Pensacola News Journal
"During the address, Obama will speak about persisting and succeeding in school, and challenge students to work hard, set educational goals and take responsibility for their learning, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
All students, teachers and school workers are invited to watch the historic moment, which will occur during school hours.
But by and large, students in Escambia and Santa Rosa county public schools will not be watching.
We do not let teachers just watch television. Its going to have to fit with what they're teaching the children, said Escambia Superintendent Malcolm Thomas. in a district where our students struggle. We have bell-to-bell instruction, and we dont want to waste a single minute."
The petition I started this Morning.
We the undersigned feel that not allowing school-age children to watch the President's message to them sends an inappropriate message to our children. One that assumes they are not capable of making their own choices, and that the messages that you (already established conservative school officials) are the only ones that know the "Truth", and that your version of the truth is all they need to know.
We feel that the very act of behaving this way is propaganda cast upon the children that trust you to give them ALL the information they need to know to nourish their ability to learn to think critically, and behave with respect towards those that don't think like we do. It is also a decidedly anti-establishment, and anti-democratic message with possible racist undertones attached to it.
We feel that our children should have the opportunity to partake in this historical event, and that it is much much more than "Just letting our teachers and students watch TV". Your students are allowed to watch noneducational videos as rewards, or not allowed to watch them as punishment. Yet, this, a historical live event by the President of this great country in which we live is being cut from the school's itinerary on Tuesday morning.
We want children everywhere to take part in this event, and if your policy isn't changed, we reserve the right to withhold our children from school on Tuesday, Sept. 8th, so they can watch the President's message from home, and may follow that act with other forms of retaliation.