School Districts Ban President Obama’s Education Speech

Schools that did not show President Obama’s Back to School Speech on September 8th:

Arizona
Deer Valley Unified School District did not show the speech in its elementary or middle schools[1]

California
Newport-Mesa Unified School District California[2]

Florida
Collier County schools[3]
Lee County schools[4]

Georgia
Cherokee County school system [5]
City of Marietta district[6]
Cobb County school system, [7]
Fulton County school system[8]

Illinois
Quincy school district[9]

Indiana
DeKalb County Eastern Community Schools[10]
East Allen County Schools[11]
Greenwood School district[12]

Maine
Brewer school district[13]

North Carolina
Claremont Elementary School[14]

Ohio
Hamilton City School District
New Albany-Plain Local School District
WhitehallSchool District

Pennsylvania
North Allegheny district[15]

Tennessee
Williamson County schools[16]
Wilson County schools[17]

Texas
Arlington school district[18]
Plano school district[19]

Virginia
Charles County school [20]
Loudoun County schools [21]

Schools that did not show the speech, but allowed teachers to show a recording of the speech at a later date:

Florida
Escambia county public schools[22]
Santa Rosa county public schools[23]

Georgia
Forsyth County schools[24]

Ohio
Boone County, Ohio Schools [25]
Forest Hills, Ohio schools[26]

Pennsylvania
Penn-Trafford school district[27]
Plum Borough school district[28]
Upper St. Clair school district[29]

Virginia
Newport News School District[30]
York County Schools[31]

Wisconsin
Green Bay School District[32]
Trevor-Wilmot School District[33]

Non-ideological reasons cited for not showing the speech:

1. School not in session (e.g., Los Angeles, New York City)

2. School did not have  technical capacity to show speech (e.g. did not have televisions in every classroom, or lacked the bandwidth capacity to stream the speech)

3. School decided that running the speech would be an interruption and would take time away from the curriculum.   Some schools also did not run the speech because it interrupted first day of school procedures.  Other schools did not show the speech because it ran during scheduled lunch period.

Other trends observed:

1. School districts and schools allowing teachers to decide on whether or not to show the speech on a class-by-class basis

2. Allowing students to opt out (some schools required a parent-signed permission slip)

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