By John Russell, Missoula
After I read the statement in the April 23 Bitterroot Star by Stevensville school board candidate Leda Turnage, I immediately wondered: What cloud of far-right disinformation did she parachute down from?
Turnage touts “freedom” over and over – while espousing some of the most radical, repressive practices imaginable. How can anyone support “freedom in general” (her term) while simultaneously demanding that no teacher be allowed to disseminate any ideas that don’t align with her line of thought?
Turnage seems to fear any ideas that fall remotely to the left of her far-right ideology. And to select just one of her weird claims, I am curious why she is so worried about hypothetical “outright attacks [by teachers] on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights or the Founding Fathers, based on their personal or partisan beliefs.”
I have not visited any K-12 classrooms in a few years, but I am highly skeptical of the notion that any competent teacher is making “outright attacks on the U.S. Constitution.” What?
Turnage offers a long list of activities she wants to ban from schools – exactly the sort of prohibitions she claims to want blanket “freedoms” for. What?
To put it simply Turnage seems to favor freedom only for her own ideals – not for those of anyone who disagrees with her. Her two long columns of overwrought ideology are awash with contradictions and straw-man sorts of things she personally does not favor. It is not hard to imagine her wanting to patrol every Stevensville classroom to ensure no teacher offers any opinion she disapproves of.
Turnage’s poorly crafted diatribe is the most frightening commentary I have read anywhere in a long while. The only thing scarier is the near-certainty that Turnage actually thinks her prejudices are in some way fair.
I surely hope Stevensville voters have the sense not to place this woman in a position from which she can so terribly control and degrade their children’s educations.