Bay Haven School Conscientious Objector Celebration Cancelled

RUSH: You remember last Thursday we had a call from Sarasota — Kimberly, a military mom. She said that something awry was going on at the Bay Haven Elementary school in Sarasota, that a teacher there was going to, on Veterans Day celebrations on Friday in the fourth grade, have a banner listing conscientious objectors. We have two sound bites. CNN’s Headline News on Sunday. Here’s the anchorette, Susan Hendricks.

HENDRICKS: Veterans Day at one Florida elementary school got more attention than usual. A teacher asked his students to make a banner honoring service personnel who oppose the war to hang next to another Veterans Day poster. Well, a parent called Rush Limbaugh’s radio show to voice her opposition and, within hours, the school received hundreds of calls and protesters also showed up there. The teacher dropped his idea. The parent said she never expected the school to get so much flack for this. By the end of the week, she and her husband, both veterans by the way, met with the teacher and say they came to terms with each other’s viewpoints.

RUSH: Yeah, yeah, okay, so The Man Who Runs America ended the conscientious objector celebration at Bay Haven Elementary. They did the right thing. Then last Friday on the Fox News Channel’s Special Report, fill-in host Bret Baier reported on the Bay Haven Elementary school controversy.

BAIER: An idea from a Florida elementary school teacher to put the names of conscientious objectors on a banner at a Veterans Day observance has prompted hundreds of calls and e-mails in protest. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports Bay Haven Elementary school fourth grade teacher Rolf Hanson wanted to honor conscientious objectors and give them what was described as more or less equal recognition with veterans. An irate parent called Rush Limbaugh, and the deluge of negative reaction commenced. The school’s principal quickly said that there would be no banner and that veterans would be honored in what he described as a very traditional way.

RUSH: So a successful outcome, ladies and gentlemen. I must confess that after this happened on Thursday, we got calls, I’m sure you heard them on this program from veterans, ‘You know, Rush, there are some conscientious objectors out there who have won the Congressional Medal of Honor and other medals and it could well be that’s what the guy’s going to do.’ We thought, well, if that’s true then we’ve caused the school a lot of hassle, and I walked outta here Thursday afternoon somewhat concerned and worried about it, but it turns out that our instincts, which are always right, don’t doubt me, were right in this case, too, and that is this guy was planning to honor protesters in his fourth grade class. So all’s well that ends well.