RUSH: Here’s Debbie in Seattle. Great to have you on the program.

CALLER: Hello! It’s an honor to speak to you.

RUSH: Thank you. Thank you very much.

CALLER: I just thought I’d share with you what it is like to be a conservative teacher near Seattle.

RUSH: Mmm-hmm.

CALLER: Whoa!

RUSH: (chuckling)

CALLER: The day after the election, there were people in our building that could barely make it up to come to work and the tears were like Niagara Falls. It was unbelievable. So I just kind of kept a low profile and went about my business. Supposedly, all of our children are traumatized over all of this.

RUSH: Oh, yes, of course. Yes.

CALLER: I never had any of my kids have an issue or a problem or tell me they were concerned about anything and we do have a high ELL population.

RUSH: How old are the kids that you teach in your class?

CALLER: I teach fourth grade.

RUSH: Fourth grade. How traumatized are they now that they can’t choose the bathroom they want to use?

CALLER: (laughing) Right? Have you heard anything about the safety pin symbol that lets people know that you’re a safe person to come to if they’re in need of help?

RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve heard about that and variations of that.

CALLER: Yeah. So, of course, right away that pops up in my building. Everybody’s got their safety pins on, right? They’re all decorated up with the rainbow colors and all of that. By that point, a couple of days after the election, I had had it with everybody. So one of my fellow teachers, I’m walking down the hall, and they’re like, “Oh, would you like a safety pin?” And I’m like, “You know what? My kids know they’re safe with me. I don’t need to wear a safety pin to prove it,” and I turned around and walked away.

RUSH: You still work there?

CALLER: Of course I do! (laughing)

RUSH: (laughing)

CALLER: I’m close to retirement. I have to keep my head down!

RUSH: You’re not keeping your head down. You’re denying the safety pin.

CALLER: I did. But you know, well, it’s like all the union stuff. I have never served as a union representative. I have no intention of it. I resent it that I pay nearly a thousand… Well, I pay $1,200 a year in union dues — and I’m sorry, they don’t represent me.

RUSH: I know. You know that money, most of it goes to Democrat campaigns.

CALLER: Absolutely! I know that. I’ve been listening to you off and on for… Like, back into the early ’90s was about the time I started listening to you. Unfortunately — like, right now we’re on Presidents’ Week break, so I can listen now but — normally I can’t listen. (laughing)

RUSH: Since I’ve got you here and you are a teacher, I’ll tell you that at the Rush Revere Time-Travel Adventures with the Exceptional Americans offices, we do great teacher outreach. We make the books and the lesson plans and so forth available for any teachers that are interested in the founding and teaching history. Your kids are fourth graders?

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: Well, so, they’re —

CALLER: And they love that stuff. See, I start my year teaching the Constitution and then we kind of do a mock up — of course, I’m the executive branch — and I break them up into the different branches of government and the judicial branch, and they write our classroom constitution. As far as I know, I’m the only person in my building that does that. But I do try and bring it up and teach the history. My concern with using your books would be your name on them where I live.

RUSH: It’s an understandable concern.

CALLER: I’ve read your books. I have your books personally and I love them. I think they’re great. So, you know, I kind of just take things that I’ve pulled together in different ways. Bill O’Reilly has got great stuff for kids and the same historical kinds of ideas. So I’m working on it. But… (laughing)

RUSH: I know you’re up against it with where you live.

CALLER: (laughing)

RUSH: But we have ways to help you with this. This is what I was going to say. If you wouldn’t mind, if you would leave like an email address with Mr. Snerdley, we can get in touch with you and show you even better ways. Not that you’re not doing it well. Don’t misunderstand. You may be doing everything, all the ideas we have. We’d love to talk to you about it because the teaching is what’s crucial. And we would love… In fact, somebody at the Revere farm there I’m sure would love to chat with you about it.

If nothing else, to learn what you’re doing and how you’re making it effective. If you wouldn’t mind, Debbie, giving us an email address so we can reach you, I promise nobody will see it. Nobody will know it. And if you want to we’ve got two places you can go you can go to RushRevere.com. I didn’t know O’Reilly did children’s books. I thought O’Reilly did murder books. But anyway, we’ve got RushRevere.com and the Rush Revere Facebook page which we post amazing, uplifting photos. You would not believe the photos that these children reading these books — these kids — send us.

You talk about rewarding? And you’ve probably encountered it some yourself, Debbie. So, I really appreciate the call. I really do. And I hope you’ll hang on and give us a way to reach out to you, if nothing else for us to learn what you’re doing because it will help us in our outreach to other teachers overcome some of these apparent obstacles.