Sigh. Gwinnett students allowed to opt out of Obama’s speech
The parents of students at Hull Middle School in Gwinnett County today received permission to move their children out of range of President Barack Obama’s voice:
September 27, 2011
Dear Parent(s) or Guardian(s):
We will air President Obama’s third annual national address directly to students on Monday, October 3, 2011, at 9:30 a.m. President Obama’s speech coincides with the beginning of school for many districts across the nation. His actual speech will be delivered on Wednesday, September 28, 2011, at 1:30 p.m.
If you do not want your child to view the address, please complete the
bottom portion of this letter and return it to your child’s homeroom teacher no later than Friday, September 30, 2011. Those students who will not view the broadcast at their parents’ request will report to the gymnasium with an appropriate book, magazine, or newspaper after reporting to homeroom.Please feel free to contact me if you have additional questions or concerns.
Regards,
Denise P. Showell
Principal*A hard copy of this letter will be sent home today with your student(s)
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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183 comments Add your comment
iRun
September 27th, 2011
8:23 pm
Hell, I LIKE Obama but sometimes he says things I don’t agree with. So if/when he does and my kid hears it and repeats it, we talk about it. Because my kid isn’t stupid. And by that I don’t mean “not intelligent”, but “a state of stupor”.
Atlantaman
September 27th, 2011
8:25 pm
Racism only exists in the abstract. It is a fallacy. People only play the race card when they don’t have anything else to blame.
PLEASE!!! Racism is alive and well. Stop saying racism isn’t the issue just because you are uncomfortable with facing the fact that people in Gwinnett county probably don’t want their children to listen to a Black president. I don’t believe that everyone that disagrees with the president are racist. I don’t even think that Republicans and Tea Partier’s are all racists but I’m not going to sit around and listen to clowns pretend that their aren’t any folks in Gwinnett county that don’t have racist motives in their objections to their children hearing the president speak.
td
September 27th, 2011
8:29 pm
Atlantaman
September 27th, 2011
8:25 pm
“PLEASE!!! Racism is alive and well.”
I will agree with your statement if you will concede that racism goes both ways?
DC
September 27th, 2011
8:36 pm
that actually bears repeating….many of the same people who support the right of kids and parents to opt out of saying the pledge of allegiance are on this blog now crying bigotry and racism….what a bunch of hypocrites….amazing.
M
September 27th, 2011
8:38 pm
False equivalence is false.
GaBlue
September 27th, 2011
8:46 pm
DC,
Really? Can you name anyone who both supported the right to opt of the pledge of allegiance and is crying bigotry and racism now?
BTW, to the azzwipe named gutrake who hopes I don’t have children,
MY complaint was that my child was not given the chance to “opt IN” to hear the speech in 09 (something the administrators later told me was the result of a handful of whining Republican parents) not that anyone is being offered the right to “opt out.” I have no problem with options and choices, but I do mind having another’s bitterness limiting mine.
gutrake
September 27th, 2011
8:51 pm
Blacksheep…you got me! Notice how my posts started out appropriately and then digressed. Couldn’t help it…I WAS ECSTATIC OVER THE RESPONSES!! I’ll try to be more erudite and literate in future posts. Thanks for the reprimand. That being said, why is nobody hemmhoraging their talking points anymore? I was saving the “bed-wetter” comment for a future rebuttal. Come on people…Don’t let me get the best of you! Stand up for your delusions! Pathetic herd you are.
Juanita Johnson
September 27th, 2011
8:56 pm
Is the principal a fan of Hannity and Fox NoNews? The last time there was a protest to President Obama addressing students this ilk made a lot of noise about student brainwashing. This principal needs to report to the principal’s office to explain his politicizing critical thinking. This is not the cloak of a true educator. This principal is a door stop.
gutrake
September 27th, 2011
9:00 pm
blacksheep, you got me! Notice how my posts started out appropriately and then digressed. It was because I was sooo taken with the responses. However, the standard talking points have ceased hemmhoraging…can you explain that? Come on folks…stand up for your delusions!! Don’t let me make you run and hide. I like open and honest discourse. Learn to think for yourselves!!
gutrake
September 27th, 2011
9:08 pm
So much for free speech. I wish ya’ll well, though.
Beetzmee
September 27th, 2011
9:08 pm
Funny how folks on the left espouse racism and yet are okay with the black panthers showing up at voting stations to scare away republican voters in the last general election. One must either go back to the days of Jim Crow laws, Beirut, or Afghanistan on election day to experience that high handedness……can you say hypocrisy? And this coming from the party of inclusion…..go figure….the party that screams at anyone who disagrees and promotes real violence to the same…….Malcolm X anyone?
And yet, as much as I do not care for this president I find something fundamentally wrong with kids opting out of jack Shiite of anything let alone the president’s yawn inducing speech. as if the kids are paying attention…as if….at least it cuts down on the babysitting costs……if you want the kids to learn anything, instill corporal punishment. It more than worked in our day and I am sure if you could get the lawyers to shut up long enou it would work in their time too…..but I digress….
Look, shut up kids and parents, stick your kid in every assigned assembly no matter how unsettling because he is the president….the office has earned it. He’s just the latest caretaker. Besides, if I could endure 4 years as a US Marine under Carter as a republican, complete with his bumbling of just about everything, certainly your kids can endure an hour of this empty suit….er President pro tempor…get over it….go listen, imagine your future, if you can and remember, this is the guy that shoved a 10 Ton load of debt on you and yours….and then judge for yourself between your texting sessions and day dreaming…
Semper Fi…..or as we used to say, Simply Forget Us…..
DC
September 27th, 2011
9:12 pm
another year or so of this and the false cries of racism and bigotry will take their rightful place in the ash heap where they belong. Please keep them coming. It’ll only hasten the time when almost everyone realizes what they really are…..a way for the “user” to silence dissent and get what that person wants from others..
dawggirl95
September 27th, 2011
9:14 pm
Anytime we have a speaker come into our school we have the parents sign a permission slip or an opt-out slip. Children are a captive audience and parents should have the right to decide if their child hears certain speakers, even if it is the President. Many people are assuming the parents will take the opt out. Our school has had a total of one student opt out in the last 2 years. The schools are just giving parents the opportunity to make the decision for their child. There is nothing wrong with that.
DC
September 27th, 2011
9:16 pm
of course there is, Dawg….after all, it’s racist!!
Doug
September 27th, 2011
9:17 pm
This just makes me sick. Period. So much for respect four nation’s leader. Bunch of redneck racists.
Doug
September 27th, 2011
9:19 pm
I left a word out. Bunch of stupid redneck racists.
Amazing
September 27th, 2011
9:20 pm
These speeches are not political other than adults trying to make the speech political. His speeches have been nothing more than motivational speeches to encourage studnets to work hard to realize their educational dreams. He should be commended for starting this trend. We have become so cynical that the things we should unite on such as academic achievement become fodder for the political games played on both sides of the aisle. Some of the comments on this blog are simply pathetic.
Teach SS
September 27th, 2011
9:37 pm
It is a crying shame that if I choose as a teacher to allow a student to watch a speech by anyone else, I don’t need permission. I’m the professional and as long as I am not showing something with poor language or adult themes, for example, then I can show it if it fits in my curriculum. As a SS teacher, and studying government right now in 7th grade, this is a perfect example of many things: free speech and a leader expressing concern for their country (democracy vs autocracy at its best!). I can show Hitler, Mao Zedong or Ho Chi Minh (any of you smarties know who they are?),, Mandela, Gandhi: all leaders we study, yet are controversial.
So fine, your kid can go sit in the library and read a book and get singled out by because you can’t rise up and see that your child is an individual with the right to see all sides of the story. Congrats!
dform
September 27th, 2011
9:40 pm
My child is my responsibility and I have a say in what he is and is not exposed to. I don’t happen to like the last few speeches Obama has made and find those speeches racist. I don’t want my child thinking that it’s okay to talk to anyone like the way Obama has, so I opt for my child and I to sit and watch it together, so that we can discuss what is being said and the message that is getting across. As a former teacher, I see how our children are being indoctrinated in our schools and hopefully more parents are beginning to wise up and see it too. If our children understood our own history, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, other important documents, and points in history and even understand democrats and republicans throughout history, than I would have not problem with much of what is happening in our schools, but our children aren’t taught the country’s history and what little that is taught is very skewed to a particular point of view. Look at your children’s history books and you will see this to be true.
Teach SS
September 27th, 2011
9:52 pm
Yes, dform: you have a say by enrolling them in our public schools. but unless you receive approval for every lesson plan, then let teacher’s teach and continue it at home with communication. Opting your child out of a speech/lesson/video/movie that is about EDUCATION is not healthy. And have you watched the past 2 back-to-school Obama speeches: because they were well written and not racist.
CollegeMan
September 27th, 2011
9:55 pm
Outstanding! It is an example of true liberty. Freedom to choose to listen or to opt out of being propagandized by a hyper-partisan liberal. Well Done to the administrators for being pro-choice on educational options.
MiltonMan
September 27th, 2011
10:07 pm
Good for them. We already hear enough of this clown with his “Hope & Change” & “Fast & Furious” garbage.
I guess Obozo is going to tell the kids he wants to tax their lunch money.
MiltonMan
September 27th, 2011
10:09 pm
Can hardly wait seeing the teachers salivating when the see their man giving a speech about how great our elementary, middle & high schools are in this country.
Race Card? If the shoe fits ....
September 27th, 2011
10:10 pm
All of you closeted racists on this post should go ahead and admit it. At least we would have more respect for you.
The ONLY reason these parents were given the choice to opt out of a speech from THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, is because he is not 100 percent white. Not even Bill Clinton (who you righties HATED) was treated with as much blatant disrespect as President Obama. No need to wonder why. You know why. And you can try to intimidate people into NOT calling out racism and prejudice when they see it, by trying to marginalize them with the phrase “pulling the race card.” But you don’t intimidate me, nor any other person of reasonable intelligence. It is what it is. It’s not our fault you’re racist. You can either admit and and try to educate yourself to become more tolerant and accepting of others, or you can admit it and be proud of it. Either one is fine with me. Just know that you’re not fooling anyone.
And let’s dispense with all of this “socialist” nonsense. Half of you nitwits still don’t know what the word means. You just hear it a lot on FOX News and from the likes of Hanity (intellectual lightweight) and Limbaugh (dope fiend) and it sounds good. The other half of you are too unintelligent (I’m being politically correct in not calling you stupid or ignorant) to understand the concept.
If you don’t think our good ‘ol US of A isn’t rapt with examples of socialism, again, you’re pretty unintelligent. If you want to live an “unsocialistic” lifestyle, don’t call the police or the fire department the next time you need them. Call a private detective or a professional, privately owned fire fighting team. We wouldn’t want you to be touched by that nasty socialism, would we?
I Can’t Hear You… « Spurious Reality?
September 27th, 2011
10:13 pm
[...] Gwinnett students allowed to opt out of Obama’s speech [...]
DC
September 27th, 2011
10:19 pm
ahh, the “tolerant folks” are out in force again, it appears. Strange how, in life, it seems that:
- those who are quick to call others hypocrites, are usually the biggest hypocrites
- those who claim others are “intolerant” are often the least tolerant of other’s ideas
- those who claim “racism!!” at will are often the biggest racists of all……
Frederick Douglass
September 27th, 2011
10:23 pm
Good gracious, has this country gone collectively bonkers? I’m sure there are parents that wouldn’t think twice about their kids listening to Rush Limbaugh, whose message isn’t in any way positive, but they want to opt out of an innocuous speech by the president. These parents need to reevaluate some of the things they say in front of their children on any random day of the week, because given their response to this situation, clearly it can’t be all good.
@Beetzme
September 27th, 2011
10:28 pm
You know absolutely NOTHING about Malcolm X nor his teachings, only what you’ve heard others say he supposedly said. In short, he simply encouraged Black Americans, in no uncertain terms, to educate themselves, take care of their children and families and yes, arm and protect themselves — just as whites had been doing for centuries.
I guess that scared the bujeezus out of you and your ilk … a Black man who showed no fear of you, was smarter than you and was unrepentant in his quest to make sure that other Black men and women did the same. Malcolm X NEVER ONCE encouraged unprovoked violence against white society.
Additionally, toward the end of his life when he found and studied true Islam, he started an organization called the Organization of Afro-American Unity, with the goal of improving the condition of Black Americans through building coalitions with people of color from other nations AND well-meaning whites who were smart enough to realize that there was nothing to fear from having a strong, intelligent Black community in America.
Shame of Georgia
September 27th, 2011
10:33 pm
Td why do you hate on President Obama for any good thing to help people.
@DC
September 27th, 2011
10:35 pm
Spew as much neo-con, tea bagger rhetoric as you like. The bottom line is still you’re either a racist or you’re not. If you are, fine. It’s a very free country. If you’re not, then there’s no need for the attempt at lecturing those of us who already know what you are at heart.
Or as my wife’s grandma used to say, “A hit dog will holler.” I guess being called racist “hits” folks like you pretty hard. No wonder you “holler” so loudly. Sorry!
left wing
September 27th, 2011
10:37 pm
Kim—-Is that your answer to everything??????
Maybe you should expand your thought process
td
September 27th, 2011
10:43 pm
Race Card? If the shoe fits ….
September 27th, 2011
10:10 pm
I see you do not understand the term socialist. Fire and police protection has nothing to do with socialism. If Al Sharpton calls Obama a Social Democrat then why can you not tell the truth. Is he the only one on the left with the courage to be proud of what the left is? When Obama talks about redistribution of wealth and social justice then what does he mean if it is not socialism?
BTW: I said it earlier that if it was Herman Cain or Clarence Thomas delivering a speech about education then I am sure these parents would not have a problem. This is not about race but about socialism. If what Danny X said in his post earlier is true then this is nothing more than a propaganda filled campaign speech and has nothing to do with education and should not be heard by any of the children in schools.
Voice of reason
September 27th, 2011
10:45 pm
Parents have the right to opt out. I just hope they do it for the right reason. It believe it also reflects narrow-mindedness so prevalent in the nation among certain groups of people. I wonder how long will it take for them to realize that their children would have missed a valuable opportunity to hear from the leader of the free world. Listening to someone does not mean that you agree. Amazingly, this is probably members of the group that wants to be heard when they share the good news about our Lord or when they want to share how wrong abortion is even when others do want to hear it. Yes, they want to be heard but dont want to listen or allow their children to listen. How do you demand a respect you are not willing to give. When their children grow up on the wrong side of history, then maybe they will regret it. Nevertheless, this is America. It is one’s choice to be close-minded, ignorant, and even racist. However, there are consequences to one’s choices.
td
September 27th, 2011
10:49 pm
Shame of Georgia
September 27th, 2011
10:33 pm
I do not hate Obama. I think he is a good role model for the entire nation when it comes to family. I hate his policies with every fiber of my mind, soul and body. I have done my research and can tell you he is a socialist. Socialism is a disease that is ruining this country and must be stopped at any cost.
td
September 27th, 2011
10:54 pm
Shame of Georgia
September 27th, 2011
10:33 pm
Td why do you hate on President Obama for any good thing to help people.
BTW: What good things has he done to help the people?
Voice of reason
September 27th, 2011
10:59 pm
The majority of this country has elected socialists for hundreds of years. However, people wait until they have a President who happens to be African-American to magnify the designation. Sadly, since racism is often not recognized by the persons espousing it, those who identify President Obama as socialists only prolong their release from a character flaw that is so prevalent among so many uninformed people in denial. The Presidents who implemented social security, Medicare, unemployment, farm subsidies, pork spending, etc. are socialists. I can assure you that none of them were African-american but I do not hear the right calling them socialist. Much more, I do notv hear those benefitting from these social programs offering to abstain in order to not be socialists. America, the ignorance of the electorate is unbearable.
td
September 27th, 2011
11:06 pm
Voice of reason
September 27th, 2011
10:59 pm
Yes, FDR, Wilson, Carter and Johnson were all socialist. Wilson and FDR were probably closet communist.
For you to say that I am a racist because I think Obama is a socialist is total BS and you know it. I can guarantee you that I stood up, called and wrote my Senators when the liberals were lynching Clarence Thomas. I can just about bet you were either trying to help lynch him or did not say anything in his defense because you are a socialist as well and know that Thomas stood up and was a proud conservative.
jm
September 27th, 2011
11:08 pm
opt out? In N Fulton, my kid’s school made us sign permission slips to opt in. Seriously. They are the educators – let them watch the speech and determine if it’s worth losing the instructional time to hear what is likely to be an inspirational message geared at students. Don’t let dimwitted parents have to do that ahead of time. Any parent that opts out or doesn’t say yes is a pinhead. Yeah, O’Reilly…I said it.
td
September 27th, 2011
11:15 pm
Voice of reason
September 27th, 2011
10:59 pm
BTW: To show how your whole argument is made up and you do not evern know anything about history. Obama said that the critics of FDR called him a socialist:
“What’s happened is that whenever a president tries to bring about significant changes, particularly during times of economic unease, then there is a certain segment of the population that gets very riled up,” Obama said. “FDR was called a socialist and a communist.”
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/sep/22/barack-obama/obama-roosevelt-socialist-communist/
• “Roosevelt is a socialist, not a Democrat,” declared Republican Rep. Robert Rich of Pennsylvania during a debate on the House floor on July 23, 1935. That remark came after Republicans hinted they were considering a move to impeach Roosevelt, according to the New York Times .
• “The New Deal is now undisguised state socialism, declared Senator Simeon D. Fess (R-Ohio) today as he pictured President Roosevelt as the New Deal’s leading socialist,” reported the Chicago Daily Tribune on Aug. 7, 1934. “The president’s recent statements,” Fess said, “remove any doubt of his policy of state socialism, which necessitates increased activities of the government in either ownership or operation of industry, or both.”
• “The Russian newspapers during the last election [1932] published the photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt over the caption, ‘The first communistic President of the United States,’” said Sen. Thomas Schall, a Republican from Minnesota. “Evidently the Russian newspapers had knowledge concerning the ultimate intent of the President, which had been carefully withheld from the voters in this country. In fact, the voters of the United States were meticulously misled as to such intentions.” We found Schall’s comments in the book, All But the People: Franklin D. Roosevelt and his Critics, 1933-1939
td
September 27th, 2011
11:17 pm
Voice of reason
September 27th, 2011
10:59 pm
Just to prove your entire assumption is totally made up and you know not what you are talking about:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/sep/22/barack-obama/obama-roosevelt-socialist-communist/
Douglas T
September 27th, 2011
11:20 pm
The GCPS board is in bed with the Republican power structure. Alvin Wilbanks is directly involved with Republican power brokers. That is reality.
cs
September 27th, 2011
11:50 pm
what a bunch of horsechit!! can we opt our children out of marchin looter king day, black history month, cinco de mayo, terrorist and unconvicted war criminal abe lincoln worship?etc etc? at least obama is president of the united states!
honested
September 27th, 2011
11:53 pm
tiny dog
‘even his supporters call him a social Democrat after the European Socialist movements’
HUH?
If you ever get out of the ‘villes’ and talk to grown up civilized people, you will realize just how dead wrong that infantile statement is.
I am an Obama Supporter. I wish he was at least a Progressive or better yet a Leftist Democrat, but it ain’t so. He is a died in the wool corporatist. I need look no farther than the Affordable Care Act which had the opportunity to free Americans from the vile parasites known as ‘for profit health insurance companies’. Yet, those entities are still with us and still shaving 35% off the top of every dollar every American spends on for profit health care. Tell me how that is ’socialist’.
B. Thenet
September 27th, 2011
11:53 pm
td: Taxes have yet to be raised since Barrack Obama has become President. Hardly the act of a socialist I would say.
It is certainly true that FDR was called socialist and a communist, then again all the pitiful minority of GOPers in the country back then had was name calling. The fact that tenants of the New Deal have lasted nearly a century in a country widely regarded as one of the most politically conservative in the world shows how absurd the claim is.
I feel sorry for the children of the people whose parents have so much hatred(political hatred, racial hatred, take your pick) in their hearts that they can’t stand to have their children listen to the President speak. It shames us all.
Canecutter
September 28th, 2011
1:09 am
I think it is a great idea that the childern are allowed to opt out of the speach. If the president would give a speach like he did when Congress woman Gifford was shot no kid should miss it but now since it is election time his tone has changed. he has turned into civil rights marching, racist, pick up your boots and march against the world you brothers. I don’t respect a man like this.
Look at the facts since he has been in office. Unemployment has not dropped below 9% for the nation and for blacks 15% since he has been in office. With these terrible numbers he has failed to create jobs and shifted the blame to the republicans. This is insane. The marching needs to take place and it needs to be done and the area needs to be right around his office demanding jobs for the middle class.
The Thin Guy
September 28th, 2011
1:22 am
Should German Jewish children have been required to listen to Der Furhrer back in the 30s? Why force anyone to listen to that low grade moron ØDumbø read his racist class warfare Marxist drivel rant? Just knowing the jerk exists is bad enough. Having to listen to it is unbearable. Great that parents can elect to not having their offspring brain washed by the left wing hate mongers running and ruining this country.
MM
September 28th, 2011
2:10 am
I could not believe what I was reading. Denise P. Showell should be ashamed of herself. By what fallacious reasoning can she convince herself she is justified doing this? I’m sure it can be difficult standing up to all the right-wing crazies in this land, some of them parents, but Showell is a coward, pure and simple. This is so sad.
Don Abernethy
September 28th, 2011
3:30 am
Why are most of the comments from liberals? Most of my friends avoid Obama speeches not because he is black but because he is a socialist. The fact that he is President does not mean we have to listen to him just because he is the President. We check out his speeches after he speaks just to make sure we know the high lights of his speech.
Buckhead Boy
September 28th, 2011
3:42 am
I find this talk of opting-out rights most bewildering. As someone with no children, who has paid mightily to educate present public school students, their parents and probably most of their parents’ parents, do you suppose that I enjoy the right to opt-out of paying for the administration of opting-out? I’ve assumed that I was paying to extend the privilege to others to attend the public schools. Now I find out that some of those who avail themselves of this privilege assert the right not to hear from the President of the United States as presented in the public schools. Presumably, the sperm conveys rights that I know nothing about. As I say, most bewildering.
Techfan
September 28th, 2011
4:53 am
It’s a simple test, research and see if parents were given the same option in 1986 with Reagan and in 1991 with GHW Bush.