President Barack Obama's speech on education was not shown Tuesday in Traverse City Area Public Schools, in part because students had a half-day of classes and many were dismissed before the start of the address, administrators said.
Teachers will be allowed to stream it online or show a taped version to their students at a later date, but those at East and West middle schools will need to have signed permission slips from parents prior to any broadcast, principals said.
Several parents called asking if the schools were going to show the speech, district spokeswoman Alison Arnold said, and in some cases they expressed a political opinion.
East Principal Glenn Solowiej and West Principal Pam Alfieri said they decided to require the permission forms so parents could have their children removed from class if teachers planned to show it.
An alternate lesson plan would be developed.
The decision is "the way of offending the least number of people," Arnold said. "To just show it the next day, it could imply that we were not being up front with them."
-- By Lindsay VanHulle
