ThisWeek Staff Writer

 

Some Worthington schools did show President Obama's speech to the nation's schools on Tuesday, but parents were able to make sure that their children did not watch the broadcast.

School spokesperson Vicki Gnezda said she did not know how many students watched the speech, but said that the high schools, middle schools, and some elementary schools had planned to show the speech live at the lunch hour.

Some elementary schools do not have the technical capacity to receive the feed on the Internet and do not have cable television, so picking up the live broadcast was not possible, she said.

Each school handled the situation on its own, with most sending e-mails to parents last Thursday. The messages informed parents about the purpose of the speech, which reminded students of the importance of taking responsibility for their education.

Parents who did not want their children to watch the speech could ask that they be directed to other activities, Gnezda said.

Parents are able to request that their children not take part in any activity they find objectionable, she said. This was no different.

Board president David Bressman said he received about 20 e-mails from parents.

"Other than the levy, I can't remember an issue generating as much controversy," he said.

One parent wrote: "I am completely opposed to our elected officials dictating political agenda during school hours."

Other parents, after hearing about the controversy, chimed in with an opposite viewpoint. They wanted their children to hear the speech, and said they would be disappointed in the Worthington schools if it did not show it to their children.

"Aside from the fact that this is the duly-elected leader of our country and the speech is non-partisan, the more salient point is that refusing to air the speech teaches our children that it is acceptable to ignore someone with whom you (or in most cases, your parents) may disagree," wrote another parent in an e-mail to Bressman.

Bressman responded to that and other parents that though he is a Republican, did not vote for Obama, and does not support his policies, he agreed that students should be able to watch the broadcast on Tuesday.

"I think it teaches disrespect for the office if we are so afraid as parents to let our children even hear the president speak," Bressman wrote.

He encouraged his two sons to watch the speech, even though they are politically aligned with their father's views.

"Hopefully, reasonable minds will prevail and parents who want their child to hear the speech can and those who don't, won't," he said.