President ‘s Speech Splits Community

“Today I was proud to be an American but I was ashamed to live in Lee County,” John Traube told Lee County School Board members after Superintentdent James Browder did not allow President Obama’s speech to be broadcast live to students. Traube called the decision “censorship.” Another parent praised the school board and Dr. Browder saying he would have yanked his children out of school had the speech been broadcast.

“This is splitting the community,” said board member Jeanne Dozier. The problem for board members was not knowing ahead of time what was in the speech. “I didn’t know the content until yesterday,” (Monday) said board member Steven Teuber. “I think Dr. Browder acted in accord with our policy.”

Board member Robert Chilmonik was concerned some students would not be able to see the speech at all. “We have students who live on dirt floors in this school district,” said Chilmonik. He offered a motion for the video to be broadcast September 11^th but the motion did not pass.

Despite the concerns the recording of the President’s speech will be available for viewing. District officials released this statement:

“After reviewing President Barack Obama’s speech to students on September 8, 2009, Lee County Public Schools will be making it available to teachers and schools starting Wednesday, September 9th, 2009.

Curriculum officials reviewed the speech to determine if it aligns with the Sunshine State Standards and current District academic plans in order to make it available as an instructional resource for teachers and schools. Along with placing it on the Video Courier library for teachers to access on demand, it will be added to the District’s instructional resource library as a DVD which can be checked out by teachers.

The video is also being posted to the District’s Web site as a streaming video along with the text of the speech (as a PDF document) for visitors to download if they so choose. In addition, the District will rebroadcast the speech on TV99, the District’s Comcast Cable Channel (channel 99,) for the community on the following schedule:

• Wednesday, September 9th, immediately following the re-broadcast of the School Board meetings from September 8th, 2009 (approximately 8 p.m.)

• Thursday, September 10th, immediately following the broadcast of the Game of the Week (approximately 8 p.m.);
• Friday, September 11th at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
• Saturday, September 12th at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.

“The White House and Department of Education handled this very, very poorly,” said board member Elinor Scricca. “I promise you next time there will be a lot more notice.”