My exchange with the Superintendant of Lewisville ISD

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Tue Sep-08-09 09:24 AM
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My exchange with the Superintendant of Lewisville ISD

Jerry Roy

I wanted to convey my great disappointment in you the Superintendant of our schools. To deny our children of this once in a lifetime event is not only despicable but cowardly as well. President Obama has been a strong proponent of our children�s education and their personal responsibility in making sure they grab every opportunity that is available to them in this country. That is what this speech is all about. Especially given the dropout rates in Texas I cannot even fathom why you would deny our children this encouragement from our President. From my understanding you have made this decision on your own without the input of anyone. I have also heard some of you on the board specifically call this speech by president Obama indoctrination in your emails to other parents. Also the fact that you will not allow teachers to show a recording of this event at a later time that is more convenient to your scheduling issues is telling. That shows your narrow minded partisanship right there and your true intentions. In the past you have had school time to be �interrupted� for presidential or government speeches. My daughter even came home one day to say that the Mayor of our city spoke to her class, I was not notified of this beforehand but although I dislike the mayor greatly, I would never think to not allow a mayor to speak to school children whether I agree with them or not. You have only objected to this president in particular, I have no doubt in my mind that you would have allowed this historic event to happen in our schools if it was any other president.

So given your cowardice in this matter, I trust that you will stick to your current personality faults, and never again allow any government official to speak to children in your schools again or allow them to watch anything televised by a government official. You can even give the excuse of not wanting to interrupt school schedules. To allow it would be utter hypocrisy on your part. I hope never to hear again my child come home from school and say so and so spoke to my class, or I watched so and so on the television in class today. I also never want to see a mock election in my child�s classroom again that uses actual candidates, make up candidates if you want to teach them about voting. I trust you will treat all government officials in the same manner that you have treated the President of the United States of America� appallingly.

I would hope that you would search your heart and your God and change your mind, and see that you have made an error in judgment. It will truly be a sad Tuesday for LISD school children if you do not. I envy those districts that have shown sound judgment in not denying this historic event to their children.

Thank you for your time

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His response:

Thank you for your email. You have every right to be disappointed in my decision. You have, however, totally missed the mark as to why I made it. I made my decision last Tuesday before any of the media frenzy or before receiving a single email or phone call. I made my decision because timing. The speech, scheduled for 11:00 a.m. our time, falls during our lunch periods. We would have had thousands of students miss all or part of it.

I have spent 38 years in public education. I am credited with 40 due to my military service which included a tour in South Vietnam. I continue to do the work, not for the compensation, but because I love what I do. I am certain that many of the decision I have made during my career could have been better. I do believe, however, that accusing someone of cowardice without full information is also bad judgment. I can't say much about your charge of personality faults. I obviously have some or I would have retired some time ago.

I would be remiss If I didn't also tell you that this decision was entirely mine. I didn't call board members to see which way the wind was blowing. I made what I thought was a good decision based upon timing.

I really do appreciate your taking the time to email me. Disagreement is not unhealthy.

Jerry Roy

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And my response to that nonsense:

Thank you for responding but I will still have to disagree with your decision and find your reasoning a bit weak. The timing of your decision makes no difference. It does not matter that you made it before you knew it would be a big deal to many parents. The point is that you made the decision at all. Timing hardly seems like a problem especially when part of the decision also includes teachers not being allowed to record the message and show it at a better time of day or even a later date. Given that you have stipulated that it will NEVER be shown in the classroom has nothing to do with timing. You must own that part of the decision as well. That part of the decision cannot be hidden behind a timing issue.

As I stated before I will hope that this decision creates a pattern and carries over into other government officials wanting to speak to the classroom. I hope that no video of a public official is ever shown again at any LISD school, because that is the precedent you have set for this issue.

Thank you again