(CNBC) — President Donald Trump said he issued an executive order Wednesday grounding all Boeing 737 Max jets, following the second major crash within five months. “We’re gonna be issuing an emergency order of prohibition to ground all flights of the 737 max 8 and the 737 max 9 and planes associated with that line,”
President Donald Trump sent out a tweet on Wednesday following the release a day before by House Judiciary Committee Republicans of hundreds of pages of transcripts from last year’s closed-door interview with ex-FBI attorney Lisa Page.
“The just revealed FBI Agent Lisa Page transcripts make the Obama Justice Department look exactly like it was, a broken and corrupt machine,” Trump wrote. “Hopefully, justice will finally be served.”
The president added in a later tweet:
“Comey testified (under oath) that it was a ‘unanimous’ decision on Crooked Hillary. Lisa Page transcripts show he LIED.”
Tuesday’s release of the transcripts revealed new details about the FBI’s controversial internal discussions regarding an “insurance policy” against then-candidate Trump, according to Fox News.
Page told the committee the text message about an “insurance policy” if Trump won the 2016 election – which Republicans have used to claim an anti-Trump bias among the investigators – was referring to the fact the FBI’s counterintelligence probe into whether members of Trump’s team were colluding with Russia would become much more important if he was elected president, according to CNN.
“If he is not elected, then, to the extent that the Russians were colluding with members of his team, we’re still going to investigate that even without him being president, because any time the Russians do anything with a U.S. person . . . it’s very serious to us,” Page said.
“But if he becomes president, that totally changes the game,” she explained. “He’s going to immediately start receiving classified briefings. He’s going to be exposed to the most sensitive secrets imaginable. And if there is somebody on his team who wittingly or unwittingly is working with the Russians, that is super serious.”
President Donald Trump tweeted a rebuke of the corruption of the Obama administration’s Justice Department, following the release of hundreds of pages of transcripts from last year’s closed-door interview with ex-FBI attorney Lisa Page.
Cucumber health benefits include reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, healthy weight management, detoxifying the body, enhancing the skin, supporting eye health, alkalizing the blood and treating cancer. Other benefits include combating bad breath, supporting digestion, controlling blood sugar level, maintaining adequate blood pressure, supporting bones, repairing hair, supporting nails and supporting dental health.
Since ancient times, cucumber has been used as traditional, herbal medications in India. The vegetable contains various lipid-lowering and anti-diabetic properties that prevent the body from overheating, exerting a more the natural cooling effect.
It is a widely cultivated crop that belongs to the gourd family. It is basically originated in South Asia but is grown in other parts of the world as well. It is considered the perfect food when it comes to keeping fit and healthy. As it contains many essential nutrients such as Vitamin A, Vitamin B, Vitamin C, VitaminK, Manganese, Copper and Potassium, incorporating cucumbers in your daily diet can lead to excellent health benefits.
Extreme climatic conditions have left us dehydrated and exhausted, but this vegetable really helps to combat dehydration as it is 90% percent water, which keep the body hydrated and flushes out many hazardous substances, providing some of the most essential nutrients your body needs.
You can easily juice cucumbers and add a mix of other vegetables such as carrots and beetroots to say hydrated and at the same time enhance your metabolism. Moreover, the seeds inside a cucumber contain magnesium, which is ideal for people who suffer from a deficiency of this nutrient. Consuming cucumbers with other fluid containing foods such as lime, avocado, celery, and fennel helps you to deal with stomach pain and abdominal tightening.
The ingredients in the cucumber play an important role in maintaining a healthy heart – with trace elements of potassium and magnesium; you can improve your body’s neurological function along with keeping your blood pressure under control.
Cucumbers also contain lignin, which is referred to as an anti-inflammatory element that helps boost your immunity and reduces the occurrence of all the risks associated with cardiovascular disease.
Cucumbers are a useful supplement to reduce weight. You can enjoy your meals by adding it in your diet you can either eat it in your salad or mix it in yogurt or eat it whole – the point is it will help you lose weight faster.
Cucumbers help the liver to remove impurities, waste and also helps completely eliminate accumulated toxins from your bloodstream and gut. It also helps the body to pass out more urine in order to remove toxins. Drinking cucumber beverages speed up the detoxification process.
You can use it as a home remedy to nourish your skin by applying a thick paste on your face. The natural face mask will provide you with a soothing and cold effect. It also protects the skin from dryness, acne, skin irritation and other skin issues.
It moisturizes all the skin around your eyes as it contains 95% water. Vitamin E plays a crucial role in improving your skin, enhancing collagen production, acting as a natural, anti-wrinkle agent. Moreover, eating cucumbers on a regular basis helps enhance your vision as it contains several anti-inflammatory and antioxidants that can help steer you clear of cataracts.
Hyperpigmentation forms dark circles around the skin of your eyes mainly due to restlessness, cucumbers are the best option for it. The antioxidant present in the cucumber eliminates skin irritation. As you know vitamin C in cucumbers lighten your skin tone, so you should incorporate cucumbers in your beauty routine as well.
Keeping your body’s pH level optimal can help eliminate free radical cells, which are acidic and cause symptoms associated with cancer. Drinking cucumber water on a daily basis can keep increasing your body’s alkalinity.
Cucumbers contain fisetin, caffeic acid, cucurbitacins, lutein, which have the capability to reduce cancerous symptoms at the early stages. The phytochemicals in the vegetable have strong anti-cancer properties including antioxidants, which eliminate the free radical cells and boost your immunity.
Eating it whole or juicing the vegetable can reduce the occurrence of breast, ovarian, prostate, uterine and lung cancer due to the presence of flavonoids such as fisetin and caffeic acid.
Placing cucumber slices in your mouth can help you to get rid of bad breath by eliminating bad-odor causing bacteria along with eliminating the formation of microbes, which can also lead to oral health complications and gum disease.
To keep your gut health, you have to incorporate foods that are fibrous, and cucumbers are one of those foods. The vegetable also contains an enzyme referred to as “erepsin”, which improves the process of digestion – and helps the body adequately absorb protein.
Pectin in cucumber facilitates the normal flora of the intestine. It also manages the bowel movement and softens the stool due to its high water content, which helps treat constipation, gastritis, ulcer and many other stomach related disorders.
Studies have found it effective against diabetes, and medical scientists recommend eating cucumber peels, which helps maintain an adequate blood sugar level. Plus, eating its peels can also reduce oxidative stress.
A hormone in cucumber helps the pancreas to utilize insulin that converts the carbohydrates into energy.
The rich amount of magnesium, fiber, and potassium makes cucumbers useful in maintaining the right blood pressure – which should not be too high or too low. It also helps lowers the pressure in arteries and keeps them hydrated. This is one of the main reasons why cucumbers are recommended to people battling hypertension.
Cucumber contains ascorbic acid and caffeic acid, both of which help strengthen your body’s ligaments, cartilage, tendons and bones. The vegetable also contains silica in it, which helps in the formation of connective tissue, which helps strengthen weakened bones.
As it also contains protein, magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin B5, folic acid and silicon – you can pretty easily enhance your bone health.
If dry and rough hair is your problem then try making some cucumber paste, mixing it with water. Then just gently massage the concoction on your head and you will gradually see the difference on your hair and scalp health.
All in all, cucumbers contain a plethora of powerful nutrients and vitamins, which are essential for supporting your overall physical and mental health. Try to incorporate as much of the vegetable you can.
Meganeura the largest Flying Insect Ever Existed, Had a Wingspan of Up to 65 Cm, from the Carboniferous period. Its name is Meganeuropsis, and it ruled the skies before pterosaurs, birds, and bats had even evolved.
The largest known insect 
Most popular textbooks make mention of “giant dragonflies
The fossils of Meganeura were first discovered in France in the year 1880. Then, in 1885, the fossil was described and assigned its name by Charles Brongniart who was a French Paleontologist. Later in 1979, another fine fossil specimen was discovered at Bolsover in Derbyshire.
Meganisoptera is an extinct family of insects, all large and predatory and superficially like today’s odonatans, the dragonflies and damselflies. And the very largest of these was Meganeuropsis. It is known from two species, with the type species being the immense M.permiana. Meganeuropsis permiana, as its name suggests is from the Early Permian.
CHICAGO (AP) – “Empire”
The hearing in Cook County Circuit Court began with Judge Steven Watkins being assigned to oversee the case, including the trial if it reaches that point.
Prosecutors allege that Smollett, who is black and gay and plays the gay character Jamal Lyon on the hit Fox TV show, hired two friends to help him stage the attack on him in downtown Chicago early on the morning of Jan. 29. They say Smollett was unhappy about his salary and wanted to drum up publicity to help his career.
Smollett has denied that he staged the attack and maintains he is innocent. His attorneys have called the charges against him “prosecutorial overkill.”
There were several supporters outside the courthouse doors as Smollett arrived for the hearing, including some who waved signs. Activist Wisdom Cole led a few chants in support of the actor, the black community and the LGBT community.
“Jussie has been a person of high caliber and character. He comes from an activist family. He has a consistent track record and history of supporting marginalized people … and so his track record is not on par with the idea of a hoax,” she said.
Researchers have discovered that a 124,000-year-old bone contains MODERN DNA. According to experts, the thigh bone could force us to completely rewrite everything we thought we know about our origins and human history.
The startling new discovery—a Neanderthal femur bone—discovered some 80 years ago is forcing experts to rethink everything they thought they knew about humans on our planet.
A new study published in the journal Nature Communications explains that a 124,000-year-old Neanderthal fossil—dug up in Germany from the Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave—contains MODERN DNA. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the University of Tübingen analyzed mitochondrial DNA from the femur bone.
This discovery indicates that the ‘out of Africa’ migration occurred much sooner than experts thought—around 270,000 years ago, forcing us to rewrite everything we thought we knew about our species’ origins.
“We are realizing more and more that the evolutionary history of modern and archaic humans was a lot more reticulated than we would have thought 10 years ago,” co-author Fernando Racimo of the New York Genome Center told New Scientist. “This and previous findings are lending support to models with frequent interbreeding events.”
The Genetic DATA obtained by scientists indicates that the bone belonged to a Neanderthal some 124,000 years ago and that hominins migrated out of Africa after the ancestors of Neanderthals arrived in Europe. Furthermore, scientists are convinced that these hominins interbred with Neanderthals between 220,000 and 470,000 years ago—300,000 years later than previously thought.
“The bone, which shows evidence of being gnawed on by a large carnivore, provided mitochondrial genetic data that showed it belongs to the Neanderthal branch,” explains Cosimo Posth of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, lead author of the study.
It is noteworthy to mention that traditional radiocarbon dating did not work to obtain the approximate age of the femur. Mutational rates allowed experts to calculate that these Neanderthals split apart from each other between 316,000 and 219,000 years ago. Experts found that it displays a different mitochondrial lineage than the Neanderthals previously studied.
As noted by Phys.org, this makes this Neanderthal specimen—designated HST by the researchers—among the oldest to have its mitochondrial DNA analyzed to date.
The new discoveries also suggest that the Neanderthal population was much larger in size than estimated and with greater mitochondrial diversity.
Experts believe that after the divergence of Neanderthals and modern human mitochondrial DNA occurred—but before the HST and other Neanderthals split—a group of hominins migrated from Africa to Europe and introduced their mitochondrial DNA to the Neanderthal population. This is believed to have occurred between 470,000 and 220,000 years ago.
“Despite the large interval, these dates provide a temporal window for possible hominin connectivity and interaction across the two continents in the past,” says Posth.
This influx of hominins would have been small enough that it did not result in a large impact on the Neanderthals’ nuclear DNA, but it would have been large enough to replace the existing mitochondrial lineage of Neanderthals, more similar to the Denisovans, with a type more similar to modern humans.
“This scenario reconciles the discrepancy in the nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA phylogenies of archaic hominins and the inconsistency of the modern human-Neanderthal population split time estimated from nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA,” explains Johannes Krause, also of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, senior author of the study.
When shopping for a mattress, there are a number of factors to take into account, beyond perceived comfort. In time for Presidents’ Day mattress sales, The New York Times listed several tips to help you select your ideal mattress. Among them:
Assess quality and durability — Bedding and medical experts recommend looking for memory foam with a density of 3 pounds per cubic foot or greater, and coils with a gauge of 13 to 15.
You typically get what you pay for — A recent New York Times test of 20 foam mattresses suggested models in the $1,000 range and over were of higher quality than those costing less than that. A high-quality mattress will last you about 10 years, so it’s worth investing in the highest quality you can afford.
Comfort is subjective — What’s too hard or too soft for one person may be just right for another, and this includes those with back pain. While a 2003 study in The Lancet concluded medium-firm mattresses improved pain and disability among patients with chronic nonspecific low-back pain the best, your best bet is to try out a variety of firmness levels.
The New York Times recommends taking your own pillow along when shopping for a mattress, and lying in your normal sleeping position for about 15 minutes on the mattress under consideration.
While a comfortable mattress is certainly important, if you have back pain you may want to consider addressing your sleeping position as well. As explained by chiropractor Dr. Peter Martone in “What’s the Best Position for Sleep?” it’s important to sleep with your spine in a neutral position, which means sleeping on your back with a pillow tucked beneath your neck, not your whole head. To learn more, please see the hyperlinked article.
Take advantage of trial periods — As noted by Ron Rudzin, CEO of The Saatva Company, your mattress should not only feel comfortable when you first go to bed, “You have to feel good when you wake up” as well.
Many mattresses now come with a 30-day trial period, and if you’re not completely satisfied with its performance, return it and try another one. After all, you’ll be sleeping on it for the next decade, so it’s worth the effort to find the right one.
A factor that wasn’t on The New York Times’ tip list was making sure the mattress doesn’t contain toxic chemicals. From a health perspective, this may well be your most important consideration. As of July 1, 2007, all U.S. mattresses are required to be flame retardant enough to withstand exposure to a 2-foot-wide blowtorch flame for 70 seconds.
While manufacturers can achieve this either by natural methods or chemical means, many resort to the use of flame retardant chemicals. Harmful flame retardant substances you might find in a mattress, including those from “high-end” brands, include:,,
| Polybrominated diphenyl esters (PBDEs) — PBDEs have been linked to endocrine disruption developmental neurotoxicity, reproductive problems, thyroid dysfunction, and certain cancers, just to name a few.
PBDE has been banned in the U.S. since 2004 due to health concerns, but if your mattress contains polyurethane foam and was manufactured before this date, it might still contain this dangerous class of flame retardants. |
| Decabromodiphenyl oxide — This is a flame retardant chemical similar to banned PBDE, linked to hair loss, memory loss and possibly cancer. As a group, flame retardant chemicals have been identified as one of 17 “high priority” chemical groups that should be avoided to reduce your risk of breast cancer., |
| Boric acid — A respiratory irritant used to kill roaches, boric acid is linked to reproductive, developmental and neurological damage. |
| Antimony — A metal that may be more toxic than mercury and formaldehyde, it’s linked to cancer and heart problems. Antimony leaching from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) cot mattress covers has also been linked to sudden infant death syndrome. Elevated temperatures, urine, saliva and detergents used to clean the cover were all found to enhance the release of antimony, and may do the same if it’s in your mattress. |
| Melamine — Linked to cellular damage, kidney malfunction, reproductive damage and cancer. |
| Vinylidene chloride — While not as common as some other flame retardants, this chemical, a potential carcinogen, may still be used. Health effects include central nervous system effects such as convulsions, sedation, spasms. |
| Bromine — A corrosive chemical, chronic exposure effects to this chemical include pulmonary edema. |
| Formaldehyde — This is a highly toxic poison and cancer-causing agent. |
The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission admits flame retardant chemicals such as these are toxic and that you can absorb them into your body; however, they deem the amounts emitted from your mattress to be so small as to not cause any adverse health effects.
But that’s the claim made for most sources of toxic exposure, be it food, air, water, cleaning products, furniture, electronics, personal care items — you name it. And when you add all these exposures together, we’re no longer talking about minute amounts.
Considering you’re spending a third of your life in bed, your mattress could be a significant source of toxic exposure, and if you look around, you’ll find anecdotal reports of people getting sick from toxins traced back to their mattress.
Unfortunately, it’s virtually impossible to find out what’s really in your mattress as manufacturers are not required to label or disclose which chemicals their mattresses contain. Your best bet is therefore to seek out manufacturers that specify their mattresses are chemical free.
Keep in mind, though, that just because a company may have certified chemical-free foam in their mattress, that does not necessarily mean the entire mattress is free of flame retardants.
The flame retardant chemicals are frequently embedded in a separate mesh fabric layer on top of the foam, underneath the top fabric layer, so the fact that the foam is chemical free means little in this case. Instead, you’ll want to look for mattresses made entirely of naturally flame resistant materials, such as Kevlar, wool or organic cotton.
Toxic chemicals aren’t the only way your mattress might make you sick. Last year, CNN Health listed a number of factors that might come into play, including:
• Dust mite droppings — According to some research, 4 in 5 American homes have at least one bed with dust mites, and while the mites themselves do not pose a health hazard, their feces are highly allergenic.
To control dust mites, the American Lung Association recommends reducing humidity in your bedroom, reducing places where dust mites can thrive, replacing carpets and regularly wet dusting and mopping your floors.
• Mold and fungi — In one study, 10 pillows tested were found to contain 47 different species of fungi. To minimize mold and fungal growth, use a HEPA filter-equipped air purifier next to your bed.
• Sweat — Some studies suggest you’ll sweat out up to 26 gallons of sweat into your bed each year, which could promote staph or strep infection. To minimize your risk, wash your linens in hot water at least once a week.
• Pet dander, saliva and urine — If you have pets, consider not letting them sleep in your bed. If you do allow pets in bed, wash your linens more frequently, and vacuum your mattress and pillows at least once a week.
If you’re looking for a safe mattress, you need to know what to look for on labels. Some terms, such as “natural,” mean virtually nothing, while other labels, such as “organic,” may be misleading (as it could mean only part of the mattress materials are organic). Consumer Reports has previously issued a guide of what such labels really mean. Here are some highlights to consider:
| Best mattress labels |
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| Good mattress label |
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| Labels with some value |
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A mattress needn’t have just one of the certifications above. The best and purest mattresses on the market will adhere to multiple safety standards, giving you the ultimate in safety and comfort.
This is certainly the case with my Healthy Home Certified Organic Mattressesand bedding made by Naturepedic. These mattresses not only pass flammability standards without chemical flame retardants, they are also third-party certified with:
My mattresses provide fire protection with superior product design and better materials. Their unique and innovative approach provides a simple and elegant solution allowing these mattresses and bedding products to meet all federal and state flammability standards — without the use of dangerous chemicals.
Be especially careful when choosing a mattress for your child, as products intended for children and babies are also those most likely to be doused in flame retardant chemicals. You spend from six to nine hours every night with your face in close proximity to your mattress, breathing in these chemicals. Your children spend even longer sleeping, with their faces even closer to the mattress surface, so be sure to look for a chemical-free mattress for your child.
Getting sick really sucks, no matter where you are. However, there are certain places in the world where the bill for emergency care is a killer blow that magnifies your misery 100 fold, so you better make sure your insurance is top notch.
Luckily for 25-year-old American student Kevin Bozeat, Taiwan is not one of those places. With his U.S. health insurance lapsed, and not qualifying for the local national healthcare system, he feared the worst when he was rushed to ER with severe stomach pains and vomiting. “The last thing I ate before getting sick was KFC, but I don’t think that was it because I got sick less than an hour after eating. The incubation period was too fast, Kevin told Bored Panda.“Rather, I ate some roast duck at a night market the night before. I think that was the culprit.”
The care itself was swift, professional and quite regulation; IV fluids, blood tests, and an ultrasound to check for gallstones. He was diagnosed with a stomach virus, given some prescription medicine and sent on his way, he would be just fine.
Still, in the back of his mind, he knew that back home this would set him back a couple of thousand dollars, at least. What kind of bill was waiting for him, now he was on the road to recovery? “Eighty. American. Dollars,” he wrote. “Out of pocket. Full cost. No discounts. No insurance. At one of the best hospitals in Taiwan.”
Kevin went viral again, this time for happier reasons. His post has been shared over 200k times on Facebook, and has reignited the long-running debate about the criminally inhumane healthcare system in the U.S. Predictably, there were some people who continue to vote against their own interests and live in perpetual fear of the term ‘socialized,’ so Kevin posted an update that clarified a few points and shed light on the way they do things in Taiwan.
Critics attacked President Trump over the weekend for signing Bibles 
As CBN News reported, the president visited The Yellowhammer State last Friday to survey the devastation and pay respects to tornado victims. The massive tornado carved a path of destruction nearly a mile wide, killing 23 people, including four children and a couple in their 80s, with 10 victims belonging to a single extended family.
At the Providence Baptist Church in Smiths Station, Trump posed for a photograph with a fifth-grade volunteer and signed the child’s Bible. The president also signed her sister’s Bible. In photos and videos from the visit, Trump is shown signing the cover of other paperback Bibles as well.
On Saturday, The Associated Press wrote about the incident, writing, “President Donald Trump was just doing what he could to raise spirits when he signed Bibles at an Alabama church for survivors of a deadly tornado outbreak, many religious leaders say, though some are offended and others say he could have handled it differently.”
Presidents have a long history of signing Bibles, though earlier presidents typically signed them as gifts to send with a spiritual message. President Ronald Reagan signed a Bible that was sent secretly to Iranian officials in 1986. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the family Bible his attorney general used to take the oath of office in 1939.
Bill Leonard, the founding dean, and professor of divinity emeritus at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity in Winston-Salem, North Carolina told the AP it’s important to remember that signing Bibles is an old tradition, particularly in southern churches.
Leonard said he would have viewed it as more problematic if the signings were done at a political rally. He doesn’t see how Trump could have refused at the church.
“It would’ve been worse if he had said no because it would’ve seemed unkind, and this was at least one way he could show his concern along with his visit,” he said. “In this setting, where tragedy has occurred and where he comes for this brief visit, we need to have some grace about that for these folks.”
James Coffin, executive director of the Interfaith Council of Central Florida, also noted the attention the kind gesture received. “Too much is being made out of something that doesn’t deserve that kind of attention,” he said.
Dr. Ed Stetzer, the dean of the School of Mission, Ministry, and Leadership at Wheaton College serves as executive director of the Billy Graham 
“The Bible autograph news is a made up controversy,” he wrote. “In some places, particularly the south, people ask you to sign their Bible. I’ve signed several. Most have other signatures already on the same page. Media friends, just b/c @POTUS does a thing does not make it disrespectful.”
The website Slate.com also posted an article about Trump signing Bibles, but it pointed out that other celebrities in the evangelical world are asked to sign Bibles, including Tim Tebow.
CBN Chief Political Analyst David Brody knows about the president’s Christian faith
While covering stories for CBN News in 2011 about a private citizen and later presidential candidate Trump, Brody reports he showed great respect for the Bible. Brody shared on Twitter about what Trump told him about his faith.
FLASHBACK: @realDonaldTrump tells me the following in 2011: “I believe in God. I am a Christian. I think the Bible is certainly, it is THE book.” Then he explains how people send him Bibles and keeps them in a, “very nice place.”
An Ohio high school student is speaking out after she received a suspension for posting Bible verses on walls and lockers in response to a collection of LGBT “pride” flags that decorated the hallways. In a video posted to Facebook last Friday, Gabby Helsinger claims that she is being punished for allegedly “targeting” the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club.
“So on Thursday when I got to school, I see that there were pride flags, posters around my school,” Gabby says in the video, which her mother, Tina Helsinger shared to Facebook. “And I felt the need to write down some Bible verses so I could put them around my school. And I wrote them down and I put them around the lockers, the walls.”
“I was coming back from lunch … and I [saw] the teachers taking them down, and the next day, I got called to the office and there is a letter that says that I have an ISS, which is an in-school suspension, and the reason why I have it is because ‘abuse of others, disrespect, rudeness’ because I put Bible verses up ‘targeting the GSA organization,’” she explained. “I did not know what the GSA organization was or meant.”
Gabby believes the real reason she received the suspension is that her school favors LGBT ideology over Christian beliefs.
“Seeing that there [were] people in my school that needed help … ,” she continued. “They don’t need to be living in the confusion of wondering if they should be gay, bi, lesbian, trans — anything like that. And I know that God is the only way that they can be healed by that, and that’s why I did it. I was not targeting any kind of organization … .”
Gabby explained that when she was sent to the principal’s office last Friday, she was asked why she posted the Bible verses.
“And I said, ‘Because I wanted to spread the word of God,’” she said. “And [the principal] goes, ‘Well did you have permission?’ And I said, ‘No.’ I didn’t know you had to have permission because people do it a lot — putting Post-It notes on people’s lockers, so I just did it.”
Gabby then asked the principal why any material that mentions God or Jesus, it gets removed “straight away,” while “gay pride stuff” can be put up all over the school and openly discussed with no repercussions at all.
In a Facebook post, Tina Helsinger explained why she believes her daughter is being unfairly punished for sharing her beliefs.
“Lebanon [High School] celebrates evil and punishes righteousness!!” she wrote.
“I appealed the punishment stating ‘Posting a Bible verse is not an abuse of others, disrespect/insolence/rudeness and in no way was it targeting GSA,’” Helsinger noted. “But the school principal, Scott Butler, says ‘Gabby was targeting the GSA organization… .’”
Faithwire reached out to Lebanon City School Superintendent Todd Yohey to clarify the school’s official policy regarding religious expression.
Though administrators are not permitted to discuss specific disciplinary actions against individual students, Yohey confirmed that the school’s Student Code of Conduct does not prohibit the sharing or posting of religious text or imagery on school grounds. He also confirmed that like the GSA, religious clubs are allowed to meet and advertise during school hours.
The question that remains, then, is why Gabby received the suspension, to begin with. If the student’s testimony stands, and she was not “targeting the GSA organization” as Principal Scott Butler allegedly claimed, then it appears her only offense was not receiving prior approval to post the verses, which is a far cry from the accusations of “abuse” toward other students.
As of now, Gabby will still have to report to her in-school suspension Wednesday.
The Bible contains plenty of passages that could be seen as offensive to LGBT groups. Indeed, the concept of same-sex “marriage” and transgenderism’s denial of God-given biological sex are in direct conflict with Scripture. But if a school claims to allow for these incompatible belief systems to coexist with equal protections, people are bound to get offended every now and then. That is the price of such freedom of expression.