The Superintendent of our schools has a history

A history of censorship in the face of controversy. And he's doing it again. He's decided that President Obama's speech won't be shown to our county's public school students. While I would not condemn him out of hand for deciding not to broadcast it on the first day of school, the thing that gets me steamed is this:

Since this is a webcast, principals or teachers may elect to retrieve the speech at a later time and with the preparation or related activities appropriate for students at your school level.

Which means he's not just saying, "this is disruptive for the first day of school." He's saying, whether we show it at all or not is a function of how loud parents scream at their principals and teachers.

This is cowardly. And it's wrong. Here's an excerpt of a letter I wrote to our Superintendent and the Chairman of the School Board:

An address on the importance of education, staying in school, and taking responsibility for doing as well as one can in school is an important one. Especially when that address comes from the son of a single mother who got to where he is through hard work and dedication to his school work...

I do understand that the first day back at school is a busy one, that there is confusion on all fronts and that another day might be more convenient for showing the address. If that is the only reason LCPS will not be showing the message in real-time then please announce immediately which day it will be shown to all students in every school, otherwise it will appear that we have another instance of [the case of three flightless waterfowl].

Seriously, the taxpayers of Loudoun County have provided televisions for every room of every school. The auditoriums each have projectors and large screens. All the schools have at least 2 of those fancy electronic white boards. How hard is it to pause the day to show a speech on the importance of education given by a man who embodies that sentiment?

And that is why I tweeted this yesterday:

I pledge allegience to the flag of the United States of America & to the Republic for which it stands but don't show me the President

Having said all that, I should just have said, "Yeah! What SHE said!" And also, "Yeah! What HE said!" (ht SewCreative who commented on a post on Our Loudoun Schools)