The following story comes to you from deep East Texas, where, as pastors and Christian parents compromised by government schools would tell us, all the teachers are Christian, all the schools are different, and all the students are above average.

The beginning of the article may strike you as a rather pedestrian story about a dispute over disciplining children for visiting a questionable website at school. Feel free to skim it. The enlightening part comes toward the end in which the aggrieved parent raises a "double standard" argument based on the school sanctioned goings-on at a "pep rally".

Having noticed that schools seem to be preparing adolescent cheerleaders for careers in pole dancing (no, not the polka variety), today's modern parent with daughters might want to include as a stocking stuffer this Christmas something with a sophisticated european flavor:

Out-of-wedlock births are now 37% of the US total: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1742284/posts Not to worry, however. Some of our highly trained suburban government school cheerleaders learned the important lessons taught by public schools regarding "safe sex": http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1749267/posts

Of course, the parents of these girls will probably tell you how involved they are in the schools and how well their daughters are doing...and they probably don't think that there is all that much wrong with what is reported in the stories. -- Bruce