Transcript Of Limbaugh's Radio Show
SARASOTA COUNTY - Bay Haven School of Basics Plus was deluged with angry phone calls today after talk show host Rush Limbaugh told a national audience that the school was honoring conscientious objectors on Veterans Day.
Limbaugh's source was a woman who said her fourth-grader came home and told her of his teacher's plans for the holiday.
Principal Betsy Asheim-Dean said the radio show blew out of proportion a memo that a teacher sent to other staff members at the school.
In the e-mail, teacher Rolf Hanson wrote that "For our Veterans' Day celebration my class will be making a banner that honors conscientious objectors and Veterans for Peace."
But by the time he spoke to his class, Hanson did not even use the word "conscientious objector," Asheim-Dean said. And Hanson no longer plans to make a banner.
She said Hanson "feels horribly" that his intentions were "misinterpreted" on the radio show.
While office workers took up to 15 phone calls every 10 minutes from Limbaugh listeners and people who had heard about the controversy, Asheim-Dean emphasized that students at the school will gather tomorrow for a color guard.
"We will be honoring our veterans tomorrow in a very traditional way," Asheim-Dean said. "That was the plan from the beginning, and that is the plan now."
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