Kids in Broward County Forced to Watch Dear Leader's Speech

I saw a television report on this earlier today and despite the insistence of some school boards that viewing Barack Obama's address to schoolkids Tuesday is voluntary, it sure isn't in Broward County, Florida.

On Tuesday, September 8, 2009, Broward County Public Schools students will have the opportunity to watch an online national address from President Obama on the importance of education. The Web address can be seen locally in Broward County at 12 noon on the White House Web site (www.whitehouse.gov/live), and broadcast live on BECON Channel 24.

According to Superintendent James F. Notter, there have been several calls into the Superintendent’s Office suggesting and/or requesting that alternative space and activities be provided for those students wishing to “opt out” of this activity.

“As one of the premier major school systems in America, we have consistently encouraged civics education in the broadest sense, e.g., Kids Voting, elected officials participating in Career Days, countywide broadcast of Inaugural address, etc.,” said Notter. “Therefore, providing for a separation from this Address does not align with our practices and responsibility to provide a well rounded, quality education for all students. This is the first time an American President has spoken directly to students on the importance of education and the challenge to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for one’s learning.”

The report went on to say kids would be punished if their parents kept them out of school that day.

So much from freedom of choice.

Other districts in Florida are allowing parents to make that choice.

School districts in the Tampa Bay Florida area will allow parents to opt their children out of viewing President Obama's address to American school children on Sept. 8. The mechanics of the opt-out vary from county to county. Some school districts will allow excused absences and others will send out "permission slips" requiring parents to sign off on opt-out or permission.

Hillsborough County schools will only air the speech if it is connected to the curriculum and will not notify parents of the speech. However parents can notify the school district if they want their kids opted out.

Broward County Florida, with its heavily Democrat party affiliation, will not allow parents to opt their children out of viewing President Obama's speech on Tuesday. According to Broward County school superintendent James Notter, Letting students opt out "does not align with our practices and responsibility to provide a well rounded, quality education."

Meanwhile, NY Daily News jock-sniffer Mikey Lupica says if you're opposed to this indoctrination, well, you're just a hater and a loon.

If you want to get a sense of just how haywire the country has gone lately, in less than eight months of the Obama presidency, start here. Start with the crazy people you saw on television this weekend, women actually crying that Obama's plan is really to brainwash her children, like he's invading her kid's middle school because some other President already invaded Iraq.

Of course. Who would want to put their children at risk this way, listening to a success story like this President's, listening to him describe the possibilities of both education and America, talking to them about hard work? But then so much of this comes from the same mouth-breathers who look at a health care plan as some sort of Socialist manifesto, and see opposition to it as a call to arms.

Nice. So if you oppose Obama, you're a mouth-breathing crazy person. One would think Lupica is talking down to people, but judging by his stature the only people he talks down to a dwarfs.

Pawlenty has thrown in with all those who have decided they have to hate this President on everything, already making his election seem like some kind of accident. You see Charles Krauthammer, one of the kings of the haters, writing that Obama "only" won by 7 points in a year when the Republicans blew up their own party and the economy at the same time. Right on, Krauthammer! No one, certainly not him, ever thought an African-American would come close to the presidency and now when Obama wins, he "only" wins by 7 points.

This is no longer about dissent, or disagreement with Obama's policies. This is something deeper and meaner, something that seems to come from a foreign country, not this one. How else do you explain a speech about education and hard work being seen as a threat?

Another idiot, Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer, has suggested that Obama is trying to "indoctrinate America's children to his Socialist agenda." Somebody needs to inform Greer, and fast, that Glenn Beck's time slot on Fox News hasn't opened up, at least not yet.

This confirms again Lupica is incapable of getting through a column without invoking Fox News or Glenn Beck. Somehow he managed to not invoke Rush Limbaugh, at least.

Update: Thanks to Dan Collins for sending along the perfect photo to accompany the story.