UnNews:U. S. President to give speech to children, Republicans apoplectic with rage
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This article is part of UnNews, your source for up-to-the-picosecond misinformation. |
4 September 2009
Possum Trot, KY- Joshua Morgan doesn't want his 8-year-old daughter to hear from President Obama next week.
Morgan, of Possum Trot, is among a growing number of parents across the country who are troubled by the president's plan to address elementary, middle and high school students in an online and televised speech Tuesday.
"It's scary what he's doing. He's starting a culture war with our kids on the front lines. The Obama administration have proven this, over and over and over again, for the entire 7 months of his administration. He does this at every turn," Gordon told FOXNews.com on Thursday while UnNews tapped their phones. "It's very socialistic, like something you'd see in Nazi Germany."
After writing letters to his congressmen, his senator, his state representatives, his mayor, his local shriners, school officials, his pastor, the local chamber of commerce, his union officials, and his entire address book in Outlook, Morgan told his daughter, Jenna, she will not be allowed to participate in an alternative activity at Gorrie Elementary School during Obama's address, which comes just after a three-day weekend when kids are "best prepared for indoctrination."
"I'm waiting to hear from her teacher, but I don't have her cellphone number and the school's website is terrible. I have told the school to go ahead and teach the rest of the kids, but I'd like [Jenna] to go do something else," Morgan said. "It's kind of like going through the children to get to their parents. Children are very vulnerable and excited. I mean, this is the president. I think it's an underhanded tactic and parallel to the Hitler youth, you know? It seems like that's how Obama has been doing everything, a kind of witch-doctor terrorist in charge of the country. I find it very disappointing that he's politicizing everything."
But some parents won't be allowed to pull their kids out of school to avoid Obama's "Stay in School" speech. At least one school district, Tempe Elementary School District No. 3 in Arizona, is not permitting parents to pull their children out of class just because the President is giving a speech.
"I have directed principals to have students and teachers view the president's message on Tuesday," Superintendent of Schools Dr. Arthur Tate Jr. said in a statement Thursday. "In some cases, where technology will not permit access to the White House Web site, DVDs will be provided to classes on subsequent days. I am not permitting parents to opt out students from viewing the president's message, since this is a purely educational event."
The White House said Wednesday that the president's address is intended to be an inspirational, pro-education message to all students at the beginning of the school year. But critics objected to the language of one of the lesson plans, for students in pre-kindergarten through grade 6, which suggested that students "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president." Another assignment for students after hearing the speech was to discuss how best to do '"what the president wants us to do."
Since this article was first published, the suggestion about helping the President has been changed to: "Write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals."
White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said the changes to the language are intended to make the lesson plans clearer. He added that the president's speech will not be a policy speech like Reagan's "help us pass tax cuts" speeches to students in the late '80s, but is intended to encourage kids to work hard and commit to school. He did not provide a transcript to FOX when they asked, nor to UnNews when we asked more nicely.
But that hasn't assuaged concerns of helicopter mom Barbara O'Malley of St. Lauderdale, who says she's considering keeping her two daughters out of the classroom at Churchill High School when Obama begins to speak.
"I have to sign permission slips for my kids to watch R-rated movies in school," O'Malley fretted, explaining that she felt parents were being removed from the lesson plan process for the president's address. "It was simply presented, 'Hey, we're going to do this, this is when it's going to air and you're going to show it to your kids.' I wouldn't even have been warned if I didn't watch the O'Reilly factor. Why is the main-stream media ignoring this?"
Moore suggested that the speech be issued as a DVD to students so they can view it with their parents at home, adding that her daughter has never been given an opportunity to think for herself and always does exactly what people in authority tell her without fail. She wished, at the very least, SHE could get a DVD of President Obama to take home.
"It's so hard to hate someone without a visual, moving image of them speaking to direct my hatred toward," she confessed. "It's much more real. The Joker image I have almost looks dead, and that's really starting to creep me out."
The idea of having Obama speak directly to children without so much as a permission slip being sent home "scares the crap out of me," said Betsy Crocker of Iowa City, Iowa. She said she plans on going to school with her 8-year-old son to watch the address with him and correct any political misstatements the President makes.
"I just want to know how it's being presented," she said. "I'm all for my child having respect for the president, but why wouldn't he show us the speech first and then go from there?" She continued, "Have you noticed how the President issued a statement to celebrate Ramadan but not Christmas? Just something to think about."
Jedediah Sanders, spokeswoman for the American Tea Party Animals, has started a campaign to ask schools to provide an alternative to the speech for parents who do not wish their children to experience a presidential address in school. He noted that both Bobby Jindal and Sarah Palin have speeches on DVD (with transcripts available) for child viewing. Sanders has urged parents to contact schools directly to find out how the "partisan presentation" will air in their child's classroom, and reminded UnNews that neither of his DVDs portray Islam in a positive light.
"It went straight from the Department of Education right to the principals, skipping the political parties entirely!" Jebediah told UnNews. "There's a lot of parents who have spoken to me [and] they've talked to their principals, and it kind of 'weirded' them out a little because this is also the first time they haven't been notified of a lesson a week beforehand. Remember everyone, this is just another step toward death panels!"
Several school districts contacted by UnNews, including those in Los Angeles and San Francisco, had no idea what we were talking about and suggested that, if the President is giving a speech next week, individual teachers would decide whether to air the address in their classrooms.
"We're allowing teachers to decide," an Austin, Texas, school official told FOXNews, which, again, we "procured." "But most of the kids will be at lunch, anyway. It's not going to be a big issue here."
In Austin, school district officials say a speech by any sitting president is worthy of "Americans' time, attention and consideration," according to a statement by the Austin Independent District Schools (AIDS) to FOXNews. Teachers who believe the address will be beneficial to their students will allow viewing in the classroom.
"It is AIDS's expectation that viewing of this Web address will vary by campus and by classroom," the statement continued. "Parents will be advised by their campus principals to alert the school if they have a specific desire to have their child included in, or removed from, the viewing of the president's remarks."
Parents in Denver will have the option to remove their children from school "for whatever stupid reason they chose to give us, including being out of time" spokesman Marty McFly said.
Virginia Department of Education spokesman Charles Pyle told the Associated Press that a number of school divisions asked the agency for guidance this week after parents concerned with the address contacted local officials.
The department says it's up to districts to determine whether a school or class views the address, and teachers who choose to incorporate the president's speech into their lessons are also free to develop their own classroom activities, the Associated Press reports.
Other districts, including those in New York City and Boston, won't even have classes that day. Officials at the Philadelphia School District declined comment.
National Parent Teacher Association President Chuck Saylors told FOXNews the presidential speech is something that should have happened years ago.
"Regardless of who is in the White House, when the president of the United States wants to give the students a beginning-of-the-year, do-your-best type of presentation, it should be supported," he said. "[But] if parents want their children to stay home on the first day of school, they're certainly in their rights to make their friends hate them. Yeah, I said it. Your children's friends will hate them if they don't have to go to school for such a lame reason. I'm just sayin'."
Several statewide parent teacher associations, including those in Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee and others, did not respond to requests for comment on how their members are advising teachers how to present the presidential address in class.
Gainell Rogers, president-elect of the Utah Parent Teacher Association, said she has "confidence in the decisions" of local school officials.
"We believe that decisions in the best interest of students are most effective when made at the local level," Rogers told FOXNews. "Each local school district will decide what is best for their students and patrons and those decisions will reflect input from parents. The parents are the key."
She then turned to camera, "Just remember parents, if Obama wasn't born in America, and he was never naturalized, he's an illegal alien. Have you heard? They've giving them free health care now!"
Sources[edit | edit source]
- Joshua Rhett Miller "Some Parents Choose Not to Allow Their Kids to Hear Obama's National Address" FOX News, September 03, 2009