NARCONON
Peer-Leader
Drug Education
| 10 March 1999 Ms. Linda G. Smock,
CFCS
Supervisor
of Family and Consumer
Sciences and Health Science Education
|
cc: Committee
Members
cc: Lee Benjamin |
Dear
Ms. Smock,
Thank
you for inviting our team of students to present
our program to the Family Life Education
Committee.
The
children benefited from doing the presentation
and I hope your committee found it useful and
informative. This is the first time this
particular team has presented to an adult
audience.
There
were some questions from the peer leader team
members on what was up with the reactions from a
very few of the members of your committee who
tried to make this simple and effective
presentation controversial by voicing what one of
your committee members accurately labeled as some
sort of bias against Scientology and
Scientologists. Our children are taught not to
discriminate for any reason. Their drug free
message is offered without regard to race,
religion or any other bias. God knows that we
have had enough racial and religious bigotry in
the past and the drug problem is certainly
racially and religiously blind in that it effects
all members of society. So should effective
solutions be non discriminatory and likewise
immune from discrimination.
I
believe that Mr. Lister from Perkin's Elementary
who originated the issue is misinformed about the
current statistics on drug use in our schools. He
said that Pinellas already had an effective drug
program and asked that we drop the
acknowledgement to Mr. Hubbard as the source of
the highly effective technology used by Narconon.
Not
only would it be dishonest for the children to
eliminate Mr. Hubbard's name from their
presentation but from what I understand from
listening to Mr. Benjamin and reading the recent
report on drug use in Pinellas county schools,
drugs are a major and worsening problem. Mr.
Benjamin asked for volunteer help from parents,
businesses and concerned individuals to address
the problem. We are offering that help.
The
issue of Church and State is a non-issue as
Narconon is a secular program fortunate enough to
have been granted the rights to use Mr. Hubbard's
name and technology in its highly successful
actions in the areas of drug education and
rehabilitation. Various courts and governmental
agencies have verified the secular nature of
Narconon and validated its effectiveness. I am
sending you additional documents showing this to
be a non-issue.
The
fact that Mr. Hubbard also founded the vital
subjects of Dianetics and Scientology and that
Scientology is a recognized religion does not and
should not prohibit Narconon's secular activity
from saving lives. I explained this to our
children and they understand the issue. I trust
that Mr. Lister or anyone else who had a biased
predisposition to our program and will also
duplicate this essential point and not use this
non-issue as an excuse or front to exercise
religious bias and/or bigotry.
The
bottom line is that we are addressing a problem
here that effects all our lives. We want to help
and are offering our help.
I
trust that we will be given a "fair
shake" in your evaluation. But whether or
not we are allowed to proceed, I believe the
members of our student team are aware enough to
recognize that any attempt to do something
effective to help handle the epidemic of drug use
in our schools is not an undertaking that can be
made without some opposition.
They
understand this and wish to proceed despite the
risks involved in challenging the apparent right
that some seem to feel that have to drug our
school children senseless. We look forward to
your decision and should it be unfavorable for
any reason, can you please outline for us what,
if any, appeal route or other remedy we have
available to us so that we may proceed on our
purpose to help handle drugs as the number one
problem facing us in society today.
The
children know they have helped save many lives
with their admirable initiative and look forward
to saving many more. Thanks again for the
opportunity and we look forward to hearing from
you.
All
the best!
Jessica
Byrnes
A
Free Community Service Delivered by Students to
Students
Clearwater
Florida Branch. P.O. Box 85, Clearwater, FL
33757-0085
Larry & Jessica Byrnes (727) xxx-xxxx
|
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