***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***

9/7/2009

 I just received a phone call from Superintendent James Stratton of La Canada Unified School district. He explained to me that his reported quote in the LA Times was taken out of context and that he completely understands my anger along with many in this town based on that article. He has also assured me he is doing everything he can today to make sure that the Presidents message is available for viewing for all the students at all the La Canada Schools. The three elementary schools will be showing it live via cable. The High School will be showing it live via cable where they can (some of the school is having some technical difficulties there) but will be showing it in the auditorium with an over head projector onto the screen. It will also be made available with a 30 minute delay online for all the students. 

After we spoke, minutes later I received an automated phone call (that went out to all parents) explaining their position that they are making the Presidents "Great Non-Partisan" speech available to all the classes that gives the students a great message of studying and working hard in school.  He also gave the link to read the speech online. Rather than paraphrase...I will wait for the e-mail that also includes the recorded message and post it on my Facebook page and update it here in this posting. 

Whether it was an out of context misquote or not (which I believe after speaking with him, that he was taken out of context)...I want to personally thank all of you that helped make this go viral, both here and those that linked to this on their facebook accounts..and flooded his e-mail accounts and filled his voice box to capacity...putting them in the office today to make sure the right thing was being done tomorrow.

Below is the original posting.

********************************************

James Stratton, the Superintendent of La Canada Unified School District , where my two children attend, was reported by the LA Times as making the following statement:

"We're an academic institution, and our responsibility is to cover specific content standards," said James Stratton, superintendent of schools for La Cañada Unified School District, where the school year got off to a late and rocky start because of the nearby wildfires. In his district, he said, the speech will be shown only in those classes where it "has any relation to the California content standards for that particular class."

As Mitchell Landsberg and Jason Song said in the article: That's a tough bar for any politician to hurdle.

The full LA Times article is here.

 You know what...if you dont want your kids to attend school that day, fine, completely absurd to me, but fine. But for the Superintendent of a school system to come up with a way to not show it at all...it's just plain outrageous and cowardly to use such a "it's really not my call" loophole.

La Canada is primarily a Republican town (I know I live in LA...and yet these pockets do exist), however, the majority of voters, even here in an overwhelmingly scaled tipped Republican percentage...voted for Obama. Now...that's not to say we still dont have our way over the top right wingers here, but more often that not, the political discussions around are without rhetoric.

And yet...James Stratton took this course of action...probably thinking this would be a localized issue that would eventually go away, or worse yet, not thinking at all. Well, thanks to the LA Times and bloggers world wide...he's standing there with his pants down, probably thanking God it's a three day weekend.

Even today on Fox News of all things...Newt Gringrich and Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a former education secretary under President George H.W. Bush, said today that Obama's speech to the schools is "good for America" and "the President of the United States should be able to address students." More than likely to distance themselves from the insane rhetoric surrounding this issue. Forget the lesson plan, no one in their political right mind wants to be associated with a President's speech to school children as socialist/marxist way to indoctrinate political ideals or even utilizing a page out of the nazi youth brainwashing tactics book.

But back to Superintendent Stratton...

Apparently the President's message of encouraging hard work in school isn't relevant to California's content standards and yet many other nearby school districts are showing the speech. Even Glendale is allowing the speech but also giving parents the opportunity to decide if their child should view it or not...but I guess Superintendent Stratton holds La Canada Schools to higher standards.

Luckily Superintendent Stratton is up for re-election and this will not be forgotten. I've already spoke with many other parents around here that are outraged over this, both republicans and democrats (not that it should matter the political affiliation in my opinion).  So Stratton and School Board member Joel Peterson, who is also up for re-election...might only have a snow ball chance in hell of keeping their office.

But it's never too late to do the right thing. A lot can still happen between now and 9am (pacific time) on Tuesday. And with your help this might be possible. If you feel the same way I do please feel free to contact James Stratton and Joel Peterson.