Presidential Speech Decision-making

In response to questions being raised regarding President Obama's back-to-school speech to students on September 14, we wanted to provide some background on the chosen District procedure.

The Mansfield ISD administration made the choice to use permission slips to assist our campuses in preparing proper facilities and equipment to accommodate students who wish to view the speech live. The permission slips were not intended as a way to prohibit students from watching the speech. As we have stated in prior communications, we feel the speech can be used by our teachers in future classes as it fits with their lesson plans. This is the only event during the year where we attempt to show a live broadcast to a large group of students at the same time. We set the September 10 deadline to give our campus and district administrators a reasonable amount of time to adequately plan for this potentially large-scale live broadcast event in MISD.

In our discussions with parents this year and last, we realize this event carries a special emotional and/or political significance in our community. We are making every effort to be sensitive to the wishes of all parents in our decision-making, although we realize we cannot satisfy everyone’s specific wishes.

Thank you for your understanding, patience, and for being part of our school district.

(Updated: September 10) We learned on the afternoon of Thursday, September 9 that the speech will occur at 12 PM CST. Since this falls within the lunch times for schools, we are working through the realities of lunch logistics with our Student Nutrition Department and the campuses in preparation for Tuesday’s live broadcast.