The following comes from my wife, a teacher. She signed up but cannot write a diary for a week on a pressing issue to her. So I lend her my voice.
I first became aware that the President was going to give a speech to school children when one of my conservative friends posted a note on her Facebook profile, stating that her child would not be allowed to view it. I followed her link and found a hotbed discussion going on, parents complaining and protesting that like Hitler, Obama was trying to indoctrinate our children with his socialist agenda. How dare he address the children of this nation during school hours, without their parents' consent? This of course piqued my curiosity and I began researching the speech and the history of other Presidential speeches made to school children. I have since learned that both Bushes and Reagan made speeches directly to school children, during school hours.
Knowing that my own community is very conservative and wanting to go through proper channels to secure permission to show the speech to my 4th grade students, I asked my principal to allow my students eat their lunch in my classroom next Tuesday, as the speech is scheduled to air during our lunch period. At first he lowered his head, rubbed his temples, and became red in the face. I could tell he was trying to think of a good reason to say no. Finally, he looked up at me and said, "Well, it would be good if we could, but we don't get C-Span." I just smiled and said, "That's okay, it will be streamed on the web and I can just download it for the students to watch." He continued rubbing his head and the assistant principal piped up, "Yeah, that's what we did last year for the inauguration - the kids and teachers just ate in their rooms." He was kind of backed in a corner now and didn't have much choice. He looked defeated, but said, "Okay, I think we can make that work then."
This morning, the principal sent out an email to the entire staff. He stated that he would not be airing the President's speech - he had given the matter careful consideration and decided that students would be able to watch the speech in its entirety at home with their parents. If we had any questions, we were to contact him. This afternoon, after school, I did just that. He informed me that he had received phone calls from 50-60 parents telling him that if he allowed the speech to be shown that they would keep their children home from school. He said that the speech had become a disruption and that school board policies dictated that if something became a disruption to the educational day that it could not be allowed. I countered with the fact that he was letting a small, vocal minority, disrupt and disrespect the office of President of the United States and the democratic process. He said that he felt that 50-60 students receiving an unexcused absence was not a minority (our enrollment is 713 students - you can do the math.) I told him that forbidding the students to see the speech might be viewed as political or racist by some. He stated that he agreed with me, but made the decision based on the school board policies on disruptions to the educational day and his hands were tied. He thanked me nicely for sharing my concerns and escorted me out of his office.
When I reached my home, I called the superintendent of schools. He stated that he had strongly encouraged the principals to allow their students to view the speech, but left the final decision up to individual principals. I told him that I felt that our principal had made the wrong decision, that our students were being taught that the President's words were dangerous and that it was important for our students to be allowed to hear the message. The superintendent said that he concurred but that he had left the decision up to the principals and would stand by their decisions.
I have called my local newspaper, emailed the White House, and even sent an email to Rachel Maddow. My concern is that nothing that I do will make a difference in time to allow my students the opportunity to see the speech. Simply speaking out for my students' right to hear the President speak has very likely put me in danger of retaliation at my job by conservative coworkers and supervisors.
UPDATE
The principal just changed his mind, clearly pressed, in part certainly but possibly in whole, by my wife's efforts. The speech will be aired to all students. Parents can send a note asking their child participate in an alternate activity.