DUBOIS – President Barack Obama’s school speech brought public comment at DuBois Area School District Board of Directors meeting.
Two weeks after Obama gave a national speech to school children across the nation it resurfaced at the DuBois School Board meeting.
“I was appalled when my son came home and asked if he could watch the President speak,” Molly Guthrie.
Guthrie questioned school board about why the school district allowed for parents to opt-out their children from watching the speech. She approached the school board wanting to know if any other President’s speech was given the same treatment. Parents wanting to opt-out had to sign and send in a permission slip.
Thomas Repine, school board president, explained that the policy has existed to allow for parents to opt-out their kids from events for various reasons. The policy was a previously-used and previously-existing one that was available to the public.
“Is this the first time that this policy has been used for a presidential speech?” asked Guthrie.
“I think so,” said J. Mark Heckman, assistant superintendent.
Repine explained that Superintendent Timothy Deluccia had made the decision after talking to other superintendents in nearby school districts and taking a few things into account. There were calls to the school district by parents threatening to pull their kids out for the day. Some parents felt that the speech, due to its timing, was designed to be a platform for healthcare reform. Another reason was that the speech itself was announced at the last minute.
Deluccia wasn’t present to explain his decision himself. Several nearby schools also included an opt-out option, and it was mentioned by Repine that North Allegheny did not even show the speech live. The school recorded the speech and left it up to the individual teachers.
None of the school board appeared to enjoy that the school district allowed students to not see the speech.
“We rather have the students excluded for the half-hour instead of the full day,” explained Heckman regarding the response to parents threatening pull their kids out for the full day.
Board member E. Lloyd McCreight brought up that the media fanned the controversy going into speech.
“I don’t understand why it started with this man, right now,” said Guthrie.
“Whether you agree with it personally, people with higher powers than us gave us the right to opt-out,” said Lynda Barett.
Barett used the Pledge of Allegiance as an example. A once mandatory act every school day it is now a voluntary act. At some point there had to be a first time saying the pledge included an opt-out scenario.
The school board was unable to answer Guthrie on whether the policy will now be applied to all future presidential speeches, as the precedent so far only includes one this instance.