Aspen-area school superintendent still on hot seat for banning Obama speech

It’s been more than two weeks since President Obama’s shockingly innocuous speech to schoolchildren urging them to, gasp, stay in school and work hard, but some school districts are still battling bitterly over the ongoing intrusion of big government into our everyday lives.

According to the Aspen Daily News, the Roaring Fork School District just can’t let it go after Superintendent Judy Haptonstall blocked teachers district-wide from showing the Sept. 8 speech live in classrooms. Many parents are still calling for Haptonstall’s head on a plastic cafeteria tray over what they deemed partisan suppression of a presidential prerogative.

Asked by school board members to provide a clear policy for future circumstances that might call for censoring the nation’s chief executive, Haptonstall provided one with a provision that would require the White House to supply the content of a speech 15 days in advance. It also stated such speeches could not be aired in schools within six months of an election.

The Daily News reported those provisions would likely be stripped out of the new policy by the school board.

“I think that level of person would not have to submit their speech to us 15 days before,” school board member Bill Lamont said. “It’s a respect of the office.”

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