Claudia Maurino
Monument students walk out in opposition to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh
More InfoGreat Barrington — At 1 p.m. on Monday, September 24th, approximately 80 Monument Mountain Regional High School students walked out of class to support Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and to protest the Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.
The Monument Mountain walkout was part of a nationally organized moment of solidarity. While also to support all victims of sexual assault and harassment, the walkout was specifically in support of Dr. Ford who would be testifying against Kavanaugh despite threats to her safety and life.
Monument’s walkout was organized by Junior Greta Luf who read about the walkout on the official Time’s Up Instagram page, where the event and hashtag #BelieveSurvivors went viral.
Luf stresses the severity and importance of the nomination, saying, “If Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court, this will mark the second Supreme Court Justice who was confirmed with a past of sexual misconduct. If our own justice system does not value the voice of abuse survivors, that sets a tone for our entire country to follow suit. We cannot change our previous nominations and confirmations, but we can evolve and grow from our mistakes. If we can stop this confirmation, then we can start to acknowledge and champion the voice of survivors instead of belittling their experiences.”
Luf also stressed the importance of staying politically active and talking about events such as these, saying that if Dr. Ford can put her career and life on the line, the worst thing we can do is ignore it. “She deserves to be believed and she deserves to be seen,” Luf said. “Keep holding our government accountable for its actions, write or call to politicians, and make everyone, especially our government, aware that we will not stand for this any longer.”
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What happened to innocent until proven guilty? More left wing BS shown here.
WC
Why are you afraid to let the readers know who you are? Afraid the lefties will send out their death squads?
And you entirely miss the point. This isn’t a matter of guilt or innocence; a substantial number of people want to find out if Kav is a sexual predator. Not unreasonable to want to know that, don’t you think? By the way, did you think OJ was guilty or not guilty?
Have a close look at the picture. That picture does not depict inquiring minds, nor minds focused on a single task related to Kav….
It’s a nice day out, and kids got a chance to go outside and escape for a while without getting in trouble. Note, some of the kids playfully horsing around. I bet they are looking for more opportunities to protest just about anything…
In case you don’t understand, no one is suggesting sending him to jail (yet, Maryland?) they are trying to rush him thru a shadowy process to a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. The standards should be different. Hat’s off to those MMRHS students!
It seems the students have chosen, or have been told,….to make judgement prior to having all the facts.
There are always, 2 sides to a story. Sometimes the sides are politically motivated, sometimes they are factual. Get the facts Kids (and teachers) prior to judgement.
If Elizabeth Warren groped a boy in high school, should she be barred from being a US senator?
“Groped?” The allegation is that he pushed her onto the bed, tried to take her clothes off and put his hand over her mouth so she couldn’t scream. That’s called attempted rape! And U.S. Senators are elected officials so citizens have a choice as to whether or not they should be in office. A Supreme Court Justice is a lifetime appointment for an individual who will be voting on women’s rights. The students are not saying he’s guilty, but rather that women’s voices should be heard and the allegation should be properly investigated!
Focus, please, on the word “allegation.”
Also, let’s assume what she’s saying is true, that a drunken Kavanaugh was guilty of attempted rape. Why does that disqualify him from holding a position for which he is otherwise qualified? Our entire criminal justice system revolves around rehabilitation. If Kavanaugh had been convicted of attempted rape and served a prison sentence, the opposition would STILL say he shouldn’t be confirmed.
Do you really want to establish a principle that past misconduct (or at least the type of past misconduct that offends you) is forever a bar to appointment to an important government position?
Protests are aimed at the PROCESS. Innocent until proven guilty certainly applies to the ‘accused.’ It must also apply to an alleged victim making a credible accusation. What is essential, however, is a thorough investigation into the accusation. For Federal Appointees, the FBI investigative process is a given for a reason. Under Reagan, my mother received a Presidential appointment to the National Endowment for the Arts. In advance of her appointment, the FBI spoke to her college friends (she was in her mid 6os!), current friends and neighbors, co-workers and so on. And that was NOT in the case of an accusation. Kavanaugh’s nomination is a lifetime appointment to the highest Court in the land. NOT to investigate would not only be a massive departure from legislative protocol and a flight away from common sense; it would be a travesty of justice.
The FBI does not “investigate” persons proposed for government positions, it does background checks, the results of which are reported to the appointing agency or executive, who then decides whether or not to make the appointment. The background checks on Kavanaugh have been thorough and exhaustive. Any additional work is virtually guaranteed to turn up nothing. There is no end to the opponents finding another person every week to make new charges, just to delay the process. Is that the way you really want the process to work?
Richard Allen is seeking to find how low a bar The Edge has for posting a comment.
Does he seriously believe that a conviction for attempted rape should not be a bar to a Federal judgeship?
Pray tell what is the difference between a “background check” and an “investigation?” They are the same thing. I know because I was the subject of an investigation by the FBI when I was appointed to a position at the Department of Justice quite a few decades ago. When the FBI contacted friends, family, teachers, the agent told them he was carrying out an investigation.
The biggest and most important “tell” in the Kavanaugh matter is that Kavanaugh doesn’t want the one person who could clear him, his friend Mark Judge, to appear before the Judiciary Committee to give sworn testimony. He, Mark Judge that is, expressed shock when a reporter discovered him at a beach hideout this week.
Congratulations to these students for having the courage to take a stand for something they believe in.
I am sure half of them don’t even know what is going on, they’re just being egged on by their parents or it is just a chance to get out of a class for a while.
…another example of the fact that students these day are not getting much education…. Civics classes are needed and they need to be taught by real educators and not biased political operatives masquerading as teachers…
Very revealing quote from the organizer of this…. For her to state that another supreme court justice is guilty of sexual misconduct, is so outrageous. She wasn’t even alive when that hearing took place. Has she seen that justice’s rebuttal to the allegations? He called it a high tech lynching …. And, he was almost correct. They didn’t win that bloody battle, but have continued to this day to demean another good, decent, man who has served our country’s judicial system well.
Wherever this young student is getting her indoctrination from, it is simply that – indoctrination.
Thank you students of MMRHS! Although I see there are some “men” on here who support this sexual predator..the arrogance of the right wing is astoundin g!And your rightGreat Luf….Clarence Thomas is another sexual predator sitting on the Supreme court…even a teenager can see that! You don’t have to have been alive when that happened..it’s history!!! You are on the right side of history! And not getting indoctrinated from Fox Spews or Breitbart! Venceramos!
I applaud these students for taking a stand for what they believe in. Its not up to adults to censure or judge their motivation . Maybe adults can cleanse their aged cynical lenses and remember a time they too were idealistic.
At its core, this circus is about power…who has it and who doesn’t. Victim or not, believe her or not, Ford is being played to the advantage of the RESIST movement searching for any means of delaying and/or defeating the Kavanaugh nomination. Ultimate objective is to delay until after mid-term elections with hopes of a blue wave resulting in elected officials inevitably defeating ANY nominee presented.
The local students may think their gesture was a noble one but I doubt anyone has exposed them to the reality of politics. In the grand scheme of things, this fiasco is not about supporting a survivor…it’s about trying to keep the Supreme Court from shifting conservative.
Yes, students have the right to protest; yet, in a school setting, the teachers have an obligation to instruct and elaborate on the appropriate Civics lesson, which coincides with that protest. I assume teachers are taking full advantage of this opportunity within the classroom.
We live in the United States of America and it is a Constitutional Republic where: all citizens;
regardless of race, creed, color, or gender are presumed “innocent until proven guilty,”
as individuals we are protected under the rule of law.
In a Democratic Socialist regime: any accused citizen; regardless of race, creed, color, or gender would be presumed
“guilty until proven innocent,” due to the absence of this individual protection under the law.
Let’s give Ms. Schmulsky credit for not being afraid to air her retrograde thoughts using her real identity. But the credit stood there. The Kavanaugh confirmation process is not a criminal trial and the rules of guilt or non-guilt (criminal trials do not result in a finding of innocence, but only the absence of guilt) are not applicable. This is simply a process to determine if he should be elevated from the DC Circuit to the Supreme Court.
And, is Ms. Schmulsky able to name a few “Democratic Socialust regimes,” where guilt is presumed when a person is charged with a crime? Many people would list the Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Norway, etc., as having this form of government and not only is there a presumption of innocence in all 5 of these countries, but their citizens are always ranked among the happiest and most content in the world, with those in the U.S. pretty far down on the list.
One final question for Ms. S: I assume she agrees with me that OJ Simpson was not guilty of murdering his ex-wife and her boyfriend?
Capitalism:
The Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland are all free market capitalist countries with a representative democracy form of government. They are some of the richest countries on a per capita basis, primarily due to their great oil wealth. By choice they distribute that wealth to their citizens though democratically agreed upon programs.
Socialism:
Venezuela’s democratically elected Socialist President, Nicolas Maduro, whose nation once prospered with great wealth due to their oil reserves, now has its citizens foraging for food. The International Monetary Fund economists are predicting that Venezuela’s inflation rate could exceed 1,000,000% in 2018.
Let me see if I understand this — A group of young people walk out of class–Disrupt the whole school– and it’s ok–No reprimands
Few days later a student wore two historic flags to school—One of the administrators confiscated one of the flags—Poor student—will no doubt get a three day vacation
Bet if Katy were still there–these things would not happen
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House Press Secretary, appeared on Fox & Friends yesterday and tossed out this little gem:
“The president wants this process to come to a vote because that’s what’s supposed to happen,” she said. “In every single one of these instances where someone is nominated, they go before, they have a hearing and then the senators vote on it.”
Tell that to Merrick Garland. These young people are right to protest the breathtaking hypocrisy and stupidity of the GOP.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House Press Secretary, appeared on Fox & Friends yesterday and tossed out this little gem:
“The president wants this process to come to a vote because that’s what’s supposed to happen,” she said. “In every single one of these instances where someone is nominated, they go before, they have a hearing and then the senators vote on it.”
Tell that to Merrick Garland. These young people are right to protest the breathtaking hypocrisy and stupidity of the GOP.