host posted on September 09, 2009 07:41
By Melanie Patterson
The North Jefferson News
President Barack Obama did not have much of an audience in northern Jefferson County on Tuesday.
In fact, more than 200 parents at one school told the principal that they would keep their kids out of school Tuesday if she allowed students to watch his televised address.
Debra Campbell, principal at Bryan Elementary, said that threat hit hard because Tuesday started the 20-day period where the state monitors attendance for annual yearly progress (AYP), which is one of the major indicators for the federal No Child Left Behind program.
“I have to make AYP,” Campbell said. “I have to choose my battles.”
Although the president’s address was not shown in any Bryan classrooms, Campbell said it was turned on in the office.
From Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., Obama gave the President’s Speech to America’s Students, which was broadcast live throughout the nation. It aired in Alabama at 11 a.m.
Spokesmen for Obama had said the speech contained no political content, but was simply to encourage children to work hard and stay in school. However, that did little to stop an uproar across the nation about the address being aired in classrooms.
Beth Rogers, who has a child at Snow Rogers Elementary and two at Bragg Middle School, said she at first had mixed emotions about her children hearing the speech.
That is, until she actually read the text of the speech that the White House released last week.
“After I got the script, I told them I didn’t mind them listening at all,” she said.
Snow Rogers principal Karen White said she had received her fair share of calls about the presidential address.
“We’ve had an overwhelming number of calls expressing concern because there was so little information given as to the nature of the speech,” said White, who taped the speech for those who might want to hear it later.
“I feel that it is important for those parents who would like for their children to hear the speech to have the same opportunity as those who are speaking out against it,” she said. “I feel that I am able to accommodate all students, which is a responsibility I take very seriously.”
In Fultondale, neither the high school nor the elementary school showed the speech, because neither schools have cable television.
Fultondale Elementary principal Cynde Cornelius said that she has received phone calls on both sides of the issue.
Cornelius added that she is not interested in being influential regarding politics, but she sent messages to all parents saying that she would record the speech for any students or parents who want to see it later.
Fultondale High School principal Donna Williamon said she had also received a few calls from concerned parents, but that it was moot point because her school was unable to show the speech.
Sandra May, assistant principal at Gardendale High School, also said that none of her school’s classrooms were set up to televise the address.
She said some parents had called Gardendale High School about the speech.
“I don’t know the nature of the calls, whether it was concern or curiosity,” she said.
Angela Hardiman, the mother of two teenagers who attend Mortimer Jordan High School, said the uproar over Obama’s address was because of bad timing and is an indicator of popular opinion about the president.
Obama is scheduled to address Congress today regarding health care, a topic that has had an even more ferocious reaction than his address to students.
“I think it’s mistrust,” Hardiman said about parents’ reactions to Obama’s school speech. “People say, ‘I don’t trust his health care plan, so I don’t trust him to talk to my kids.’”
Obama is not the first president to address school children across the nation.
President Ronald Reagan gave a similar address in 1988, followed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991.
See any of the three presidential addresses or read the text of Obama’s speech at www.white-house.gov/blog/