Governor Locke's Youth Violence Agenda

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 13, 1999

Contact: Lynn M Stuter

Once again, Governor Gary Locke is asking the people of the state of Washington to foot the bill for his agenda on youth violence, yet the Governor has given the taxpayers nothing substantial on which to base his requests, asking instead for their trust and good faith.

The Governor has touted the Youth Safety Summit of August 1998 as the basis for addressing youth violence in Washington state, yet that summit was not more than a self-serving government attempting to justify its existence and expansion over the lives of the people of Washington state. Parents and citizens in this state were never heard on the subject although much time and effort was taken, and money spent, to make it appear as though they were. The whole of the Youth Safety Summit agenda was orchestrated and controlled by the OSPI and Governor's office to ensure that the outcomes they wanted to see happen would happen. The whole of it cost the taxpayers of this state too much money for the mere benefit of making it appear that the people supported the OSPI and Governor's agenda.

The issue of youth violence is not going to be resolved by pouring money into more programs, violating the due process rights of children, passing more gun control legislation aimed at law abiding citizens, and further usurping the rights of parents in the upbringing and education of their children.

If we are to address and eradicate youth violence, the following are going to need to happen and we, the people, are encouraging the legislature of this state to address these during their special session commencing on May 17, 1999:

address the laws that have removed the right of parents to discipline and control their children, then we expect parents to be parents and hold them accountable for their children's behavior;

investigate what is going on inside schools: curriculums that target belief systems, undermine parental authority and rights, promote a political agenda; and are antithetical to family values and a unified culture;

repeal the laws that have turned our schools into workforce development centers instead of places where children are educated for intelligence and where a common societal moral standard is modeled and enforced;

return accountability for what children are taught to parents, and education, in total, to the local level, including curriculum, teaching methodologies and testing vehicles;

reduce the tax burden on families so there is a parent at home for the kids;

get the government out of the business of education, out of homes, and out of the business of parenting;

return children to being children, not "raw material" to be properly conditioned to become human resource units to meet the needs of the state;

we, as adults, use some common sense and quit listening to the "experts" who have caused this mess and who now tell us that they know how to fix it;

that legislators, one and all, pledge to "do no harm" to parents, the family, and to children;

and not necessarily in that order.

— ### —

╪