September 8, 2009

The first day of school and for some students in Central Oregon advice from the President to start the year.

President Obama says "You can not drop out of school and just drop into a good job..you've got to train for it, and work for it and learn for it."

7th grader Mikayla Schumacher listened to President Obama in her Science class at Sky View Middle School Tuesday morning.

Schumacher says "We are responsible for our own education and future and that we shouldn't quite on ourselves and if we quite school we are quitting on our country."

Bend La Pine School District let schools decide whether or not to show President Obama's speech.

At Sky View, the Principal let teachers decide.  Students had an option to stay in a common area if their parents didn't want them to watch.

It was a similar situation in Redmond, Sisters, and Crook County Schools.  School's not in session yet in Jefferson County.

Scott Edmondson, Principal Sky View Middle School says
"I think some people were afraid that the President might take that platform as an opportunity to turn it into a political discussion, which he didn't do."

Ponderosa Elementary School in Bend decided not to show the President's speech after hearing from concerned parents.

Teresa Hjeresen, Principal at Ponderosa Elementary Schools says, "We received phone calls from parents that really kinda started taking it in a political way so we decided to stick to business and if parents want to record his message and listen to it later we thought that might be the best way to go."

The majority of schools in Central Oregon did not show the video message. Many explaining the timing was bad during a hectic first day and some schools start at 9 A-M or later..after the President had begun his speech.