Back-to-school speech spurs robocalls to parents

[babylonsister]

Back-to-school speech spurs robocalls to parents
By Kim Hart - 09/04/09 02:19 PM ET


The controversy over President Obama’s back-to-school speech has moved to the phone lines.

School districts around the country are ringing parents with robocalls to inform them of the speech and give them the opportunity to prevent their children from hearing it. Obama plans to give a motivational speech Tuesday from an Arlington, Va., high school.

The announcement of the speech sparked complaints from some conservatives who said the president is using the platform to “indoctrinate” students and that the related activities and materials provided to schools by the Department of Education are designed to solicit support for the president. White House officials have said the speech is not policy oriented but rather a way to encourage kids to study hard and stay in school.

Some parents have expressed their surprise at receiving the calls, which are often reserved for notifying parents of school closures or emergencies.

For example, the Cherry Creek School District in an affluent suburb of Denver, Colo., initiated calls to parents Thursday indicating the speech would be shown on a class-by-class basis and asking parents to call the school if they did not want their children to watch the speech.

Sonya Unrein, whose daughter attends high school in the district mentioned the call on the microblogging site Twitter. She said she is perplexed by the controversy surrounding the speech.

“If the president were giving his health care speech to school kids, there might be a reason to think that he was using a platform for political purposes,” she wrote in an email. “But my understanding is that he plans to talk about achievement and studying and all the things we as a society purport to value. How can kids understand the issues of our times if we shield them from experience?”

more...

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/57365-back-to-school-speech-spurs-robocalls-to-parents

[Thrill]

1. This is some stupid shit

.

[babylonsister]

2. Sure is. nt

[emdee]

18. I want to recommend your post. nt

nt

[Cirque du So-What]

3. This tactic will surely bite the conservatives in the ass

If parents act like sheeple and actually consider keeping their children out of school on that day, won't that raise a lot of questions in the children's minds? Possibly initiate some conversation about why the President is being vilified? It's possible that the children will wind up being the more mature members of their households.

[Cha]

13. You never know..asshole moves like this by the dittohead parents

have a possibility of The Law of Unintended Consequences.

[Vasmosn]

4. Beaufort County

I teach high school and had planned to show my students the speech. This is the text of the email I got from our county office:

Most of you are probably aware that President Obama is to make a speech to all school children on Sept 8, 2009. We have received many phone calls at central services regarding this address. We are asking that you use the following procedures at each school when and if the address is shown to your students:

1. Do not show the video when it is aired live on Sept. 8th. Classes will have the ability to show a recorded version at a later date allowing time for procedures described below to be put in place.
2. Principals must approve any showing of the presidential address. Approval should be given when it can be appropriately applied to our curriculum.
3. You are being provided an opt out form to send home with students who are in classrooms where approval has been given to show the address. That form is attached. Please copy as needed. Please don't forget to update your school name in the upper right hand corner. Parents should send this form back if they do not want their children to view the speech.

Please contact me if you should have any questions.

(name deleted)
Assistant Superintendent
Human Resource Services
Beaufort County Schools

I promise you I will not show my students a tape of his speech and probably will not ever show them ANYTHING presented live again. But we WILL talk about it in my Minority Studies class.

[robo50]

6. Why did you delete the name of that stupid cowardly brown shirt ?

Assistant Superintendent?

Did you fear he would be publicly ridiculed for being such a right wing bureaucrat ?

You feel a duty to protect this kind of overt protection of racist censorship?

[Vasmosn]

15. Nope.

But the message deserves ridicule more than the man. I don't know the man personally and because he sent the letter doesn't mean it was his policy. If you really want to contact him, Beaufort County is in North Carolina.

[davidpdx]

8. Even then, nothing is full proof

If a kid forgets or doesn't give the form to a parent it's probably still going to end up causing a stink. You know how these right wing idiots are.

[Pyrzqxgl]

5. It's been a long time since I was in Public Schools, but

I seem to remember that we all went to an assembly hall in my High School to hear Dwight Eisenhower
give a message from The White House to the school children. The local Republican newspaper here in
San Diego made a big deal about how this was the first time a Republican had talked to schools on TV
(I believe FDR did something on radio a couple of times). I also remember my sisters talking about
Nixon doing the same thing. I don't know if anyone else did, but it's obviously not a new or even a
Democratic idea.

[SeattleGirl]

10. Both Reagan and Bush the First gave addresses to schoolkids

when they were in office.

I don't recall any knuckle-dragging mouthbreathers getting all up in arms about that.

[Cha]

14. That's because the Dems as a whole aren't

Assholes. Van Jones had it right.

[LWolf]

7. And that ensures that

parents knew ahead of time, knew they could opt out, and any teacher that wants to can show the speech.

[SeattleGirl]

9. "This is the principal of Redneck Idiot Elementary School"

"I'm calling to inform you that President Obama will be addressing our nation's student this coming week."

"If you don't want your child listening to that dark-skinned, born-in-Kenya commie pinko fascist fake President who will be trying to indoctrinate your children and turn them into gay socialist fascist Marxist smartie pants who think they are better than you, and who will be hypnotized into killing grandma by that man, we urge you to keep your student home that day. In fact, we insist. Have them listen to some GOOD Americans on that day like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O-Reilly, and Glenn Beck. Keep your children safe, America!!!"

"God bless America."

[nichole51]

17. re: "This is the principal of Redneck Idiot Elementary School"

SeattleGirl,

I teach English in a North Carolina high school. The term redneck causes as much hurt to many in the South as do all the derogatory terms for Blacks, Jews, Latinos, Native Americans, and on it goes. One of the origins of the word redneck referred to those working hard in the fields whose necks turned red and even leathery from the sun over the years. I don't know how old you are, but you will come to learn that divisive language becomes the focus of "discussion" and the goal of communicating anything becomes lost in the shuffle. The calmer heads, be they friends or enemies, will quietly glide right past you to get what they want.

We have been inundated with calls from parents at our school. They aren't worried that Obama will try to brainwash their kids or try to slide something past us all. I work in a high risk area. 77% of our students are Latino, Black and Asian. 23% are white. I'll tell you what they tell me. They are worried about the influence of Socialism and Communism. They are worried that the man they voted for is not who they thought he was. They may be right or they may be wrong, but what they feel is as real for them as it is for you, SeattleGirl. Attacking them for their opinions does nothing but push us further apart. Actually listening may allow you the opportunity to dispel misinformation, and maybe it won't. But that's what emotional maturity is about.

I am disappointed. I don't believe this speech is about supporting our kids. It is being planned on the very first day back at school for a lot of the United States, not all. The day will be chaotic. The front office will have lines of kids changing schedules or needing advice, or trying to get some problem solved. Students will be excited about seeing each other again, or they will be new and lost, trying to learn where their lockers and classes are. Teachers will be juggling an enormous load and the cafeteria staff is having to come in earlier than usual to make over 250 bag lunches because the speech starts minutes after one group leaves and minutes before another group comes in. We won't have our volunteers yet, so other staff will have to be pulled in order to get the bagged lunches to classes. Our district has lost over 1,000 staff members because of budget cuts. If President Obama's primary concern was truly the education of these students, allowing a couple of weeks to get settled in and having ample time to arrange schedules would matter to him. This creates chaos and does nothing to create a calmer environment for those students, teachers and even parents who would really like to listen to his speech. For those of us who supported Obama, many are worried that they were carried away with the "wave" and now realities are setting in. Most of these families are so called minority families. They are not racist or bigoted. They don't lump people into groups with labels just because they have different opinions. Their lives are stressful enough. They just care about their kids.

[carpe diem]

20. this is bs..

i do NOT believe ANY Black, Hispanic, or Asian parents are in a panic because the President is giving a speech on the first day of school. And if everyone is going to be so busy and disorganized, most of the kids won't see it anyway, right? The only people with a problem over this speech are White people who are pissed that we have a Black president and don't want their kids to look up to or respect him in any way. And these minority parents you speak of know very well that the communism and socialism rhetoric is just another way to call the President the N word and to say that he is some scary black boogie man.

[depakid]

11. This is one sick nation

[Cha]

12. I Rec'd to get this

out there..it's mccpalin-corporatemediawhore shite all over again.

[DesertRat]

16. No calls were made when Reagan and Bush the 1st

talked to schoolchildren. :eyes:

[opihimoimoi]

19. That small 13 percent of close minded makes the Nation look bad

They will succumb to Reality soon...that the GOPs message of hate and whine sucks....