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Education

School District Confirms ‘Schindler’s List’ Producer Was Disinvited From Speaking to Graduates for Being Conservative

Jun. 9, 2012 9:28am Madeleine Morgenstern

Gerald Molen

The superintendent of a Montana school district has confirmed that the Oscar-winning producer of “Schindler’s List” was barred from speaking to a graduating high school class because of his conservative political beliefs.

Gerald Molen — a retired Marine who also produced “Jurassic Park” and “Twister” — told the Hollywood Reporter earlier this week that Tom Stack, principal of Ronan High School, disinvited him from speaking to graduating seniors specifically because he was a “right-wing conservative.”

On Friday, Ronan School District Superintendent Andy Holmund confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter the incident “did, in fact, occur.”

“It is my understanding that the high school principal made the decision based on his point of view,” Holmund said. “It is not the view of the district. That’s not the expectations that the district maintains. That principal will not be serving in this school district for the upcoming school year.”

He said Stack has accepted a position at a different school, though would not say when or why the decision was made. According to the Hollywood Reporter, local residents believe Stack’s leaving is unrelated to the Molen situation.

Holmund described the situation and the sudden nationwide attention on his district as being “on fire.”

“Justifiably so. We don’t expect people to be treated poorly,” he said.

Stack himself has not spoken out about the incident.

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Comments (150)

AJAYW
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 10:25am
With people like this running our education system its a wonder that the kids don’t score worse on their test than they now do. Seen a educator on the news last night that said testing wasn’t the answer to knowing if the kids were learning, he could tell just by looking in their eyes— were lost..

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- rickc34
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 11:02am
  Discriminated against? I thought liberals wanted to be open minded and fair. Liars.
  
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- Detroit paperboy
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 11:45am
  They woulda been fine with Van Jones or Bill Ayers……….
  
  Report this comment
- planecrashlaw
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 11:46am
  AJAYW:
  
  You “seen” an educator?
  
  “Were” lost?
  
  With your lack of a command of the English language, you might want to think twice before you complain about anyone involved in education. Other than the one who taught you English, perhaps.
  
  Report this comment
- CatB
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 11:46am
  I saw that same show .. … It was amazing that the guy didn’t seem to know how idiotic he sounded .. NO NEED for testing … “teachers are doing a good job” because he can see it in the students EYES … I almost fell off the couch .. typical UNION ANSWER. Get your kids OUT of Public schools .. do what you have to … HOME SCHOOL …
  
  Report this comment
- old white guy
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 12:04pm
  how many here are tired of the commies trying to make being a conservative a crime?
  
  Report this comment
- AJAYW
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 1:39pm
  @planecrashlaw- My, my. Are you an English teacher? If so, grade this: I saw a stupid a** wanna-be educator on the news last night. We’re lost.
  By the way, your 4th grade teacher called and said you flunked logic.
  
  Report this comment
- Dale
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 3:22pm
  Have a heart, planecrashlaw; what you complain about is simply public education manifested.
  
  Report this comment
- RabidPatriot
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 3:50pm
  @PLANECRASHLAW
  President Obama is a fine example of someone that is educated beyond his intelligence. He has a strong command of the English language and poor command of rational thought. I have met extraordinarily intelligent people with great ideas that could not pass a 10th grade English class. I have also met post-graduate professors that are as dumb as a rock.
  
  Report this comment
- Cemoto78
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 5:17pm
  Just a progressive tool that another public school couldn’t wait to hire for the continual indoctrination of our youth.
  
  Report this comment
- DIR
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 7:07pm
  @RICKC34: “I thought liberals wanted to be open minded and fair. Liars.”
  
  Liars is right? They use the open minded and fair claims like a magician say’s watch my hand then makes something vanish into thin air. Whereas liberals are concerned it would be freedom that vanishes. There statements are used to misdirect while they apply slight of hand to perform their lying/magic tricks. Of late their techniques have become stale and amateurish. Most libs think they are so magical they want to show their own particular act. Many have witness it here, on the BLAZE, you know the BS put forth by those magical people called ‘trollers’.. As it turns out, the acts suck. It’s painfully obvious what they are doing. The only people being fooled by these acts are other liberals and the idiot attempting to perform the liberal magic act. Now that their methods have been outed, anyone with half a brain can see through their BS, like it’s glass with a bad aroma. After all is said and done, their intent is to screw just about everyone, which ironically includes themselves and other liberals.
  
  One fascinating trick, though, is how Nancy Pelosi manages to make her @ss look like it’s talking by sticking her head into it. I know how she gets her head up into it. My question is, how does she, from time to time, get it out, or is that the true illusion?
  
  Report this comment
- michael48
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:33pm
  plane…wrong channel…now get back in grannies garage…red brigade pre-school is on…elitist azz!!!
  
  Report this comment
- Grey Eagle
  Posted on June 10, 2012 at 12:30am
  Another intolerant left wing liberal run amuck. This Producer with his history would have been an inspiring speaker. The Superintendent should have corrected the problem, but didn’t.
  
  Report this comment
- grannyrecipe
  Posted on June 10, 2012 at 7:04am
  In Montana?!!!!!!! Hang he Principle then, that’s the way it went down in the 1800′s…I’m serious. Or make him live in Niger or Libya. Creepy invader pu$$ boy.
  
  Report this comment
- HumbleMan
  Posted on June 10, 2012 at 8:30am
  @PLANECRASHLAW
  
  Please use complete sentences.
  
  Report this comment
Eaglesnest
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 10:21am
We need to stop tolerating this crap. These government school work for us. We need to take back our school boards, the left has owned government for 60 years. I am willing to bet that this man’s message was not going to be political at all.

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- PelositheGreat
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 10:27am
  Dont tell us, tell them: rsd.board@ronank12.edu
  
  Report this comment
- jdog777
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 10:28am
  The principal was fired
  
  Report this comment
- PuntoVistaSur
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 11:07am
  JDOG777 – Fired…but will be a principal again at another school…GREAT! Just kick the can down the road and spread the ignorance.
  
  Report this comment
- teddie888
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 12:09pm
  JDOG777
  principal was NOT fired. He is going to another school to work
  
  Report this comment
- The_Cabrito_Goat
  Posted on June 10, 2012 at 9:30am
  Psh, just try telling the school they work for you when the county truant officer comes knocking on your door.
  
  Report this comment
affinity
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 10:15am
The kids lost an opportunity to hear from and possibly meet a very successful man because the principal is a liberal. The liberals started a very real war with the conservatives in 2007 and we’re going to have to kick their butts and drive them back underground by any means necessary.

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- landman1
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 10:46am
  I just sent an email to the school board there thanking them for their contribution of fuel to the fire that is awakening the conservative masses. We outnumber the liberals. Wake up, get involved and be counted. We must protect our country from this arrogant onslaught from the left. We can be exceptional again. Wake up and be counted!!
  
  Report this comment
- Bad Kitty
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 10:59am
  But the liberals have the schools, most of the youth, AND $$$.
  
  Just think of what happens when 80% of conservatives are 78 years old vs. 1000′s of young, determined liberal brainwashed-youth…
  
  Report this comment
- barber2
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 11:37am
  BAD: sad. The youth ” marching lock step toward their future Mao jackets…tweeting , bingeing and bonging away..all concerned with fitting into the mold ..getting their 15 minutes of attention… brainwashed by their Marxist professors…to hate America..disrespect the flag and authority..off to an Occupy..with promises of loan forgiveness/ health care / redistribution of other people’s stuff…. …and free play days at the “no grades/ competition” schools which our brainwashing centers are becoming…
  
  Report this comment
dadsrootbeer
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 10:01am
Would have been no problem if he would have been a left wing progressive socialist.

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- HKS
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 10:10am
  Government schools, is this a great country or what.
  
  Report this comment
- CatB
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 11:48am
  They need all the speakers they can get .. because they sure aren’t teaching kids to read, understand, and make a valid conclusion. Just indoctrination 24/7 in PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
  
  Report this comment
DislikesHussein
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:59am
“That principal will not be serving in this school district for the upcoming school year.”

All they did was move this guy to another school. Instead, he should be thrown out the public school system completely. Nothing has changed except where he practices his hate.

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- cyntro
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 10:51am
  Stack has accepted a position with a school in Clinton, Montana.
  
  Report this comment
- Snidely
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 12:00pm
  Looks like the job change was definitely not related to the censorship of Mr. Molen. This is from the Missoulian newspaper dated May 26:
  
  “Clinton’s next superintendent was named a couple of months ago – by a school board chaired by Jon Roske, another of Latrielle’s former students. Current Ronan High School principal Tom Stack takes over July 2.”
  
  Report this comment
- 338lapua
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 1:10pm
  Clinton Elementary School District
  20397 East Mullan Road Clinton, MT 59825
  (406) 825-3113
  
  Report this comment
AJAYW
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:58am
What a crock, the District Superintendent is just covering this up. The people in Montana need to watch and see where the liberal idiot shows up next year and hound him out of the education system for good.

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progressiveslayer
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:58am
The indoctrinated drone that disinvited Mr.Molen had his worldview shaped by leftists radicals and communists in college and it’s been going on for decades.That’s the problem with a public school monopoly,it’s so easy to indoctrinate kids and mold their minds to their twisted agenda,and abolishing the Dept. of education is the best answer but it’ll never happen so home schooling is probably the only way to go.

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- subyz
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 12:17pm
  Home schooling or get a Charter school going in your district!
  
  Report this comment
Apple Bite
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:55am
So you pick on a well known movie producer to make your personal point of view be known…

No problem. Just don’t say a word if that producer makes a movie about how far gone out of their minds Liberals have gone in this country. With Molen’s credentials, I’d be worried like nobody’ business.

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- NancyBee
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 10:48am
  This is definite proof that liberals have a mental disorder
  
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burr99
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:53am
Retribution for Scott Walker winning in WI. ?? Would not surprise me in the least!!

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GrayPanther
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:52am
This revelation is just the tip of the iceberg. I have known of teachers strongly encouraging seniors to register as Democrats because dems do more for the working man. Also, teachers pushing environmental and political issues tend to be liberal from the Marxist college professors and family members who are also in the same mind set. We must find ways to balance indoctrination in all our schools.

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- barber2
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 11:30am
  vouchers for one.
  
  Report this comment
- drbage
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 12:15pm
  Another way is to see who is running for the School Board in your district. Find out who has children in the school system, is not a former teacher or school administrator, is active in his/her church, and is not endorsed by the teachers’ union, then go volunteer to work for her/his campaign. The nasty little secret is that so many of our school boards are stocked with retired union members that their main concern is to keep the money flow strong so that their overly generous pensions will not be compromised. As a result you get the union and its lawyers negotiating with the union controlled school board deciding how much of the taxpayers’ money they need to support the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed.
  
  Report this comment
- freedom_gurl35
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 5:54pm
  Not all of us are, I promise you that. Unfortunately there are so very few conservative teachers in the system today, and I wish I knew how to change that. I actively encourage students to research and make up their own minds about issues, to register to vote because it’s our civic duty. I am surprised I haven’t been called out by my peers yet…
  
  Report this comment
troymac20
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:50am
Not surprising at all.

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Silversmith
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:45am
Shame!

Silversmith

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Fat Pappy
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:45am
Chances are the students voted on the person they wanted to be the speaker. Regardless of “his” political views, this event is about the graduates, not the principal. There’s probably more to this that what we’re seeing here, The Principal must have been controversial in his management and this may have been the last straw. Even so, it’s a good thing that Mr. Slack was ‘disinvited’ from being the principal next year. We don’t need liberal’s teaching in High Schools… that’s what colleges are for right?

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- loriann12
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:48am
  I know things have changed since I was in school (graduated in 1982), but we as students didn’t get to vote on who we wanted to come speak to us. It was a decision made by the school.
  
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- Fat Pappy
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 11:31am
  Loriann21 you may be right, I was recounting when I was in high school back in the early 70′s, we did get to pick our speaker.
  
  Report this comment
RightPolitically
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:44am
Leftists have a fascist bent. They believe in propagandarized speech, not free speech. If they every took complete power in this country, they’d turn it into Stalinist Russia within one decade! The bastards must be defeated BIG in November.

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- loriann12
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:50am
  Have you read Road to Serfdom? It says that every socialist become a fascist when they realize the only way to get their utopian society is to force people to accept it.
  
  Report this comment
- RightPolitically
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 10:00am
  @LORIANN12: No, I haven’t read it but that same conclusion has always been my own. Yes, they need to use force, always, in the end! History shows that quite vividly. How many millions did Stalin have to imprison, put on work gangs or murder to keep utopia alive in the Soviet Union? Many!
  
  Report this comment
- barber2
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 10:05am
  Agree. And we have seen the first wave of ” force” in the union bullies in Wisconsin, the ACORN bullhorns in bankers’ front yards, and the eternal taxpayer-funded Occupies in Democrat controlled cities ! Probably the only truly transparent thing in the jack-booted Obama Administration
  
  Report this comment
- dennisS
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 11:34am
  Road to Serfdom is great. Another great book that will allow you to understand the movements such as Occupy, SDS, Weathermen and other radical left wing groups is “The True Believer” by Eric Hofer. If you have not read this book you need to get it now. It shows the blueprint of these radical organizations, how they develop and the end result. Was written in 1951.
  
  Report this comment
barber2
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:44am
Well, the International Left is trying to destroy conservative Murdoch and his media outlets in their London phone hacking witch hunt. ( while their Obama buddies are releasing classified / damaging information to the Left’s favorite American mouthpiece, The New York Times ) So why would we NOT expect this type of assault on conservative freedom of speech at this high school ? The Left holds the media and ” the message” in the firm grip of their propaganda claws ! Big Brother likes to control the message !

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MBA
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:42am
All federal tax money should be taken away from the public school system and the Dept of Education should be fired. Immediately.

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RJJinGadsden
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:41am
Let me think about this a moment…what is it that so many liberals complain about? Is it censorship? Or hey, what about that 1st Amendment Right of Free Speech?
Do as we say, and not as we do! Liberal montra.

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shimauma
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:41am
As with most of our publically paid “educators” Mr. Tom Stack, obviously a socialist, did not want someone successfully opposite of his ideals to influence the students. Typical. Your tax dollars at work folks. I’d say the tax paying folks in Montana need to start voting against funding for their school districts if it employs libturds like Tom Stack.

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Redleg99
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:41am
Obama supporter never fail to amaze me. Who would qualify to speak there, Obamas buddy rev. W right.

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ricckky
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:40am
Where do all these left wing commie teachers come from. One would think a Montana school would be a bit more conservative. MMMMMMMMMMM, I guess the permeation of these cow fecal teachers is running rampant through our schools. God Save America!!!!!

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biffo
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:39am
He was promoted and now runs the GLBT/Planned Parenthood wing of the school disrict. He can be reached at 800-dem-suck….
Home schooling is the answer until these child abusers and their bosses are driven out.

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- teddie888
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 12:14pm
  Romney has said he would ok school money going with the kid and choosing, but just for the poor. We need to push for the money following the kid for every middle class child.
  
  Report this comment
johnpaulkuchtajr
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:39am
If we close our eyes and put our fingers in our ears, will the nightmare of “gubbamint” schools go away? Nope, it’s going to take charter schools. The Marxists / Socialists are poisoning our kids minds.

This incident is just the tip of the iceberg. They’re re-writing history, for Christ’s sake!

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- barber2
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:46am
  Bingo.
  
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progressiveslayer
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:36am
This revelation is truly shocking that a public school drone disinvited a conservative to speak to a high school graduating class.I’m sure if someone from CAIR wanted to speak that would be fine with the head drone.

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Deckle
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:36am
I am glad my kids are not in that school. I would fire those in charge. It is time to stand up America!

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copatriots
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:36am
Good to remove the principal but what job was he transferred to? Is he still in a leadership role? Does he still get to influence children’s minds? I know it is difficult to fire anyone with the teacher’s union. I sure hope it was an transfer to an administration position.

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- barber2
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 9:45am
  Exactly. Unions. Tenure. Employment shell game. Same salary and benefits no less !
  
  Report this comment
- 338lapua
  Posted on June 9, 2012 at 1:14pm
  Clinton Elementary School District
  (uncertain of position)
  
  20397 East Mullan Road Clinton, MT 59825
  (406) 825-3113
  
  Report this comment

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