Published in print and online at The Auburn Journal September 9, 2009

Parents of some students in the Placer Hills Union School District think the president is being censored.

President Obama requested his televised speech to schoolchildren in Washington D.C. be broadcast on Tuesday in schools across the nation. In response to this news, area parents voiced their concerns to Auburn-area school districts. Some felt that the president would try to promote his political views, which led to postponed and selective airings of the speech.

Several parents with children at Sierra Hills Elementary School were upset that they were given no indication of the school district’s plans for showing the address to students prior to its live airing.

Hannah Schwartz, a former high school social sciences teacher and mother of two children who attend Sierra Hills, heard from her kids after school that they didn’t watch the speech.

“I don’t know how you can prepare kids to be part of a society if you don’t let them be a part of it,” Schwartz said on Tuesday. “They (students) have to have a connection, and for some of these kids watching their own president can be that connection. Our country is only as strong as our educated citizens.”

Molly Wollff, also a mother of two Sierra Hills students, was told by a district official that her children would only see selected portions of the speech.

“It sounds like this is censorship,” Wollff said. “It sounds to me like school policy is being set by a loud-mouthed anti-government group, and [superintendent Fred Adam] is not doing anything to assuage my concerns…”

Read the full story at auburnjournal.com