Olathe Police React to School Political Fight, Plus States Try to React to Schools Pushing Leftward | 2-24-26

Well, that student-led protest in Olathe at Olathe Northwest has resulted in an aggravated battery on Friday, February 20th, 2026. Olathe PD making this announcement yesterday afternoon after viral video circulated over the weekend from Olathe and Northwest. When you had a group of anti-ice protesters standing on the northeast corner by Olathe and Northwest right there at College and Lone Elm Road. And then you had like a small handful of guys across the street on the southeast corner right by the church there waving a bunch of Trump flags. in video that many of you have seen if you haven't it has been watched millions of times all over social media you had the anti-ice protesters storm across the street and then appear to beat up the kids and beat them with flagpoles and sticks and everything else and now in the wake of that olathe pd coming out yesterday saying that there was an aggravated battery that took place outside of Alathe Northwest. So the statement here from Alathe PD, and thank goodness something's being done about this. Numerous officers responded and stabilized the incident. As a result of the investigation, one juvenile male was taken into custody. Investigators are continuing to identify and contact individuals who may have been involved. How about a nice round of applause for Alathe PD, okay? doing the right thing, handling this case like professionals, nothing to do with the politics, but just saying, you know what? We're not going to watch our own children get beat up on social media for protesting your protest, regardless of what side of the protest you're on. we're not going to sit here and allow juveniles to get beat up for doing the same thing you're celebrating other people for doing we're not going to do that so alathe pd comes out with a statement yesterday and then last night you have the superintendent at alathe schools dr brent yeager put out an email statement and here's what it says as many of you are aware we have seen several student-organized walkouts at both the middle and high school level over the past couple of weeks related to current events. Most recently, you may have seen a video circulating on social media of an altercation between students that occurred off campus during Olathe Northwest's student-organized walkout on Friday, February 20th. Given the continued occurrence of these student-organized walkouts and considering the safety concerns raised by the latest student-led event, I felt it was important for you to hear from me directly with clarification regarding student voice and our expectations around peaceful demonstrations as a school district. Brent Yeager, the Olathe superintendent, goes on the note here. We recognize students constitutional right to engage in peaceful expression. As affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, students do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate. When students choose to participate in peaceful demonstrations of any kind, we are required to operate within those legal parameters. This is not an endorsement of any viewpoint, but adherence to the law. I think that may be debatable as I understand it. Now, you can take actions when it comes to, hey, if you leave class, there are repercussions for that. Not that you can't, you know, force a kid to sit in a seat. I understand that. But there can be repercussions. There can be suspensions. There can certainly be more than what we've seen out of the Olathe administration on this issue over the last couple of weeks. Whether it was Olathe North, Olathe West, now Olathe Northwest. It doesn't seem like the administration is really taking any of this seriously and making sure that they are making it incredibly clear to parents and to taxpayers. By the way, while they're in the middle of asking for $400 million for a bond issue for capital improvements, that our number one priority is making sure kids are learning and in the classroom. if you were just watching from afar you would not think that that was the priority of the olathe school district based on how they have been handling themselves over the last couple of weeks the superintendent yeager he goes on the note here in this email sent out last night we want to reiterate these walkouts were entirely student-led and not organized sponsored or endorsed by our staff schools or district as a public school system and public school educators we remain politically neutral when serving in these oh geez sorry oh my gosh oh that's a good one that's a good one oh man that is funny stuff from the superintendent to the lathe that really is oh sorry gotta wipe away my tears here they're they're comedy tears don't worry i'm not actually crying oh boy all right where were we here our role is to provide a safe learning environment not to take positions on politics or social issues staff members do not participate walkouts but observe from a short distance to help ensure student safety our expectation is that students attend school and remain focused on their education however when students are absent for any reason standard attendance procedures apply while we have seen student-led walkouts at the secondary level at this point we're not aware of anything impacting the elementary level wow congrats we haven't had six-year-olds walking out of the classroom yet to protest ice i mean what do you want a pat on the back holy smokes that's unbelievable you know what this reminds me of this whole email reminds me of the end of goodfellas my favorite movie when Henry Hill played by John's old buddy Ray Liotta they bumped into each other here in Kansas City back in the late 80s at a bar Ray Liotta is sitting down Henry Hill we'll call him that's his character Henry Hill is sitting down with his wife Karen Hill and they're getting grilled by the prosecutor in the case at McDonald and at McDonald the prosecutor is asking Karen Hill all these different things about, hey, you know, what do you know? I know you know about your husband's work and, you know, all these different things, right? We know what Henry Hill has been up to and what his whole life has been about. And Karen Hill, played by Lorraine Bracco, is like, I don't know anything. Don't leave me alone. I don't know anything. And Ed McDonald looks at Karen Hill and says, enough with the babe in the woods routine enough and what i sense here from brent yeager the alathe superintendent he is all in on the babe in the woods routine that's what he's going for here don't look at me i'm just you know supreme court i just try out we're not involved and you know there's only so much we can do it's like when you have a substitute teacher people i think unfairly kind of take advantage of the substitute teacher once in a while right hey the regular teacher's not here let's you know goof around a little bit let's be a little silly a little funny it happens all the time it's a tale as old as time it's not right but it's reality why because people sense weakness and for several weeks alethe has been at the center of this conversation they've had more walkouts it seems like than any other school district that we've covered in the name of anti-ice protests students clearly sensed weakness they did not take their own administration seriously in any of this it's why they all felt compelled to do it leave class maybe get on the local news you know beautiful weather we got this fall spring in february let's have some fun here let's do it and now finally on friday it led to something bad happening it led to a student who was protesting the anti-ice protest getting beat up and by the way the father of that student is going to be on kcmo talk radio this morning coming up at 8 0 5 he will be here live in studio we will talk to him about what happened to his son. And I just want to know the full story. We've seen his kid get beat up. Millions of people around the country have seen his kid get beat up for doing nothing other than protesting the anti-ice protest. What happened? What do we not know about this story? Where does this all go from here? He will join us. The father will join us right here on KCMO Talk Radio 95.7 FM and streaming as always on the KCMO Talk Radio app. So if you're not normally here, make sure you are here at 8.05 this morning. Stream us, the website, Alexa, the app, wherever you got to get us in less than two hours. We will have that conversation with that father right here on KCMO Talk Radio. But you had protests at Lee's Summit last week as well. This stuff is totally spiraling out of control. And we'll get to you as well. 913-408-7957 is how you join us on how to put an end to this. And it's not because I disagree with the protests. It's because it's getting out of hand. Kids are getting beat up. They're leaving school left and right. In the meantime, they're not learning the basics they should be learning. The proficiency rates are in the toilet. Enrollment's declining. And finally, it takes a kid getting beat up for someone in the administration to say, you know, enough's enough here. Well, it's about darn time. 913-408-7957. That's our text line and studio line on KCMO Talk Radio. Coming up, on a very similar note, there is a proposal on one side of our state line for how to improve the classroom. It's a nice idea, but I think it's broadly missing the point. I'll tell you what that is next. Boy, isn't it nice for Kansas City Media to cover this story, too? They didn't touch this thing yesterday. They did not touch the story coming out of the weekend. Yeah, I only found like one place, and then I was noting that didn't mention the injuries to the other kid that got hurt. Yeah, they didn't touch it. Yesterday morning, you could not find the story of an Olathe Northwest student getting beat up during a protest to the anti-ice protests on Friday anywhere in Kansas City Media, except for on this show. But yesterday, they had no choice but to cover it. Why? Because the Olathe Police Department put out a statement yesterday saying that the protest resulted in an aggravated battery and that they took a juvenile into custody. So then the media had to cover the story here in Kansas City. They had no choice, despite the fact that millions of people over the weekend around the country saw this. These kids get beat up for peacefully protesting the anti-ice protest at Olathe Northwest. and I come on here yesterday morning and I'm talking about it and there was not a single news story in this town on this video. Not one. And finally, because Aletha PD says we got someone in custody, now magically they have to cover the story. They have no choice. And that's a whole other sidebar of this thing that we will be covering here throughout the morning on KCMO. Let's go to Kirk. He's on KCMO first up. Good morning, Kirk. Morning. Yeah, I just wanted to comment on the school's lack of responsibility. As a manager, been a manager for many, many, many, many years, dealt with a lot of employees, I'm also concerned that what are we going to be sending out into the work world? I mean, if you do that to me at work and you just walk out, I'm sorry, that's strike one. You know, you do it again, that's strike two. You get in a fight, that's possibly strike three, you're out. I had a boss one time, his favorite saying was, when I was getting into this, he said, you help them out, i.e., do what you can, you help them out, you guide them again, and then you help them out. Get them out of your system because they're a pain. We all did stupid stuff at 17, 18 years old. But you're right. There's no there's you've got to have consequences. And I talked to some people who spoke to Olathe's administration yesterday and what they said. Thanks for the call, Kirk. I appreciate it. What they said is that the students in this case would get zero grades for those two hours. Now, some parents have called in and approved them for missing class for protesting. So there's nothing you can do about that, I guess. Right. I mean, activist parents are going to be activist parents and raise activist kids like I get that. But it's about letting this stuff linger for too long across the entire district. That's where Olathe lost the entire narrative here. We were covering these protests across the entire district for weeks. and it did not seem like the district took any of this seriously or was pushing back in any meaningful way not because they had to be against the protests but because they had to realize what their focus needed to be and the kids just kept taking advantage in these various schools is what appears to have happened here and then you get this thing at Olathe Northwest where a Kid gets beat up. Eli in Kansas City. Hey, Eli. Hey. Yeah. My son is 16, attends Shawnee Mission East, and they had these protests a few weeks ago. And when he came home telling me about it as a typical dad, I was just lamenting the waste of time. And he pointed out he said Dad this is great Now I know which girls in my class I can date and not So maybe a silver lining he was able to identify the crazies real fast All right. You got to pause there so I can give you the rim shot at the right time. But that's a nice job, Eli. I'm glad your son's on it. All right, man. You seem to have raised him well. All right. All right. Thank you, Eli. There you go. All right. Making lemonade eliminated. All right. Thanks, Eli. Thanks for keeping it appropriate. get that bass awkward lemonade yeah making lemonade out of lemons there you go very nice job you're talking to a show where you've got six daughters here on this show so you you approach that in an appropriate way all right i'll just say that so in topeka with all this chaos happening in the schools kansas state senator brad starnes republican in riley he has pushed forth and is wanting to make sure through a bill that a K through 12 public schools are able to learn about communist and socialist regimes and ideologies and take a civics exam to graduate high school. Now, I'm a fan of the idea of a civics exam. I like that. But I think he's going too far when he says he wants to make sure that students are learning about communist and socialist regimes and ideologies because to me it's about who's teaching those ideas before you know it you're gonna have you know kids coming out and going home and being like boy my goodness you should hear about this guy in cuba he's really got it all figured out he's really on on the on the ball here some of these ideas you know your kids are gonna come home chanting ho ho ho chi min ho ho ho chi minh it's like no no no uh how you teach about communist and socialist regimes and ideologies is an important nuance to all this that will probably get lost in some piece of legislation passed in topeka so i'm not a fan of this even though i think senator brad starns's heart is in the right place the problem that you have is that you have and not in all cases I know teachers in the Olathe School District, along with spouses of teachers in the Olathe School District, who happen to be fairly conservative. And that's true for every school district. Now, they're outnumbered, but they're out there. The problem is you have, by and large, people who lean to the left who are attracted to the line of work in today's world. It wasn't the case when I was growing up in the 90s. it probably wasn't the case when you were growing up but today that's who is largely drawn to the position how do you change that how do you change and try to diversify the ideology of those who are drawn to the profession that's not an easy thing to do and there's not a bill or a law that fixes it it's got to be a cultural shift and i admit i've thought a lot about it i'm not quite sure how it happens but when it comes to his idea on having you know just a civics exam to graduate high school I'm all about that because as he brought forward in data 19 percent of Americans under the age of 45 19 percent could pass a citizenship test 34 percent of 18 to 29 year olds said they have a favorable view of communism. All these things, yes, need to be corrected. And a basic civics exam to graduate high school in the state of Kansas, that would be a great idea. I'm all about that. I just wouldn't go full-blown teaching communism because it's all about how it gets taught. And I'm not sure I trust the people to teach it properly. Coming up next on KCMO, we have some more drama around Team USA hockey. But I'm not sweating it. We'll dive into it next. So you've got the State of the Union happening tonight. It will air at 8 p.m. right here on KCMO Talk Radio following the Mark Levin show. And, of course, a lot's been made of Team USA. The men winning the gold medal, of course, on Sunday. Women also winning the gold medal prior to that. So the president invited the men's team to the State of the Union tonight. And he put out the invite on Sunday morning. Now, the guys are going to be back in. They were in Miami yesterday. and then they're going to be chartered to D.C. today. They'll do the State of the Union thing and then I think that they will do a formal kind of event and ceremony tomorrow is I believe what the plan is. But the women, of course, were also invited. Now, they have turned down the invitation to the State of the Union. And that's fine. Not a big deal. Very different circumstances. let's not make something political that isn't some people are out there saying ah the women standing up to trump after his misogynistic remarks no no it's a it's a very different circumstance first off the women handled this invitation with grace usa hockey writing in a statement we sincere we are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal winning u.s women's hockey team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the games the athletes are unable to participate spokesperson adding they were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgement what more can you ask for that's a great statement now you also have women in this case who are college athletes they have missed a bunch of games many of them are going back and have been back on their campus they're scattered all over the country they're not like professional athletes who are all in one place right now like the men who were hanging out in Miami last night celebrating are back. They're pros. They're in the NHL. They have time. They can stop by tonight. They can have their celebration tomorrow, and then they get back to business. That's not the case with the women. It's different. So if you want to look at this and be like, they're anti-Trump. They don't know what they're doing. No, that's not the case. If you want to look at it from the other side and be like, they stuck it to Trump. Good for them. no that's not the case either it's just purely logistical as to why they're not going tonight now would it be great if they could be there as well yeah absolutely and trump did the right thing he invited both of them but some people are using you know his comments from the other day on the phone when he was like hey don't forget guys i got to invite the girls too or they're gonna impeach me as some type of you know obnoxious comment towards the women no that's just Trump doing his comedy routine. That's it. That's all it was. And this is what it sounded like on the phone call the other day. It would really be cool, and we'll do the White House the next day. We'll just have some fun. We have medals for you guys. And we have to, I must tell you, we're going to have to bring the woman's team. You do know that. Absolutely. Two for two. I do believe I probably would be impeached, okay? But anyway, if you could work that out i would be honored to have you all introduce you to the i got it boss i got it okay you got it i'm on it so i you know that's trump being trump okay that's not like oh you know i got to invite the girls if not they're going to impeach me that's just that's just him doing his thing that's all it is john one of the things of his endearment is if you're in his company you're in you know you're in and everybody else is out even if it's just for a little chide It's us guys here. We're all here. It's you and me. Yes, exactly right. That's exactly what this was last night. And that's all it's going to be tonight at the State of the Union. I think it's going to be a great moment. I hope it's the most unifying moment that we have tonight during the State of the Union. I don't know what would top it. But I hope that there is not a single person sitting down tonight during the State of the Union when Team USA men's ice hockey gets introduced as the gold medal winners. If we can't all stand up and cheer for that, I don't know what it's going to take to get people to get up and give a round of applause for a group like this. You know that the policies are not going to get, you know, round of applause across the board, although certain policies should. Team USA winning a gold? Come on. Let's all get up. Let's show our appreciation. Let's give a nice round of applause. And then you can go back to sitting there with scowls on your faces. OK, that's that's what I'm hopeful for. But the women not being there tonight is also not a knock on the women. There was nothing political about their statement. They're in completely different circumstances and they can't all get there for tonight. But I do hope they go to the White House and they get to celebrate their gold medal, just like the men will be doing tonight and tomorrow. That's that's my sincere hope, because both teams do absolutely deserve it. Now, on the sports front, last night, Mark and I were texting about this. You had the Kansas Jayhawks in a big Monday matchup beating the fifth-ranked Houston Cougars 69-56. In a game where KU was down early, they pull back. They end up pulling away in the second half as the game goes along. And they give Houston its third straight loss. First time Houston had lost three in a row since 2017. and for KU after losing on Saturday to Cincinnati they were on the verge if they had lost this game of dropping two straight games at Allen Fieldhouse for the first time since the 88-89 season that did not happen and then you also would have had had they lost last night Bill Self losing his first home game on a big Monday inside of Allen Fieldhouse in his career that did not happen either is what he is now 40 and 0 at home and 41 and 0 in big monday games and also if kelvin sampson had beat self he would have been the first coach to ever beat self twice at allen field house which is an insane stat that is an unbelievable stat so none of those things happened because k you came out trey white had himself a great game season high 23 points for number 14 kansas they bounced back from that brutal loss to cincinnati to beat number five Houston on Monday night by a final score of 69 to 56. Now after the game Kelvin Sampson said something head coach of Houston that is getting way overblown. Kelvin Sampson said basically you don't know what Kansas team is going to show up and by the way he's right. He's right. Darren Peterson was then asked about that after the game. Here was Kelvin Sampson the head coach of the Houston Cougars, followed by the comments of Darren Peterson, KU's freshman star. Kansas is one of those teams that you just never know, but they're pretty good. So we're pretty good too. Maybe not tonight, but we're pretty good. Okay. Is that an unreasonable statement from Kelvin Sampson? You just never know. Yeah. We watched KU get boat raced out of the building by Cincinnati two days ago, and now they come back and get a top five win over Houston. You just never know. That's a correct assessment by Kelvin Sampson. Now, Darren Peterson, KU star freshman, gets asked about that statement from Kelvin Sampson. Here's what that sounds like. What do you mean by Kansas? You never know what that means. That's what Houston's coach said. He said, Kansas, you just never know. Dang. I don't like that. Peterson says, dang, I don't like that. Well, dude, part of the reason we never know is because we don't know if you're playing. okay it's really that simple there was one point where it looked like he was maybe cramping up a little bit and he kind of wanted to come out and self's like no stay in stay in and he kind of played through it i saw i saw that it was in the second half and that clip has gone viral since last night now here's the thing though all right i think that some people are overblowing that like peterson wanted to check himself out of the game i think that self was just like get your tush back on defense man I don't want to hear it I don't want to hear from you I don't want any points to the bench get yourself back on defense and yes he may have played through it there Mark and good for Bill Self good for Bill Self man Bill Self had been getting treated like a JV high school coach here by the star player I don't even think it's Darren I think it's some of his handlers and in the end Bill Self should be able to say I'm a hall of famer I'm one of the best to ever do it and you know what i'm gonna coach you up man that's what we're gonna do here he's like we don't want to talk about this in the postgame press conference today we're playing the whole game we're playing the whole game we're getting a top five win let's go baby let's go so k.u's now 11 and 4 in the big 12 tied with houston but they're both two games back of arizona so arizona is in the driver's seat for a regular season title but k.u goes to arizona this weekend for a matchup that could tighten those standings in the last couple of weeks so we'll have to see how it plays out. Got kids getting beat up at Alathe Northwest and now you have charges that are also being filed. Officers were informed that a protest had escalated into a physical disturbance at Alathe Northwest on Friday afternoon and as a result of the investigation by Alathe PD, a juvenile male was taken into custody. So we sat here yesterday on this show for four hours and pointed out that nobody in Kansas City media had talked about the story. There was not a TV report. There was not a Kansas City Star article. I know. I mean, that would have been funny anyway. It would have been funnier if there was a Star article, to be honest. And obviously there was not. But after the Alatheh police put out this statement yesterday, they had no choice but to cover it. Right? I mean, they cover these protests. You had local TV stations at the Olathe City Hall a couple of weeks back when Olathe West and Olathe North came together for a protest in front of City Hall And you know they interviewing these kids like they Marco Rubio Give it up. But now you have a protest that leads to actual violence. There was a ton of traction and conversation around this over the weekend. You could recognize the landmarks in Olathe, like the southeast corner of college and lone elm where you've got the uh the church there everyone knew where it was yet it wasn't touched but then the pd get involved and they have to cover it so how is this covered kansas city star headline here one arrested after altercation among student protesters adalathe high school now you read this whole story i won't bore you with it But at no point do you really know who assaulted who. And the group that ends up getting beaten and bruised is the one who is protesting the anti-ice protest peacefully on the southeast corner of college in Lone Elm. You just see, hey, yeah, you know, there was a disturbance and two sides got into a fight and, you know, somebody ended up getting taken into custody. And boy, that's a shame. But it never tells you in this entire story in the Kansas City Star. Which side was violent. Now, it would seem to me that if you care about journalism and you've seen the videos and it's very much white and black, you would share that information. instead you just get the cookie cutter here's what the police report said but of course their readers will fill in the blank well yeah exactly right they'll come to the opposite conclusion that's the whole thing what we didn't say yes exactly they'll look at this and say ah must be a bunch of you know MAGA crazies beating up the peaceful anti-ice protesters and it's like no that's not what happened here in fact it was the opposite and we have the father of the kid who was beat up coming into studio in about 15 minutes here on the show 20 minutes bogdan zolovsky is going to be here on kcmo talk radio i was practicing his name all night so i i want to make sure i get it right for him he's coming to studio 805 right here on kcmo so at no point does anything in the article note hey here's who was at fault and here's what actually happened here's what the videos on social media are very much clearly showing but nope can't can't do it can't go there i don't know why but you know that's that's how it was covered in the star now i've got to give channel 41 credit they sat down with the father last night and actually did an interview and talked to him and got his input on what exactly happened here. But you're not getting much from anybody else. The only issue I have with 41 is how they introduced the story last night. And here's what that sounded like. Students protesting ICE operations walked out of class on Friday at Olathe Northwest High School and some students waving Trump flags gathered here on the opposite side of the street. Students ended up here off school property and a fight broke out between students protesting ICE and those supporting the federal agency. Okay, a fight didn't break out. You had a couple of kids with their little flags, their Trump flags on the southeast corner of the street. You had the northeast corner littered with a bunch of anti-ICE protesters. The anti-ICE protesters crossed the street to the southeast corner and they're outnumbering these guys like, you know 50 to 1 and then they start attacking these guys there was no altercation that ensued it wasn't a fight that broke out that's that's not these guys are running for their lot they're literally running across college not across college boulevard but along college boulevard on that southeast corner as they're getting chased with flagpoles by fellow students that's not a fight breaking out right that's one side which has power in numbers seeking physical altercation that's what that was at alathe northwest so i appreciate 41 talking to the father but that's that's a total misrepresentation of what actually unfolded outside of alathe northwest on friday afternoon channel nine student-led protest in alathe escalates into physical altercation one taken into custody channel 9 simply like the Kansas City Star noting here that police said they stabilized the incident after the protest escalated while it's not exactly clear how the situation unfolded police said the protest resulted in aggravated battery I don't know it's pretty clear it's on video I mean we're not really in a he said she said situation right now i'm looking at video that millions of other people around the country have seen because it's gone viral on social media and then you have the statement here uh let's see alathe northwest principal chris zuck sent a letter to families after the incident he said the walkout was not sponsored or organized by the school or its staff staff members do not participate in these student organized walkouts or protests but they do observe from a distance to ensure student safety well they fell miserably at that on friday didn't they which goes to show you you have such a lack of respect for the administrators and the teachers involved in this and that's where i think this thing's gotten totally out of control in these schools all over johnson county and you know i know this has happened also in lee summit and other places around kansas city but it does feel like it's been worse on the kansas side of the state line the word teflon comes to mind listening to all that none of that stuff sticks to them oh no we didn't sanction that no not us big time there is a lot of cya going on here by the school district the superintendent brent yeager sent out a letter yesterday and he was doing a lot of cya himself as well saying as affirmed by the united states supreme court students do not quote shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate interesting I found out. Yes. He says here, when students choose to participate in peaceful demonstrations of any kind, we are required to operate within those legal parameters. This is not an endorsement of any viewpoint, but an adherence to the law. We want to reiterate that these walkouts were entirely student led and were not organized, sponsored or endorsed by our staff, schools or district. As a public school system and public school educators, we remain politically neutral when serving in these capacities our role is to provide a safe learning environment not to take positions on political or social issues really talk to parents right now in school districts and schools all across whether it's olathe johnson county or the metro anyone really buying that right now you just have to turn our beer label t-shirts if you had a budweiser label teach turn that around inside out mister you're not wearing that to school today yep my first amendment right sir yeah this is such a lame excuse of why this happened from the administrators such a lame excuse and it reminds me of the end of goodfellas when ed mcmahon's interviewing karen hill and he says to her drop drop the babe in the woods routine and brent yeager is using the babe in the woods routine here don't look at me i just you know we're just going by the supreme court the supreme court we got to follow their rules i mean you know the kids got to do what the kids got to do we're not sanctioning or endorsing anything whatsoever we're just here to make sure everybody stays safe well you failed at that too way to go you failed at that one as well 913-408-7957 they have completely lost the plot okay the kids clearly sense weakness they smell weakness i don't know if they have support from inside the school building from teachers or administrators i'm not saying that's the case but clearly what's going on here is they view this as at the very least a way to get out of class let's be honest and maybe there are some parents that are okay with that i mean i talked to somebody who spoke to the administrators yesterday in alathe and And what they said is that, you know, yes, the kids lose hours for skipping school, but some parents have actually signed off on them missing class for the protests. So I get that's the case as well. And they can't control the parents in that situation. So I don't deny that there's some of that going on when it comes to the activism that appears to be alive and well, which is, you know, too bad. But still, there's more that these schools can be doing than they're letting on. there's no doubt in my mind there's more to it than what they're letting on 913-408-795-7 steve is in kansas on kcmo what's up steve oh you there pete i'm i'm here steve what's happening okay all right um uh i have to sit here thinking pete what rights do uh minor children have you know uh i don't remember having any rights like they can't own a gun they can't go and vote they're minor children they don't have any rights. I remember telling my father about my rights one time. The only right I got was the back of his right hand. You know? These kids don't have rights to do this, and they definitely don't have the right to go out and attack somebody. Well, yeah, they certainly don't. That's why you got someone in custody. You know, that's a good point. I'm not going to sit here and play attorney on the air, but you're making a whole lot of sense to me, and it does feel like a total CYA cop-out moment from administrators in Olathe to hide behind the Supreme Court and all we can do is make sure that everything's going well and safely and have oversight. Well, you didn't even do that well on Friday at Alathe Northwest. Hey, Pete, I want to say this. That kid had a lot of courage to go out there and stand there because he risked being ostracized by his peers. That's a very brave young man. And if this father's got the crowdfunding, I hope he puts it out there because that kid deserves a reward. I'd like to stick a little something in his college front or whatever he's got. Thanks for taking my call, Pete. Well, that's very nice of you, Steve. Such a nice man. I think that he is certainly brave, much braver than those who just follow the crowd. But, you know, you do what you want with your money. I'll just leave it at that, okay? You do what you want. What I think, though, is that I wish that if we looked at our schools and we said how do we actually encourage debate how do we encourage conversation we do it in ways that aren't about walking out of a classroom in the middle of the day to stand on a street corner which let's be honest there's not a lot of traffic midday at college and lone elm and wave signs and uh you know yell and honk at cars and do things like that that's not what it's about it's not what it should be about what about having just robust debate right what about that like actually exchanging ideas and letting the marketplace of ideas actually win out and letting people try to convince their peers that you know maybe they're seeing things what they perceive to be the wrong way that's healthy not being like oh you know we got the kids out of the street corner hope everyone's okay got to just do our job to make sure everyone's hanging in there all right like no what if we bring that back john there's an idea it's almost as if the goal is to just tell them what to think and not how to think exactly you know i i'm sure many of you listening or some of you listening were in school during you know vietnam um i was in high school during the war on terror and obviously that got a lot of blowback after a short period of time everybody was on board with afghanistan then Iraq came and you know that went downhill very quickly there was not a single walkout against George W. Bush and the war in Iraq and there was nothing at area schools looking back on my time in high school not none of it that was not happening I mean yeah there might be conversation here or there there were kids who were more into politics than others who might debate it or talk about it but you know there was none of that going on not for a second and that's why what's going on right now just doesn't feel organic to me it doesn't feel natural it doesn't feel like our kids are just so politically motivated today they're just out there and they want to make sure their voices are heard now maybe social media is part of it because social media shrinks the world and things can spread much more quickly today than they would have even 15, 20 years ago. But man, this is not something that to me just feels truly organic led by kids. Kids just saying, we're doing this, no ifs, ands, or buts. And there's not a single person, there's not a single adult in that building who's not doing a wink, wink, nod, nod, great idea, we got your back. I just, I don't buy it. I just don't buy it. 913-408-7957 is the text line in the studio line on kcmo talk radio let's go to john as we approach the top of the hour what's up john hey p i really freaking love your show i i listen to it every morning i'm a truck driver but um but uh-oh okay no my son goes to a lake no there's No, but. It's all good. My son goes to Northwest and he's very, very conservative. And he's like, dad, I want to make signs and I want to troll these people while they're protesting. I'm like, nope, no, you are not going to protest them. He's like, why? I said, because it's freaking dangerous. I said, do you go out there? And I told him, I said, you're going to be grounded for a month if you go out there and protest. It not because I want to quench his voice or silence him but it because I know how evil these people are and how violent they can be So your son well listen I mean you the dad Your son wanted to protest the protesters like what happened last week and you said to him, was he friends with these kids that did it, do you know, or no? Dude, literally they're just trying to skip class. That's all it is. That's all they're doing. It's an excuse to skip class, but I know if there's influencers in there, people who can kind of turn the narrative, they're going to turn violent. They're going to turn violent. And that's what I warned them against. And I told them, I said, no, I don't want you getting hurt. Your job is to go to school. Your job is to go get an education. You go do that. If not, you're grounded. And he's like, Dad, but I've got really freaking hilarious signs. Well, you know, I respect that decision, Jonathan, as a father. And I'll give you a good pat on the back. Good work, man. I mean, listen, clearly in hindsight, you were right. Not that you needed something like this to happen to prove you were right, but you were right. You know, you made the right call and you're right. That's what schools intended to be. You go there. You're supposed to just learn what to do in the classroom and then go home and you can do all the political activism on the left and the right. You want to outside of school. Yeah. You know, and the funny thing is, like when you and I were in high school, we didn't have to deal with this stuff. Yeah. yeah like these kids they have so much put on them now that we didn't have to deal with and it's like how do as parents how do we deal with that it's really confusing and it's frustrating it's gotta be tough it's gotta be tough jonathan thank you brother hey love your show thanks man that's you know my kids are obviously much younger but it is not a phase or a time that i am looking forward to because the world is only getting crazier it's not getting less crazy all right we just got done uh with the father of the student who was attacked at olathe northwest during the protest to the anti-ice protest that happened on friday that now has resulted in one students being taken into custody bogdan zaslavsky was here in studio on kcmo and i kept saying to him i said sir i'm sorry but uh i said sir sir i said sir i'm sorry i keep butchering your last name he goes i've been doing it my whole life for 50 years i said all right good i don't feel as bad because i've been you know trying to pronounce his name since last night so he was great about it uh but appreciate him coming in the studio mark you're on kcmo good morning good morning i'm fired up i'm so when i i had no clue about this i just getting ready to go in the hospital to see my mom who's not doing well, and I heard this garbage. Thank goodness for this Bogdan's son. And what's irritating is we've allowed this to go on. This principle needs to be bombarded with a litany of people that want to come up there that he'd be intimidated if it was me. I'm just— Well, no one—we need to drop the violence and intimidation. That's not really the answer here, Mark. I know you're fired up, big dog, but that's not the answer. Can I tell you how we handled the situation? I mean, yeah, sure. Go ahead. All right. My son, we moved. My brother was getting picked on at school, and it was by a bunch of people. And my dad went up to the principal, and he said, I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. You're either going to stop this or I'm going to take care of it. So he didn't. My dad took my brother down. My dad was a boxer. He took him down to Argentine community house. He taught him how to fight. And when we were sitting at breakfast, he goes, there's the first one. And he said, go get him. My son, my brother took off. My dad sent me after the bigger boys, and he got my cousins to go after the others. And there was some stuff. I'm just telling you what happened. This is my life. What year was that, Mark? It was 1977. But I'm just telling you, let me just tell you this, Pete. The point I'm getting is we've allowed this. I was into lifting weights, hot rods, and working and going to school, and we were built on a foundation of those principles, hard work. Not everybody gets a trophy. We've allowed this to grow into what it is. And that gives you a bunch of people across the street, and then it's like, oh, they've got a lot of people over there too, so I don't think I'm going to mess with them. Not that we're saying, hey, we're going to throw down, but I feel sorry for that kid. He should have organized, got a bunch of people, and then it's like, I don't know. They look pretty fortified, too. I think we'll just sit here and spout our views. That's my point. I get it. I get it, Mark. You're fired up. I love the passion, buddy. Let's go to Rick in Lafayette County. What's up, Rick? Hey, good morning, Pete. I have to know for a fact that the kids in the middle schools, at least at Lee Summit, aren't allowed to leave the building. The building doors are locked from the time school starts until school is let out. And you have to ring to get in and you have to have somebody buzz you to get out. And the school administrators had to have let these kids out of the school building. You can't even go pick a kid up at school unless you've made prior arrangements or you're the parent or you're on the list at the principal's office. Yeah. All kind of stuff. Now, how can they not be responsible when they just let them walk out of the school? Well, my understanding, good question, and this is what I got on background before we went on the air, is that he was not in school because I guess if you have a job or whatever, you're allowed out at a certain point in the day, and you kind of qualify for those hours so you can leave school early, and that is allowed when you're a senior in high school. Shouldn't be allowed for middle school, which to your point isn't allowed. But, you know, for a senior in high school, I can understand it. With all due respect to Savannah Guthrie, my simple question is, what took you so long? We are on day 24 of Nancy Guthrie missing. And Savannah Guthrie has put up an Instagram post just here in the last less than an hour ago. This was 30 minutes ago. Saying that her family was offering a reward of up to $1 million for any information that would lead to the recovery of her missing mother. By the way, that's the number I gave last week on Ask Mundo Anything. Someone asked, how much would you put up if you're Savannah Guthrie to find your mother? And I said a million, which, by the way, I got roasted for on the text line. people are like you say anything at whatever it takes now i like i get it that's that's the answer obviously but that's kind of where my mind went in terms of starting the bidding like right out of the gates here's a million bucks it's a big round sexy number you throw out there seven figures one million dollars like that's where you start it yes the obvious answer is whatever it takes but a million sounds like a big round number you throw out there and that's what savannah did this morning the problem is she did it like 23 days after she should have done it you're three and a half weeks into your 84 year old mother being missing you're worth according to reports and i know this stuff is always it ebbs and flows they say she makes eight million a year i don't know if that's true or not usually that's agents kind of drumming up and pumping up those numbers a little bit so i don't know what's true and what's not point is obviously she's worth many millions she's done very well for herself she makes a ton of money the million dollar number should have come out three plus weeks ago from savannah guthrie on day 24 all right time to get some skin in the game here 23 hours yes took her 24 days instead of 24 hours that's exactly right so now she's offering up a million dollars for any information that would lead to the recovery of her missing mother who vanished from her Arizona home after last being seen entering it the night of January 31st. Guthrie acknowledged that her 84 year old mother who is believed to have been abducted may not be alive given the time that has passed her age and her medical issues. Savannah saying in the post that she may already be gone. Well guess what? She I don't know for sure. We don't really know but i know that on the morning of february 1 when you found her missing she may not have been gone gone and that's when if you're savannah guthrie you get out there and you use every lever that you can you use the political levers you use the social media levers and yes you use the monetary levers money can solve your problems but you know what there is something to be said for money help helping to alleviate those problems let's not kid ourselves here all right and if you're savannah guthrie and you're one of the most recognizable faces in media and yes you also happen to sit on not that she's like you know obscenely wealthy but you're well off you're well to do and the minute that this story breaks you are not using the monetary leverage that you have to try to find your mother will never make any sense to me and i'm not sure if we're going to know the why behind any of this like is savannah guthrie at some point when the dust settles on this story whatever the outcome is is she going to sit down and explain any of this to anybody because there are so many questions right now you know it's almost like she would have been better off not doing this and just taking the stance of nope i'm trusting the law enforcement folks they've got the rewards out there we don't want to get involved but now to go to the million dollar mark three weeks after the fact this looks even worse than in if you never did it because if you never did it at least you could say you were standing on some principle of letting local and federal officials create whatever you want the reward to be and staying out of it but the minute last week we found out that there was an anonymous one hundred thousand dollar donation to up the reward to like 202 grand or something like that i was like okay that's kind of weird so savannah guthrie's family just let some random person donate a hundred grand when she's sitting on a mountain of money tens of millions of dollars according to the reports and some random person says here's a hundred thousand dollars for savannah guthrie's charity to try to find her mother and savannah hasn't put in a dime as far as we knew until this morning when she says here's a million bucks wow this is just so weird i don't it's just weird john i just don't get it man well it's like you say there's so many questions that kind of you know amber alerts come up or the silver alerts where you're missing someone who's kind of wandered off. Oh, they found them safe. Well, I'm like, kind of like to know what happened. You know, I hope they got their medicine, et cetera. But when you get Alzheimer's people, for instance, if you're taking care of someone, it's suggested you paint the walls, the doors the same color. They'll see the door and they'll walk out and think, I've got to go to work. Yeah. And they wander off. And so I'm always curious what happens, if there's any way that you can impart some safety information to others based on that incident. Yeah, that's a great point. On the text line, Pete, do you get taxed on reward money? The answer is yes. The answer is yes, you will get taxed on reward money. It's like if you win on The Price is Right or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. I'll never forget, the first time I really started to understand tax rates was when, oh, what was his name? The first guy to win a million dollars with Regis on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. I think his name was John Carpenter. he won a million bucks first guy to do it remember he he phoned a friend on his million dollar question he phoned his father to tell him he was going to win a million bucks if you remember that okay yeah it's probably 25 years ago give or take i was probably 12 something like that and i remember watching it live with my family watching this guy john carpenter be the first guy to win a million bucks and you know regis doing his whole shtick it was a great moment he phoned a friend with his final question he phoned his dad to tell him he was going to win a million bucks that was it was really cool you couldn't script it and I remember my dad saying to me like hey you know he's only going to get like 640 grand or something I'm like what do you mean it's a who wants to be a millionaire won a million bucks well you know taxes like you know federal income taxes and things like that you win a million bucks 35 36 37 he's going to get you know whatever it is 600 $650,000. And I remember thinking, wow, what a screwed job that is. That was my first understanding of tax rates and being like, wait, this guy went a million bucks, but he's only getting like 600 some odd grand. So yes, if you're listening right now and you know anything about Nancy Guthrie's whereabouts, since I know we have people streaming on the KCMO Talk Radio app all over the world and all over the country, yes, you will pay some money to the federal government. So there you go. It's the biggest game on the planet, and nobody breaks it down like Jim Rome. Super Bowl run. Who do you think will be the last one standing this year? Fearless debate and the best callers in sports. I'll tell you what you say. Defense wins Super Bowl. That defense absolutely is Super Bowl caliber. Quarterbacking sure as hell wasn't. He's the spitfire of sports smack. A lot to get to, and I'm not sure you're going to like all of it. Honestly, I don't even care if you like all of it or not. I have a job to do. 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