Font Resize- Obama education speech
- Sep 8:
- Controversy over Obama's school speech fizzles
- Sep 7:
- Obama's school speech dodges divisive politics, pushes personal responsibility
- Obama exhorts kids to pay attention in school
- Sep 5:
- Governor supports allowing students to watch Obama speech
- McEntee: Politics of fear are still with us
- Sep 3:
- Obama school speech: Have partisan politics poisoned anything presidential?
- Sep 2:
- Obama speech to students: Not all parents want their kids to see it
Spanish Fork » Nebo School District students will get to hear President Barack Obama's speech -- albeit nine days late.
In a letter read by school board member Randy Boothe on Wednesday night, the board expressed regret for not allowing students to hear the speech live.
"In hindsight, we realize that this decision may not have been the best one possible and may have sent a message to students and patrons that we do not respect the office of the president," said the letter, which is being distributed today. "This was never our intent."
The letter said that the district chose not to show the speech live because officials were given short notice about the speech and they didn't have enough information about its subject matter.
The district will show the speech, in which Obama urged students to work hard and stay in school, during the last hour of the school day Sept. 17. If parents do not want their children to participate, they will be excused.
The speech drew fire from conservatives who claimed the president was going to use it to advance his political agendas.
Board member Rod Oldroyd said the district reversed course after hearing from parents who were concerned that the speech was not shown live.
"This is what democracy is all about," Oldroyd said.
For the nine people who addressed the board Wednesday night, the reconsideration was welcome, although some
Bart Thompson, a social studies teacher at Salem Hills High School, thought the board's decision was "too little too late." He compared seeing the speech to both the Challenger disaster and the Sept. 11 attacks, both of which he witnessed live on classroom televisions.
"I don't think [those events] would have had the same impact watching it a week and a half later," Thompson said.
Rebecca deSchweinitz, a Springville parent, was grateful the speech will be shown, but she said the initial decision illustrated a climate of political bullying in the schools, where children have been attacked because their parents supported Obama in the last election.
"This is behavior that is encouraged by the board's recent decision," deSchweinitz said, her voice breaking with emotion.
Courtney Droz, a counselor at Mount Nebo Junior High School in Payson, said the school libraries have recordings of speeches by Adolf Hitler, Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy for their historical value, not because the district agrees with them. She said the best defense against indoctrination is to teach students to think critically, something teachers can do using Obama's speech.
But Spanish Fork resident Le Jackson said the board had nothing to apologize for by not showing the speech live. He also questioned why the parents who thought it was important their children hear Obama live were at a board meeting when the president was giving another televised speech Wednesday night, this one on health care reform.
