[Vision2020] Corporal Punishment & Logos School: Guess My Question . . .

[Luke]

Dear Mrs. Lund,
    I happen to be a student at Logos school and yes, corporal punishment is
practiced. I myself was spanked 8 years ago when I cheated on a math test.
Quite frankly, I deserved it. I had cheated before and been warned, but then
I hadn't learned my lesson well enough. It wasn't as though I messed up
once, and WHAM! they came down on me. They gave Luke Nieuwsma a second
chance, and he disobeyed again. I still remember that day, and I am very
grateful that I didn't go unpunished.
    I certainly did not undergo "child abuse" through having my rear end
whacked three times. Frankly, it didn't hurt that much. My third-grade rear
end suffered not at all. This of course is tying directly into the whole
debate of whether or not spanking is child abuse, and I don't want to deal
with the ridicularity of calling three swats child abuse now.
    To relate this directly to Ruth Drollinger, my parents had signed a
waiver giving the Logos staff permission, if deserved, to spank me. Ms.
Drollinger, formerly known as Mrs. Stoneman, signed one of these as well.
Twice, in fact. The faculty did nothing which she didn't give them
permission to do. Please keep in mind that Logos is a private school,
privately run. People have a plethora of schools they can chose. Those that
chose Logos School as the place to send their kids do so consciously,
knowing that reasonable discipline is given for misbehaviour. And by God's
law and state law, Logos is free to do this, as well as any other school in
Idaho.
    Another thing that I feel really needs addressing is the opinion which
you and Ms. Drollinger hold quite strongly, that Doug Wilson has direct
control over Logos. Being a Logos student, I can accurately testify to the
fact that most of the parents who send their children to Logos do not go to
Christ Church. In my junior class, the number of non-CC members is almost
double that of those who attend/agree with Doug Wilson's church. The
doctrine we're taught is not
Wilson doctrine, it is simply the truths of the Bible. Yes, slavery was
discussed and taught us, but by a non-CC member who does not hold to the
same secondary doctrines as Doug Wilson. The material was presented in a
very reasonable way, not an "I wish I was in Dixie" forced "doctrine." We
students were not told what to think about the justice of the war, we
concluded that independently of our teacher. Neither Doug Wilson nor Logos
forced us into believing that the cause of the South was just.
    But, you might say, if Doug Wilson is innocent of these charges, why was
Mrs. Drollinger suppressed the way she was at the meeting? Let us first
define by whom she was supressed. All the people I heard yell out to her
that she should step down and take this elsewhere were people I didn't
recognize. I have met or at least seen just about all the people at Christ
Church. Therefore it was not a Christ Church member. One of those who stood
up and told her to leave she questioned, "Are you a Christ Church member?"
The answer: "No! I am not!" Several times, she said, "This is a public
forum!" One
older gentleman, one of the liberals, told her that he was the public, and
that she should shut up.
    Prior to that, she asked for a show of hands of those who wanted to hear
what she had to say. Of the 200-300 people present, 12 people raised their
hands. Among the men who stood up and got her to exit the building was a
non-CC'er who was not a supporter of Wilson. Far more than half of this
audience did not want her to continue telling her obvious falsehoods about
child abuse at Logos, and more than half of this audience was made up of
non-CC members. She was not shut down by Christ Church, but by the popular
demand of the members of the community.
    The reason she was shut down was that this was a forum about Christ
Church and the rumors that had been growing about it. The forum was not
about Logos school, which, as Mr. Wilson pointed out, has four different
churches represented by its school board and more than that by students. Ms.
Drollinger was attacking Doug Wilson as the president of the Logos school
board, which he is not. She was blaming him for something that she was
several times before invited to take up with the
school board, but didn't. The audience realized the irrelevancy. They didn't
want to hear someone go on for twelve minutes about a topic separated from
Doug Wilson and Christ Church. They came to have questions answered about
the real topics.
    Logos does indeed practice paddling children for being naughty. I
experienced it, others have experienced it, and we have profited from it.
It's not done unreasonably, the parents signed an agreement to let their
children be spanked, and if spanked, they deserved it. It's not done by Doug
Wilson, and Doug Wilson does not control Logos. Ms. Drollinger was not
shut down at the Town Hall meeting because she was revealing Doug Wilson's
dirty closet, she was shut down because she was bringing up an issue that
should have been
discussed with the Logos School board instead. Being a Logos student, being
a Christian, being a hater of all falsehood, I feel it is my duty to protect
my school from this slander. It grieves me, it so saddens me to see the
school I have learned to love, to see the school which
has taught me so much about science, logic, the Bible, religions, to see the
school which I hope to some day send my own children, to see Logos School so
falsely and maliciously accused.
Sincerely and respectfully,
Luke Nieuwsma