Help our children persist and succeed: open our schools to the President of the United States
As a community we wish to share with our VUSD administrators the importance of opening our schools to President Obama Tuesday morning and rejecting the hyper-partisanship surrounding this issue.
It simply isn’t the job of hired personnel at our local schools to decide which students do and do not hear a speech from the President. The President of the United States of America will give an inspirational speech as several presidents have done before him. We feel it is important to remind our school administrators we live in a community that believes:
We have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and always will be, the United States of America. – President Obama
This is the President of the United States we are talking about, not just any politician or elected official. The speech is history in the making and our students deserve to be part of that history and hear from our country’s democratically-elected leader.
We believe students should take a lesson from our actions as parents and school officials — and that lesson is — President Obama is not your president and he is not my president, he is OUR president.
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Vallecito Union School District (VUSD) administrators contact info
(the weekend has ended, please contact them through their office numbers, not home numbers):
Albert Michelson Elementary
Phyllis Parisi, Principal
office phone: 728-3441
email: pparisi@vsd.k12.ca.us
School address:
196 Pennsylvania Gulch Road
Murphys, California 95247
website: http://www.vsd.k12.ca.us/michelson
Hazel Fischer Elementary
Brett Loring, Principal
office phone: 795-8030
email: bloring@vsd.k12.ca.us
School address:
1605 Blagen Road
Arnold, California 95224
website: http://www.vsd.k12.ca.us/hazel
Avery Middle School
Christine Linder, Principal
office phone: 795-8045
email: clinder@vsd.k12.ca.us
School address:
4545 Moran Road
Avery, California 95224
website: http://www.vsd.k12.ca.us/avery
Rick Brewer, Interim VUSD Superintendent
office phone: 795-8504
email: rbrewer@vsd.k12.ca.us
District address:
4545 B Moran Rd. PO Box 329
Avery, CA 95224
website: http://www.vsd.k12.ca.us/
VUSD School Board info:
Ralph Emerson, 728-2965, emersonrb@usa.net
Jill Bray, 728-2575, brayjill3@hotmail.com
Mike Millward, 795-6533, mmilward@sonic.net
Jeff Deane, 795-1071, thresedeane@comcast.net
Wayne Harrison, 795-5342, wandw1@comcast.net
Register your criticism in this poll
Update:
The White House, in an extraordinary move, will release the text of the President’s speech Monday — one day before he will speak to students by internet and cable television.
We want parents and educators to have an opportunity to review it in advance and decide for themselves how to engage their students around the issue of personal responsibility – Peter Cunningham, the Education Department Assistant Secretary for Communications and Outreach
Here are some comments from critics today:
Sen. Lamar Alexander, education secretary under President George H.W. Bush, said he understood “some of the concern, because, you know, people say, `Oh, here’s another Washington takeover.’
“But of course the president of the United States should be able to address students. And of course, parents and teachers should decide in what context,” said Alexander, R-Tenn.
He added, “If I were a teacher, I’d take advantage of it, and I’d put up Lincoln and Eisenhower and Reagan and teach about the presidency, and then I’d put up the head of North Korea and say, ‘In that country, you go to jail if you criticize the president. In our country, you have a constitutional right to do it.”
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the guides distributed to schools “were put out by teachers, for teachers. And there is one that wasn’t worded quite correctly. It was talking about helping the president hit his goal of having the highest percent of college graduates by 2020. He’s drawn a line in the sand in that.
“We just clarified that to say write a letter about your own goals and what you’re going to do to achieve those goals. So again it’s really about personal responsibility and being accountable, setting real goals and having the work ethic to see them through,” the secretary said.
Declaring that viewing the speech is “purely voluntary,” Duncan said the hubbub is something “I frankly don’t pay any attention to.” Rather, he said, he is focused “laser-like” on the big problems in the U.S. education system.
The secretary said the speech text will be posted on the White House Web site on Monday.
“There’s nothing political about it, and it’s a shame that some people have tried to politicize it,” Obama adviser David Axelrod added.
I completely agree with David Axelrod comments. Unfortunately our area seems to have some people that would rather deny the democratic process they claim to support than let school children hear words encouraging ALL children to get an education spoken by a President who is half black.
I am in complete agreement with Mr. Axelrod. This is OUR President- he represents all of us, whether we voted for him or not. Schoolchildren everywhere have the right to participate in this educational opportunity, regardless of which party the president represented before his election.
To: Principals and School Board Members,
Vallecito School District, Calaveras County:
It has come to the attention of many concerned citizens of our County that there are unilateral
decisions being made as to what children in our district will be permitted to see or not see
in a television broadcast covering the President of the United States.
My first reaction to this information was that it is NOT the perview of the teachers and administrators
of VUSD to decide that our children CANNOT watch our US President make a speech to the young
students of America. To do so would be to interfere with both freedom of speech and freedom
to LISTEN in this unique American Democracy. Virtually all teaching staff and administrators are
under the employ of the State of California which directs curriculum. As well, the tax payers of
California have a vested interest in an issue such as Barack Obama’s speech this Tuesday being
viewed by our children.
The Office of the President of the United States is a position of respect and honor. Whomever
holds that office is due the respect of the citizens, all citizens, whether one has actually voted
for that individual ~ a man representing the highest office of our land.
Marilyn Pinnow
Murphys CA
As a parent who had a child in Avery Middle School. It is totally unbelievable and unacceptable to me that such an ignorant level of sensorship could be condoned. These are our public schools and the students need to be well informed and take part in their own history.
This is a shameful level of partisanship and censorship in our local schools. We cannot stand for this kind of disrespect of our democratically elected president in our public schools and we cannot put up with the narrowing of opportunity and thought this represents for our students. A few ignorant citizens cannot be allowed to foster censorship in public institutions that are supported by all tax payers. Those who foment the culture war need to be politely ignored.
I would like our community, and our schools (which represent what’s best about our community) to get away from ideological differences and focus on educating our children.
If that means our President speaks and motivates students to succeed, then make it so.
Schools channel ‘famous’ and influential cultural heros all the time to appear in person or video; schools also channel regular ‘Joes’ to influence our kids to stay in school. Each are co-opted to sell the kids on self-motivation and channeling their inner desire to succeed in school and sometime, life. Its how it has always been done. Granted, some elected officials use the school environment and give speeches to push policy – both Democrat and Republican can be held liable for this – but not this time, not this President.
With so many students disengaging around our country and our county, not to mention our community, we need all the help we can get to help our kids face their future with hope and confidence.
Children who are subjected to censorship based on ideology, whether political or racial tend to rebel against the censor more often than the censored. By blocking President Obama’s encouragement speech if and when the children learn of it they may decide that anything Obama has to say is better than what the censors want them to hear. Hopefully if they learn nothing else from Obama, as an example of aiming for the American Dream, they may learn to speak in correct and understandable english.