You may have read my previous diary regarding the passing of my girlfriend's mother, last September. Well, that very same girlfriend is a teacher in Parker, CO. Parker is one of the larger towns in Douglas County, a GOP stronghold adjacent to the comparatively liberal city of Denver.
The school has officially banned showing of the Presidential "Stay in School" speech on Tuesday. The principal seems to have caved to the nutbar Douglas County parents who think the president will be "indoctrinating" their children into socialism or something.
I'll begin with the email he sent out to the faculty of the school and the letter that went home to students.
Dear Staff,
As you are aware, the President will be addressing school children on Tuesday, September 8th at 10:00 AM. I have decided not to do a school wide assembly nor do I want individual classrooms to show this event. The district has given principals direction on how to proceed with this situation. If a school wants to show the "streamed" speech, the school will have to send a letter home with an "opt out" option. The school would also have to provide an alternative activity for those students. ITS has informed us that only 50 computers across the district would be able to "stream' this live. At this time, the district is not aware of any TV station broadcasting the speech. Given the restrictive access to the speech and the controversial nature of the situation, this is why I have chosen not to show it. Additionally, the time put in to providing an alternative activity, preparing the school for an assembly, and the "phone calls" and "emails" we would have to deal with, I would rather spend that energy doing what we are already doing.
I have attached the letter going home today so you can see the response to the community.
The lack of a school-wide assembly, which I remember attending back in 1988, for President Reagan, when I was a nine-year-old fourth-grader, is the first problem. Despite the fact that the area in which I grew up was staunchly Democratic, no one called the school district to complain. No one held protests or wrote letters to the editor. The President was speaking and people gave him the respect he deserved, despite the fact that he was supporting policies with which they disagreed. We sat there and watch Reagan tell us that taxes were bad and guns were good. He mentioned not doing drugs, but for the most part, he was not using his authority to convince kids to stay in school and be good citizens. He wanted them to be good Republicans. That's called indoctrination.
Douglas County School district consists of 48 elementary schools, 9 middle schools, and 9 high schools. Of those 66 schools, they have only 50 computers capable of streaming an internet video. I'm not sure what that says about the school district, but it's not cool. Now, Douglas County did not pass it's mill levy this past election cycle, so they have been struggling with budget cuts. Link Still, the district is either woefully inadequate or has no idea how to stream a video. Either is unacceptable.
The principal also sent home the following letter:
Dear Pioneer Community,
As many of you are aware, the President of the United States will be addressing school children on Tuesday, September 8th at 10:00 AM. The district, as well as Pioneer Elementary, has received many emails and phone calls about this event. In the best interest of all involved, Pioneer will not broadcast the speech into classrooms or have a school-wide assembly.
According to US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, the purpose of the address from President Obama is to challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning. At Pioneer, all staff sends this message to students on a daily basis. Given the current state of the country, it is my opinion that parents need to address this message from the president in their own homes and to help their children make sense of the information in a way that aligns with the values of the child’s family.
I know that no matter what decision I make regarding this event, there will be some that will not agree. With this said, my hope is that you support my efforts to respect the values of each person and family in our community.
Thank you in advance for your understanding. (emphasis mine)
There you have it. Parents complained and the school caved. The parents who called and emailed to complain about the speech are not going to address the content in the home. I'm willing to venture that these same parents are unwilling to expose their children to anything that may challenge their belief structures. Dem or GOP, liberal or conservative, religious or not, it is always important to examine everything, especially one's own beliefs. It is a school's job to facilitate these learning explorations. It is also the school's job to tell parents to either shut up or home school.
It appears that the Denver Post has been on both sides of the field on this topic:
The editorial board posted a letter telling parents to "get a grip."
It's not as if he's shaking down kids to get milk money for campaign donations or asking the students to lobby their parents for his health care reform.
The 15- to 20-minute speech is said to be about personal responsibility, about persisting and succeeding in school.
On the other hand, The Post is linking to contributions like these:
In a virtually unprecedented action, Douglas County School District (DCSD) Officials altered and rewrote a key document to greatly expand the number of impressionable children exposed to the direct influence of President Obama on September 8, 2009.
...
It provides for an alternative activity if a parent doesn't want their child to hear a guest speaker or if a signed permission form is not returned to the school, i.e. an "Opt In" form. Because of this, a parent doesn't have to do anything to stop their child from seeing the Obama Address.
Later on the very same day, DCSD Officials made the unusual decision to alter the posted, approved form and change the form language so that a parent must now print out the form, sign it and return it to the child's school, or their child will be required to be influenced by the Obama Address. This altered form is called the " Presidential Address Permission Form - Opt Out". You can see the altered form here.
So, now you have to sign a piece of paper to opt out, when you didn't before. So, Mike Robinson, who doesn't have any school-age children (he was born in 1947), is complaining that some parents who think this issue is important enough to get ornery about it don't want to lift a pen.
Douglas County parents and others, you can reach the school district offices at 303-387-0100, if you care to voice your opinion.