Area Schools Decide Not to Air Presidnents Address to Students
By: Julie Musgrave
Updated: September 3, 2009
President Obama plans to give the first address ever directly to students next week, but area schools decided they won't be showing it live after several parents protest.
The speech is supposed to be about setting educational goals and personal responsibility, but several parents in the area say it's mixing politics with education and they don't want their kids to watch it.
Lubbock, Lubbock Cooper, and Frenship ISD administrators say they're being flooded by phone calls and e-mails. To appease, Lubbock ISD says they will tape the speech, then put it on DVD's for parents to watch if they want. They will then work the speech into material to be used in social studies classes for all grades.
Lubbock Cooper will also not air it, they tell us it will be up to the teacher's discretion whether or not to incorporate it later.
And at Frenship, they say if parents want their kids to see it, they urge them to view it with their families at home.
David Vroonland, Frenship ISD Superintendent: "In Frenship, we feel like we do a pretty good job of relaying that information to our children, and our children do a fantastic job of living out that message. They do persist, and they do graduate. They do go on to do great things in education."
Pat Henderson, Lubbock Cooper ISD: "We have our set curriculum, our teachers are busy teaching away, we don't have enough time in the day as it is to get everything in. So, this is a novel thing, and I understand that, and there might be some potential benefits to it, but it's just something that we're not going to do."
