A Strange Tale of the Far Left Theocracy in the Kutztown Area School District.
On October 18th, 2023, our Far Left opponents sent a postcard to Republican voters in Maxatawny Township and Lyons Borough. The postcard supported their Democrat nominees for school director, including an incumbent seeking re-election, the Reverend Dr. Dennis Ritter. The postcard proudly and prominently displayed for the voters that Dr. Ritter is a "Pastor." And he is.
This past week, however, our opponents submitted another postcard to voters across the entire Kutztown Area School District. While accusing the Republican candidates of imposing their religious beliefs" on the school district, the postcard conveniently omits that Dr. Ritter is a Pastor.
While an incumbent school director, Dr. Ritter authored Policy 809. Among other things, it requires students, teachers, and staff to “value” (affirm) a student’s “religious beliefs,” along with gender identity and sexual orientation. Policy 809 purports to help the “cultural proficiency” of the school district by interacting with people “from other cultures.”
Dr. Ritter’s advocacy for identity politics is not strictly political but also a product of his religious theology. He likewise wants Christian churches to be welcoming of LGBTQ practices and to embrace a postmodern view of The Bible.
Ritter, in other words, has no hesitation in imposing his own religious beliefs on the school district. By their public assertions, our opponents also believe it’s ok for them to impose their beliefs onto others, but not ok for anyone else in this democracy of ours.
But our opponents are pushing a religious cult that all truth is socially constructed, that gender isn’t binary, and everyone who disagrees with Marxism is a white supremacist. The Democrat candidates for school director want every area of policy and teaching in our school district to implement this cultish, social contagion. And they formed a political committee, “KOFEE,” to denigrate anyone who disagrees as an extremist, a transphobe, a homophobe, a racist, etc.
In Albany, Greenwich, and Lenhartsville, Dan Wismer became the Republican nominee for school director. In a video released by KASD Children First PAC, Dan pointed out that, notwithstanding his deeply held Christian beliefs, he believes it’s wrong and unconstitutional for Policy 809 to force others to “value” his religion. Dan will vote to repeal Policy 809 if elected.
Dan is neither a pastor nor a lawyer. But it turns out the judiciary agrees with him. On September 29th, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction against an Iowa school district policy that required students to “respect” gender identity.[1] The appellate court agreed the plaintiffs were likely to show a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
There’s no reason why the outcome would be any different if students were forced to “value” an individual’s religious beliefs under Policy 809. In the Kutztown Area School District, however, KOFEE learned that Dan Wismer, a public school teacher, left his teachers’ union and joined a non-profit organization called Christian Educators. This non-profit is designed to give training and resources to public school teachers who have a Christian faith, which includes how they may keep their contractual promise not to proselytize during contract hours or school functions.
But because Christian Educators’ website made a reference to helping teachers as “Ambassadors for Christ,” KOFEE latched onto that one statement and created a false narrative that Dan (rather than Dr. Ritter) somehow wants to transform our public schools into a church service.
As a matter of "cultural proficiency", if KOFEE had ever opened the Bible (or perhaps asked Dr.Ritter for some help) it would have learned that “ambassador for Christ” is a generic reference to all Christians. All Christians, by definition, are ambassadors for Christ. The phrase has no reference to teachers proselytizing during contract hours. Our opponents claim they support religious freedom, but in reality they denigrated Dan Wismer for exercising his. We wish the hypocrisy here was isolated, but we regret to inform you it isn’t.
It’s systemic within this Far Left social contagion.
They don’t believe in reciprocity. They believe the ends justify the means. It’s ok to bend the truth or be hypocritical so long as they can get away with it.
When they speak of the “community,” they’re referring to themselves only. They’re constantly bullying, race-baiting, and dehumanizing anyone with the courage to oppose their ideology.
We know you're just as tired of this as we are. You just want your tax dollars to get back to teaching academics, not ideologies. You want parents' rights to be respected and more transparency in the schools.
JOIN US to stand up to the bullying and hypocrisy on Tues Nov. 7th at the polls!!
References:
[1] Parents Defending Education v. Linn Mar Community School District, No. 22-2927, 83 F.4th
658 (8th Cir. 2023).