One of our readers Mike O’Gorman has written today on the President’s speech this morning to students across the country on his personal blog [Are Your Children Socialists Now?]. Mike has gathered responses from several schools and districts regarding how they addressed the availability of the Presidents remarks to students.
I am pleased to present his thoughts on the subject as a Guest Commentary.
Are Your Children Socialists Now?
By Mike O’Gorman
So today was the big day everyone. Today was Obama indoctrination day for schools across America, and where as some schools refrained from showing their students the Obama address many others did not.
I spent most of the day working so I couldn’t get on the phone and talk to the schools very much, but the information I did collect this afternoon was very helpful. I called schools in the Fountain Valley School district, including FVHS, EHS, and HBHS. Here are the results:
I called up the Fountain Valley School District and I spoke with the Superintendent’s Office where I was informed by a very nice woman on the phone that the Superintendent had a meeting with the principals and staff where it was made clear that this was a principal/teacher discretion issue. That they were allowed to make up their own minds on whether or not their students were allowed to watch Obama give the address in class. It was also made clear in the meeting that if parents did not want their students to watch the address that an alternative activity would be offered. That alternate activity was to go to the library.
Courrages Elementary School gave me a very simple clean cut answer as to whether or not their students saw the address in class today. That answer was no, the students did not see the address. But Courrages was not alone in that decision as Moiola Elementary School and Newland Elementary School also refrained from showing the address to students.
Cox Elementary and Gisler Elementary informed me that the Obama address was a teacher’s discretion issue, and that some children did get to watch in class. Oka Elementary told me that children were allowed to watch the address in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes, but that the principal had a meeting with teachers and staff making it clear that it was up to the teacher’s discretion.
Plaven Elementary gave me a very straight up ‘yes’ answer. They said nothing about teacher discretion or a principal meeting (which doesn’t mean it didn’t happen), just told me that ‘yes’ the students were indeed allowed to watch the address.
I even called Tamura Elementary school but no one was available to pick up the phone.
High Schools were a different matter. When I called Fountain Valley High School I was told by the Secretary that she believed the address was shown, but directed me to the principal’s office. I was advised there that yes the students were allowed to see the address at teacher’s discretion. Whether or not the superintendent at the Huntington Beach Unified High School District (HBUHSD) had a meeting with the high schools was unknown by the person I talked to. She took my number down and told me they would get back to me with more details.
Edison High School’s secretary was a substitute today and had no clear idea if the students were allowed to watch and she directed me to the principal who was not available to answer any questions, so I left a message with my number and hope to hear back by tomorrow.
No one at Huntington Beach High School was available to answer my call.
So out of all the schools I got 3 no, 5 yes, 1 unknown, and 2 no answers.
I believe that this was a good turn out to be honest. It seems like the districts in this area made it less of a district or superintendent concern and made it into a teacher discretion issue. Which is fine by me, at least there were no excuses like, “the internet is down†or the fear of reprisal from parents who have “political sensitivitiesâ€.
So why then did Dr. Hubbard, superintendent from the Newport-Mesa Unified School District bar his entire district from watching the address? The address was not only viewable on the internet but was broadcasted live on C-SPAN as well. So why use the excuse that since his district is having “internet access†troubles he can’t show the address?
I find it hard to believe that every school in Dr. Hubbard’s district had this internet issue. I think it did have more to do with “political sensitivities†than anything else, mainly his own political sensitivities.
I believe more light needs to be shed on this NMUSD issue. I would like to see if I can talk to Dr. Hubbard soon, but it may be hard to get in contact with him. And by the time I do it may be too late, and the story will have already fizzled out. And I’m certainly not going to turn this issue into a local political crusade to demonize or make anyone look terribly bad. I just want to know the truth. So I’m going to call NMUSD and see if I can speak to Dr. Hubbard briefly just to get a little more insight on what’s really going on.
Thank you to everyone who has been following this story. I came out with this story last week and since then I have received nothing but support and followers from like minded individuals who share my sense of honesty and truth. The reason I brought this issue to everyone’s attention was because I believed that Dr. Hubbard turned this positive message from the president into a political issue when I really believe it shouldn’t have been.
Here are the links to Mike’s other posts on this topic.
http://renosblog-reno.blogspot.com/2009/09/newport-mesa-usd-superintendent-will.html
http://renosblog-reno.blogspot.com/2009/09/obama-school-address-update.html
http://renosblog-reno.blogspot.com/2009/09/obama-nator-ii-indoctrination-day.html