absence of the church in the culture wars, and where American heritage is, our godly heritage. We look at all six of those issues right now that are under attack and we give you both Biblical and historical perspective on those issues that provide solutions on what each of us can do right now to make a difference.

These are all problems that are solvable if we’ll get involved. So you can grab the book This Precarious Moment and find out what you can do to make a difference. This Precarious Moment is available at WallBuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Thanks to Mat Staver. Appreciate his great work at Liberty Council and thanks for being willing to take on these cases.

We’re back with David and Tim now, I tell you guys, I know Mat”€™s not the only one doing it. We”€™ve got a lot of friends with different organizations that are taking on these types of cases. But you”€™ve got to wonder how upside down the world has gone when you have a school district saying, “€œWe’re going to make you, as a male teacher, watch a child, a girl, in your school undress in the boys locker room because she’s claiming to be a boy that day.”€

But as we said at the beginning this is the logical progression of the steps that the left has taken to take away any right and wrong, now take away any concept of gender. And as you mentioned at the beginning, David, take away parental rights and not even tell parents that this is happening with their children at school.

What About Child Pornography Laws?

Tim:

Rick, you just pointed out so many issues that are happening with this one situation. One of the first things I thought when we saw this story is whatever happened to child pornography laws.

Rick:

Right.

Tim:

Isn’t that supposed to be one of the most heinous crimes out there? The exploitation of children, right? This child pornography industry, and you go to jail and if it’s found on your computer, right, this is a huge deal. And yet in this situation we’re saying, “€œNo, you can just go watch the live show.”€

Rick:

Wow.

Tim:

If if these children want to undress in front of you you can’t say “€œno”€, you can’t put up boundaries. And one of the things we’ve talked about a long time is even how do we define gender anymore? Because if it’s just something, “€œWell, I feel like this this day.”€ If there’s no biology involved in it then this is the logical deconstruction to say that, “€œNo, you can’t say anything is wrong or anything is inappropriate.”€ If it’s just however they feel or whatever they think in that moment because they’re children.

And this even goes back to some of this base worldview stuff. If your worldview is that people are basically good, then the idea is that anything they feel or desire is basically good and therefore you cannot tell them what’s wrong. Well, that’s the foundation of humanism and we know as Christians, no, all people have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and therefore there is sinful human nature, there are sinful human beings, and there are sinful things happening around us. And it used to be we recognized a moral standard to say certain things are right and wrong.

But, Rick, as you identified, we don’t even know what’s right and wrong anymore. Which, actually, right and wrong is not shocking. If you don’t even know what’s a boy and girl anymore–

Rick:

Right.

How Did We Arrive at This Place

Tim:

–than right and wrong seems like a far reach beyond that. But this is flooring. How did we arrive at this place? And we can’t tell parents and somehow this man is in trouble for saying, “€œI don’t want to look at a child whose of the opposite sex undressing and put boys through that.”€ This is real and I’m excited that Mat did say, right, that they have this freedom of information, kind of this record, and I don’t remember how he said it if it was subpoena.

But whatever it was that they get the information that they now get to find out all this evidence that was there, and what they were trying to do to hide information to make this guy seem like the bad guy, and realizing this is the philosophy from the school that is penalizing a man trying to protect children and trying not to put himself in a bad spot.

David:

But you’ve got to understand too that this is not an isolated instance. This is– most people haven’t heard about these kind of things, but this is not the only time this has gone on. And by the way, as if you’ve seen even movies about what happens in nuclear radiation sites where they have some kind of a leak they’ve got these tags that when it turns color or when it goes off you say, “€œOh my gosh, nuclear radiation everybody get out here in a hurry.”€ Any time you hear the phrase “€œparents can’t know”€, that should be a nuclear radiation indicator.

Rick:

That’s right. That”€™s right.

David:

Parents can”€™t know. “€œOh don’t let parents know what we’re doing here with the showers.”€ But see, think of all the other things – “€œDon’t let parents know what we’re doing with our sex ed, that is planned parenthood. Don’t let parents know what we’re doing with ex ed that we’ve now taken into kindergarten. Also, don’t let parents know what we’re doing with the gender identity that now there’s 92 you can choose from. Don’t let parents know what we’re doing with giving out contraception and abortion services on campuses and referrals. Don’t let parents know what we’re doing with drugs and prescriptions.”€

It Ought to Send You Through the Roof

David:

And one of the ones I saw just recently – “€œDon’t let parents know what we’re doing about teaching Islam on Campus and that we’re now having kids practices Islamic prayers.”€ Anytime you see “€œdon’t let parents know”€, man, it ought to send you through the roof in a nuclear eruption that says that is unacceptable. And what happens is the more silent we stay on this the more we allow this to keep building, and building, and building.

Rick:

That”€™s right.

David:

Even with this one school district right here, my question is, “€œAlright, Mat”€™s got this and it”€™s going to a lawsuit. He”€™s probably going to win the lawsuit.”€ But the bigger question I have is does anybody even care that this happened? And if so, is anybody going to rise up and do anything?

Rick:

And in how many other school districts across the country is it happening?

David:

That’s right. Because this is not just an isolated school district. This– as he points out, GLSEN has this all across the nation as “€œbest practices”€ for schools. So, this is being presented across the nation with schools. And, man, they need to be having a new school board election there in Florida, they need to be having firings of the principals who are telling this coach that he’s in trouble, that’s what’s supposed to be going on, that”€™s what should be going on, and I’ll bet it does not go on.  

This Should Be a Wake Up Call

David:

So, I don’t fault GLSEN for this, I don’t fault the teachers for this, this is where we the people are not demanding any kind of accountability. And hopefully you aren”€™t saying, “€œI’m not in Florida it’s not my school district.”€ Great. Go get mad about what’s being done in your school district because I will guarantee you there’s stuff going on there that you don’t know about and stuff that parents are not being told. And you’ve got to get involved in this kind of stuff.

So, this should be a wake up call and it should not be, “€œOh, another indication of the culture sliding, it’s all getting worse. There”€™s nothing–“€ No, stop this silly stuff. Get involved and go do something in your school district with your kids, your grandkids, your neighbor, whatever it is. Get involved.

Rick:

Yeah, what it’s an indication of is not that the culture is too far gone, it’s that we just simply haven’t done what we needed to do. In many ways we’re it”€™s Ezekiel 22:30, “€œI sought a man among them that should make up the hedge that would stand in the gap before me for the land that I not destroyed, but I found none.”€ For too long that’s been the case. Now, thankfully, people like Mat Staver and others are that man that are standing up in the gap. And that’s why we do what we do here on the program is to equip people to be able to do that.

So, David, I hear the challenge in your voice right now and almost the frustration that we’ve let this stuff get as far as we have. I hope people do get upset when they hear today’s program and that they pick up the phone and call their local school district and say, “€œAre you doing any of this? Are you taking advice from these radical leftists.”€ They always try to make the right out to be radical. The left is the one that is radical, totally radical, from the values that most communities have in this country.

So, pick up the phone and call. Find out if they’re doing that. That’s a great place for people to start right there in their own communities. And listen, folks, you”€™ve got to have the ammunition, the intellectual ammunition, to fight these kind of battles. That’s what WallBuilders is all about – rebuilding the foundations, rebuilding the walls. A nation cannot be strong without those foundational strengths.

So, that’s why we’re always bringing you this information. We want you to share it and get it in as many hands as you possibly can. Don’t waste it. In other words, a good program like this, you need to be Facebook sharing this and Twitter and everything else.

Teacher Punished for Objecting to Girl in Boys Locker Room

Rick:

And then help us to spread the good news by coming alongside us financially as well. We’re a listener support program. Being able to help Mat Staver get the word out about this case, being able to get people educated on the constitution, equipping pastors when we take them to D.C., young people at Patriot Academy and the WallBuilders internship, and all the other things that we’re doing – all of those things are standing in the gap. All of those things are literally standing up and saying, “€œWe’re going to defend the values that matter. We’re not going to just give up on this culture, we’re going to continue to fight.”€ That takes finances, it takes manpower, it takes people willing to stand up.

So, you can be one of those people. Go to WallBuilders.com today or WallBuildersLive.com today. You can make a one time contribution, you can make a monthly contribution if you come alongside us monthly. Whatever amount you can do, it helps us to continue this good work and it’s your way of being able to stand up.

Thanks for listening. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.