By Lisa Zahner
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Indian River County School Superintendent Dr. Harry La Cava’s unilateral decision to not air a live speech by President Barack Obama on Tuesday has sent local political and community leaders off into their respective corners.
According to a sample letter from a principal sent to the school’s teachers, the policy decision by La Cava was because “it is incumbent on the District to exercise reasonable control over the instructional and media materials that may be shown to students, and if shown, the content must be educationally relevant to the class in which it is shown.” La Cava stated that both the district and individual principals and assistant principals will dictate if and when the speech can be shown, and in which classes.
The speech is intended to inspire students to stay in school, to commit themselves to education and to set goals. However, officials of the Florida Republican Party last week voiced concerns that Obama would use the venue to espouse his political agenda. At one point the Department of Education had offered as part of the teaching materials about the speech for students to consider writing letters to the president offering how they could help forward the president’s goal of students studying hard and staying in school.
Some Obama opponents seized on that material, saying it proved the Obama White House had a political agenda. The Department of Education has since removed that part of the study guide and the President has said his speech will encourage kids to work hard and stay in school.
La Cava has the full support of Tom Lockwood, 20-year chairman of the Indian River County Republican Executive Committee.
“I don’t know all of the reasons, but I support that he is trying to remain neutral,” Lockwood said. “He’s not airing the speech because, by allowing it, he would be indicating a partisan preference.”
Lockwood said La Cava is correct in being suspicious that the speech might have a “slant” toward initiatives being put forth by Democrats in Washington D.C. He said the speech should be reviewed by school officials to make sure it’s not intended to sway students to a political position.
“We need to be very careful, the schools have been very careful to keep politics away from the students,” he said. “We feel that this is an opportunity for President Obama to push his causes.”
In the north end of the county, Fellsmere Vice Mayor Joel Tyson, a staunch supporter of conservative issues, also agrees that LaCava was within his bounds to restrict students’ access to the speech before it’s vetted by district officials.
“It seems to me that Obama is grasping at straws to get his agenda through,” Tyson said. “it’s not going to mean anything to the kids anyway, they don’t understand all this stuff, but you know the parents will watch it.”
Tyson serves on the board of the North County Charter School, which he says does not have to follow La Cava’s policy. Tyson said he had not been approached by the school for an opinion on the matter and had no idea whether the charter school intends to air the speech.
“If he’s encouraging the kids, then that’s his job and I don’t see a problem with it, he’s the guy we’re all supposed to look up to,” he said. “But if he’s using this speech as the bully pulpit for political reasons, there’s a time and a place for that and the schools are not the time or the place.”
Tyson said he does recognize that former U.S. Presidents have had free access to speak to schoolchildren in public schools in the past.
“That’s where President Bush was on 9-11 when he got the news,” Tyson said. “He was at a school.”
Jon Pine, president of the progressive activist group Club Change, has a different take on the issue.
“Basically what is going on here is the School Board, with the superintendent acting on their behalf, is playing politics with our children and that’s exactly what they’re accusing our President of,” Pine said. “Once again, someone from the Right makes an outlandish claim and it gets traction before anyone has the opportunity to go check out the validity of that claim.”
Pine also recollected that President Bush was reading to children at a Sarasota school when he heard about the World Trade Center being hit on 9-11. Pine added that former presidents have not only spoken directly to students, but handed down policies such as Kennedy’s Presidential Council on Fitness.
“When I was in school, we had this Presidential Council on Fitness where we were required to perform at a minimum level on various fitness tests,” Pine said. “That was an effort by the President to improve the physical fitness of our young people and this speech by President Obama is an effort to improve their intellectual fitness.”
First Lady Nancy Reagan also led the “Just Say No to Drugs” campaign, which was the mantra of the nationwide school system in the 1980s.
Pine said grassroots protests are bubbling up all over the county, whether it be parents keeping children home from school on Tuesday to view the speech on television, families protesting at the School Board meeting on Tuesday evening or a group of religious leaders taking a stand on the issue. As of Sunday morning, Club Change had not scheduled an official protest, but Democratic State Committeewoman Pam Director has signed up to speak at the School Board meeting.
Freddie Woolfork, director of development and marketing for the Gifford Youth Activity Center, is vacationing in Orlando for the holiday, but heard about the issue. Should the 150 elementary through high school-age student who will come to the GYAC for after-school programs on Tuesday not be allowed to watch Obama’s speech at school, Woolfork said he would approach Executive Director Angelia Perry to get permission from the GYAC Board to show the speech after school. Woolfork said the GYAC students study public and historic figures across the political spectrum and allow the kids to make up their own minds.
“If the speech is about education and staying in school, that’s exactly what we’re about,” Woolfork said. “He is the President and that position comes with it a certain credibility and dignity and he’s not about to do anything to take that away.”
As a sitting President, Woolfork said Obama should be afforded the proper respect and should not have to be censored in his message to students.
“Once the election is over, whether you voted for him or not, he is the President of the United States and we don’t always agree with everything that our Presidents say or do,” he said. “He’s not a Democratic President or a Republican President, he’s the American President. I can’t believe we’re debating over whether or not our schools should let the President of the United States speak to our students.”
