This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," November 28, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MEGYN KELLY, HOST: Good evening and welcome to a "Kelly File" special, "Who is teaching our kids?" I'm Megyn Kelly.
Right now in this country, millions of students are working toward college degrees, and some 50 million kids are being educated in public elementary, middle and high schools to the tune of more than $632 billion. Your tax dollars.
While a majority of those school kids and college students are being educated by caring professionals, we have seen a troubling number of reports in recent years about disturbing lessons playing out in classrooms and campuses across the country. Teachers suggesting America is evil, not exceptional. Taking political correctness to dangerous places and leaving parents out of the loop and in the dark.
While the problem is popping up more and more in grade schools, it is often at its worst on college campuses where far leftist thinking often dominates and even domestic terrorists are welcome to teach. Over the past few months we've introduced you to a few of them, Bill Ayers, Ward Churchill. But tonight we look much deeper into America's education system investigating why the left is so interested in schools, what they're teaching your kids and how it's shaping our society. We begin with Trace Gallagher reporting.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): During a lesson about symbols and their meaning, a South Carolina high school English teacher decided to stomp on the American flag saying the physical flag was symbolic but was only a piece of cloth, and his actions would have no ramifications. He was wrong. Parents protested, the teacher was placed on leave and eventually agreed to resign for an $85,000 payout.
At Lumberton High School, Texas, as part of a world geography lesson on Islam, some female students dressed up and were photographed wearing burkas. Their parents were bothered by the pictures but more concerned about the emphasis on Islam.
APRIL LEBLANC, PARENT: They had touched on, you know, they started with Israel and start talking about Palestine but they went straight onto the nation of Islam and they focused on it and (INAUDIBLE) really focused on Islam, never touched on Christianity.
GALLAGHER: The school defended the teacher's actions saying, quote, "The lesson is not teaching a specific religion. And the students volunteered to wear the clothing."
During a Spanish class at another Texas high school, sophomore Brenda Brinsdon refused to say the pledge of allegiance -- the Mexican pledge of allegiance. She was punished. In return she sued the school district claiming the pledge had nothing to do with learning Spanish.
BRENDA BRINSDON, REFUSED TO SAY MEXICAN PLEDGE: I was just like, no, I'm not going to do this. I don't believe that they should have done it at all.
GALLAGHER: After the story got national media attention, Brinsdon claimed she was no longer allowed to attend class, resulting in a failing grade.
ERIN MERSINO, ATTORNEY FOR BRINSDON FAMILY: It is illegal to compel an American student to recite the American pledge of allegiance. It should also be illegal to compel and American student to recite the pledge of a different country.
GALLAGHER: The case go to trial in January.
In Connecticut a high school senior was doing on-campus research for a debate on gun control, pro-gun control websites were readily accessible, but the National Rifle Association website was blocked. So 18-year-old Andrew Lampart expanded his research and found right to life groups were blocked, Planned Parenthood not blocked, the Vatican website blocked, islamguide.com easily accessible.
ANDREW LAMPART, DISCOVERED BLOCK WEBSITES: It should be the other way around. Ones should be unblocked so students can get different viewpoints from different sides of each argument.
GALLAGHER: The school district said it would look to unblock the, quote, "appropriate websites."
And how is this for a homework assignment, sixth graders in McKinley Tech Middle School in D.C. were asked to compare two men who abused their power. The first, Adolf Hitler. The second, George W. Bush. D.C. public schools later said, the teacher showed extremely poor judgment.
But it's not just elementary education. In just the last year, "The Kelly File" has covered numerous cases on America's college campuses. Remember University of California at Santa Barbara feminist studies Professor Miller Young, she found pro-life demonstrations on campus so offensive she took matters into her own hands.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: She's a professor and she steals signs.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Wait, don't you know you are stealing? She's a thief. It's a professor.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I may be a thief, but you're a terrorist.
GALLAGHER: And if taking the sign wasn't enough when the protesters followed her, things got physical.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Don't touch me. Hey, don't touch me!
GALLAGHER: The two sisters involved in the dust up decided to go to court and spoke to "The Kelly File."
THRIN SHORT, PRO-LIFE ACTIVIST: I mean, no one has the right to take someone else's property like that. I mean, I'm sorry if these signs offended her in anyway.
GALLAGHER: Miller Young, who was pregnant at the time, claimed the images of aborted babies upset her. The judge ordered her to attend conflict resolution classes, but UCSB did not publicly reprimand her. And she is still a professor.
You would think a Political Science class at the University of Southern California would be fair and balanced. Not if Professor Darry Sragrow is teaching.
PROFESSOR DARRY SRAGROW: I mean California Republicans, I just showed you, are 30 percent of registration in this state cause they're really stupid, and racist…
GALLAGHER: That video was recorded in class by student Tyler Talgo.
TYLER TALGO, USC STUDENT: I just thought it was ridiculous our tuition money is being used for this and that these professors are instead of empowering students with knowledge so that they can choose for themselves on these issues, their -- it's not happening that way.
GALLAGHER: The university said, while they do not endorse the statements expressed by faculty, they do protect their right to express them. Sragrow, a leading Democratic campaign strategist for many years is still an adjunct professor at USC.
Forget opinions, even a criminal record is not enough to keep you out of the classroom. Kathy Bodine, a far-left radical convicted of felony murder after robbing a brinks truck in 1981, now a professor at Columbia.
Bernardine Dohrn, a domestic terrorist once on the FBI's ten most wanted list was at Northwestern University.
And neither will conspiracy theories exclude you. Richard Falk who worked with the United Nations and who entertains the idea of U.S. government involvement in the 9/11 attacks is professor emeritus of international law and politics at Princeton.
And recently two of the most infamous liberal college professors in the nation sat down with "The Kelly File." Bill Ayers, co-founder of the Weather Underground, a group that bombed the NYPD, the U.S. Capitol building and the Pentagon in the 1970s. He is now a retired professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. And apparently 40 years later his anti-government stance has softened, at least when it comes to his salary.
KELLY: Do you see any irony in accepting a government paycheck --
BILL AYERS, CO-FOUNDER OF THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND: Absolutely not. What's the irony?
KELLY: Than a life opposing the government regime, wanting to throw down the government as you put it.
AYERS: Well, look, we all lives in the actual world. So, even the things we're critical of, I mean, this is the world we live in. Should I not make a living?
GALLAGHER: And Ward Churchill was a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado Boulder for 17 years. During that time he wrote several academic articles including one where he claimed the U.S. was to blame for the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Churchill even compared financial workers at the towers to the leading orchestrator of the Holocaust. Although he was fired by the University of Colorado in 2007, his teaching continues.
KELLY: Is there a university that is still in the market for Ward Churchill's thoughts?
WARD CHURCHILL, FORMER UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO PROFESSOR: There's universities all over the country that are in the market for Ward Churchill's thoughts.
GALLAGHER: Trace Gallagher, Fox News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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