Speech rankles

Area school districts are making it optional for teachers and students to watch President Barack Obama’s speech Tuesday about students being responsible for their success in school.

Students will have the option to skip the speech, superintendents said Friday.

Obama’s plans to deliver a live address to students at noon Tuesday has set off a nationwide stir over concerns that the president is injecting partisan politics into education.

Area school officials say they’ve not been flooded with calls, but when they’ve come, they’ve been negative.

Waynesboro Schools Superintendent Robin Crowder said about a half dozen callers had phoned the school, most of them to complain about the speech.

He said the district’s teachers are “making the decision” about whether to show the speech and may do so if the speech applies to classroom instruction.

“If the child does not want to view it, there’s no problem at all,’’ Crowder said.

In Augusta County, Superintendent Gary McQuain said a small number of residents and parents have called, most of them to sound off against airing the speech.

McQuain said it is optional for teachers to use the speech, and students don’t have to watch.

He said the time of day – noon – is not a good time because it is a prime lunch period.

And while the subject matter is not new and is positive for students,  McQuain said, “there is a new source, the president of the United States.”

McQuain said it would have be easier to make decisions about the speech had a transcript been available before the president delivered his address.

  Staunton Schools Superintendent Steven Nichols sent a letter home to parents Friday.

In the letter, Nichols said high school students will have the chance to watch the speech live in class, and if the speech is “deemed instructionally appropriate in that particular class.”

High school students who do not wish to watch the speech will be given alternative instructional work.

In grades K-8, the speech will not be viewed live in the Staunton Schools.

Nichols said in his letter that K-8 teachers and administrators will view the speech and determine how it fits the instructional program. Parents will be notified of how the speech will be used, and have the option of having their child do another activity.

“In any case, students who wish to vew the speech at school will have an opportunity at some point to do so (as spelled out above), and those who wish not to see it will not be compelled to do so,’’ Nichols wrote.