Most Richmond-region schools to skip Obama’s speech
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When President Barack Obama urges America's students today to "write your own destiny" by working hard in school, thousands of students in the Richmond area won't be watching.
Yesterday, the debate over Obama's speech continued during Labor Day cookouts and final outings to the park before classes start.
Schools in the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Powhatan and the cities of Colonial Heights and Petersburg do not plan to show the speech today. Henrico County is requiring teachers to get permission from every parent and preview the speech if they want to show it today.
Richmond schools will show the speech when it's broadcast this afternoon on C-SPAN. Obama will speak at noon at an Arlington County high school.
The White House posted the full text of the speech on its Web site yesterday to allow parents and school systems to review it.
Henrico School Board member Lamont Bagby said he is "sorry and disappointed" that Henrico is requiring such an effort from teachers who want to show the speech. He heard no opposing voices at a Labor Day cookout for Essex Village in Fairfield District, which he represents, or from other county constituents.
"To be honest, anything outside of viewing the video at noon on Tuesday is not satisfactory," Bagby said. "It is not respectful to the office of the president to say that we have to censor his comments, especially when his office has clearly shared what the address was going to be about. That takes away from the excitement that the students may have of actually hearing the president talk to them."
In a few Henrico schools, some teachers have gotten permission from parents and will preview the speech at noon, so they can show it this afternoon, schools spokesman Mychael Dickerson said. Laburnum Elementary School students will watch the speech as part of the school's celebration of accreditation scores, he said.
Henrico Superintendent Patrick Russo said he believes the president had good intentions for the speech but that schools needed more notice.
"I think schools have been thrust into the middle of something that is much bigger than this speech," Russo said. "It's been difficult to deal with this over a holiday weekend."
At the West End Reunion picnic in Byrd Park yesterday, Shawn Green, who has children at Varina High and John Rolfe Middle schools in eastern Henrico, said she doesn't understand the controversy.
"Why wouldn't they show it? All the other presidents' speeches have been shown," she said. "Why not Obama's?"
Sam Daniels Jr., who lives in Chamberlayne Farms in Henrico, said: "I think it's good that a president would take an interest in schools. I think it's awesome."
In Robious Landing Park in Chesterfield, the reaction was mixed.
Rob Lanphear, 32, who had ventured out of the city to explore the park with his preschoolers, said he would have preferred that the president give his address to students in the evening when parents could watch it with their children.
Tim Bryant, 36, whose 5-year-old son will be home-schooled this year with two younger brothers instead of starting kindergarten in Chesterfield's public schools, was planning to read the speech online before deciding whether his kids were old enough to understand it.
"I'm surprised that a public school system wouldn't allow students to be addressed by the president of our country," he said. "I wouldn't have been surprised so much that Powhatan or a small school system decided not to show it, but Chesterfield? It's surprising that it's such a big issue. "
Some of Obama's critics have called his back-to-school address an inappropriate political intrusion into the classroom at a time when the president's agenda, from health-care to energy reform, is entering a decisive phase in Congress.
His supporters are surprised at the negative reaction.
"I'm kind of amazed that folks are getting worked up about the president telling students that they need to work hard and stay in school," Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said yesterday. "You've just got a bunch of negative, trifling people out there."
According to the prepared remarks, Obama intends something more generically uplifting than political. He will note that in his past remarks about education he has lectured parents to be more involved in their children's studies, urged teachers to work harder, and demanded that government set high academic standards and hold school districts accountable in meeting them.
"At the end of the day," he intends to tell students, "we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents and the best schools in the world -- and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities."
Contact Katherine Calos at (804) 649-6433 or .
Staff writer Jeremy Slayton, The Washington Post and WSLS contributed to this report.
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Reader Reactions
I think all students should begin every week with a mandatory 15 minute pep talk by the President. If you skip it or are out sick, you would have to participate in a makeup viewing.
VA Resident
I just don’t get that statement.
So when is someone a hypocrite?
It is just so hypocritical!
It’s that kind of name calling that just doesn’t really get us anywhere does it?
A hypocrite is when someone has a double standard right.
Well, who has the double standard here?
Seems like both sides do right?
I mean if the Dems protested about Reagans speech and Bush speech to kids,
and then the Reps protested when Obama speaks…who is the hypocrite?
It’s a never ending circle. I guess you have to go back and disect each statement and go way back in history and count each speech by each President and find out who was first and who protested first.
At least Bush and Regan were allowed to speak, so doesn’t that make the Republicans hypocritcal for not allowing the speach? It’s just so uncalled for and hard to prove, it just kind of takes us down a road where we each call each other a stupid name and stand on opposing sides in the playground.
AG, I will agree with your statement if and when an investigation is launched into the cost of yesterdays speech by the Republicans. Bush was accused of using school kids as props. Is that what BO did yesterday, use kids as props, and during his town hall meeting?
What should be done:
1. Reduce our international military presence. No more world cop.
2. Our international diplomacy will be commerce driven, not government driven. Minimal foreign aid and we extract ourselves from alliances and treaties that do not work in our best interest.
3. Businesses live or die on their own. No more bailouts.
4. No cap on private sector salaries. This country is not about capping people’s earning potential.
5. Secure the southern border and start sending illegals back home.
6. Make health care affordable by instituting tort reform, minimizing administrative costs and insisting that doctors be paid in 30 days by insurance companies/medicaid/medicare to assure good cash flow. Allow insurance to be sold across state lines for more competition. Institute tax free health savings account that allow doctors to give discounts to patients who pay cash. Among other things (I can give more detail).
7. The federal government will work within the confines of the constitution (that’ll cut the size of government significantly). Make the states take care of themselves.
8. Any able bodied person who wants to draw public money (before I phase it out for everyone except those who are physically unable to work - in the 3.5 year point of my presidency) has to work for it. Picking up litter, mowing grass or working on projects associated with any trade they might have to maintain public grounds, roads and buildings. Each person drawing public money will be given two days per week to find a job, but, will only be paid 1/3 of the work day rate.
9. Lower taxes but insist that everyone pay a federal tax rate of no more than 12%. Reassess after 5 years. Dramatically lower capital gains taxes. Eliminate death taxes completely. Constrict the money supply such that we head off inflation from everything Obama is printing. Phase in tying our currency to something such as the gold standard.
10. Freeze the minimum wage right where it is now to incentivize employers to hire more people.
Blackbird: Here’s ten items. This forum isn’t a book, but, I could go on for a long time.
VaResident, you are correct… Republicans are just as low as Democrats. If they were wise, they would learn that defeatism doesn’t get US anywhere!
Democrats show themselves to be hyporcrites again. In 1991 President Bush did a similar speech at a school to the nations youth and their parents. Democrats were outraged and started investigations into the President and the Secretary of Education accusing them of campaigning using Federal monies. Hmmmmmm, but that was different, right? Guess they were being racist in that Bush is a white man?
ok, Randy you against everthing that has been done.
What needs to be done? What are you for? What should the President be doing? Go for it.
Lovin’: I’m white. I disagree with Barack Obama’s policies. I wasn’t for TARP, I wasn’t for the automaker bail outs, I’m against government administered health care, I was against the stimulus plan. I’m against the notion of elevating people who are self avowed, unrepentant communists into czar positions. I’m against elevating weather underground members and eugenics advocates into czar positions.
Please let me know how my opposition to these Barack Obama positions and actions has anything to do with skin color.
If you want to abandon your ability to think straight, continue throwing out all the hater stuff. Before I met my wife, I had an ultra-hot black girlfriend. She was amazing. Probably would have married her, if her family (a) didn’t like her dating a white guy (b) didn’t threaten to kill me just for dating her and (c) she had to break up with me after her father threatened to beat her for having me. On top of that, black guys would go absolutely nuts when we’d go out in public. Calling her a traitor, telling me to stick to my own.
Please don’t give me any lectures about hate - I’ve seen it first hand and whitey doesn’t own it anymore.
But Randy you seem to report only the negative parts of the story.
TARP…saved the country from DEPRESSION. A local company stock..
Genworth…was at $1 in Oct/Nov is now trading at $9. That is something like 1000% improvement. Just for the whole story, Genworth was denied TARP funds, but didn’t seem to mater too much because the whole stock market has improve dramtically. Was it TARP?
Certainly didn’t hurt.
You can say the same thing with Stimulus…how much WORSE would it have been. Yes, they could have waited and gotten a much better bill, but this was in March. The stock market was heading to rock bottom, people were in a panic. The stock market and market confidence in general have improved DRAMTICALLY since then. Was it the Stimulus? I don’t know. Did it hurt? NO.
Sure Banks failed, they will continue to fail, sure people are unemployed and it may go higher…but the DISASTER scenario that was very CLEAR at the time (ok let’s use your Train analogy…it was going to happen!) It was AVERTED! At least for now.
Health Care… how can you say we have the best Health Care in the world when we don’t cover so many people? I mean if you take into account all those that DON’t get coverage and average them into the rest who do get coverage…how does that compare with a country that gives ALL it’s citzens health care. It would seem that adding in 47 million that don’t get health care would bring our average way down?
Anyway, just food for thought. Yeah, I want them to get a plan that works. I have heard good things and bad things about Medicare, it certainly can be improved, but not sure I would call it a disaster.
Automakers…still making cars aren’t they. Bankruptcy or not. Cash for Clunkers seemed like a success. What’s wrong with a few billion for hard working American Autoworkers when the FAT cats get trillions.
And by the way, the Gov’t has actually MADE money off the interest from those TARP loans…sorry just trying to show not everything is a DISASTER. It just
depends on your point of view, unless you are talking about Mother Nature or the Hinderburg.
Anyone on this posts that was against Obama’s speech should be ashamed of yourselves for being so ignorant and trifling and RACIST!! The only reason you were against it has to be because of the color of this man’s skin, because I BET no one would have been this worked up had it been Bush or any other WHITE president!!! I just can’t even believe it….so sad. People really need to grow up and look at the BIGGER PICTURE. You can’t have change cuz so many are against it! Please ask yourselves why you want President OBAMA to fail so miserably even if it means all you HATERS failing??? I bet you couldn’t come up w/a good enough reason….
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