Michael Paul Williams: Just what is Henrico schools’ speakers policy?

Iguess indoctrination is in the eyes of the beholder.

When President Barack Obama announced he was giving a back-to-school address in September, the Henrico County school system responded as if he were Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. Before allowing its students to hear Obama's academic pep talk, school officials required teachers to contact parents for permission.

Fast-forward to Nov. 17 at Douglas Freeman High School in western Henrico.

Students were pulled out of class for a lecture by Pam Stenzel, an abstinence-only speaker. Automated calls -- not personal phone calls from teachers -- provided parents the opportunity to opt-out their children.

Stenzel, who had spoken at Freeman before, typically comes with a price tag -- her Web site says her fees range from $3,500 to $5,000. But the Henrico school system didn't foot the bill for the Nov. 17 lecture.

That left Vicki Roberts, the parent of a Freeman student, wondering who did.

On Nov. 19, she e-mailed a Freedom of Information Act request to Henrico School Board attorney Melissa K. Valazquez seeking the name of Stenzel's patron. The answer relayed by Freeman Principal Anne L. Poates disturbed Roberts.

"Neither I nor other employees of the school division have any record that identifies the individual who paid the fee for Ms. Stenzel to speak," Poates wrote in a Nov. 24 letter to Roberts. "The payment was made anonymously, and the school division does not know who did so."

The result, however unintended, was that an innocuous message by Obama became politicized by critics who attached some hidden, nefarious meaning to it, while 2½ months later, a controversial message subsidized by a secret donor was waved in by gatekeepers.

The irony wasn't lost on Roberts.

"It's a public school. These children were taken out of academic classes. And they wouldn't let President Obama speak," she said.

The fact that Stenzel, a Liberty University graduate, promotes abstinence is not the issue. But some health professionals take issue with Stenzel's message, which they say is fraught with scare tactics and misinformation. Of particular concern is her preaching against the use of condoms and birth control.

Unless Stenzel is batting a thousand with her message of abstinence, it's irresponsible for her to scare teens off birth control.

Kathy Klassett, whose daughter attends Freeman, described the automated call about Stenzel's appearance as generic.

"I did not know who the speaker was, and I did not know it was someone who was known to be controversial," Klassett said.

"I don't have any trouble with abstinence," she added. "My problem is with the accuracy of what she presented and finding out later that her speaking fee was paid by someone who's anonymous. . . . Is there an agenda there?"

Klassett recalled the concern over Obama's pro-education message. "They had to review what he was going to say. I just don't see that there was the same sort of scrutiny given this situation."

Indeed. If the Henrico schools are going to censor, they at least should be consistent about it.

Contact Michael Paul Williams at (804) 649-6815 or .