visit to president not considered educational!

WND got most, but not all, the details clearly.

The father of the girl involved thinks it's agreat school and district. He just disagrees with the school's decision on this one.

Also, the following school day, the decision was reversed by the school, and the girl was allowed an excused absence. Additionally, the district is revising the policy to allow this type of participation to be excused asences in the future.

Now, I could be a troublemaker and ask, had Clinton been President and the girl gotten an unexcused absence, would they have reported the incident?

 

It made the headlines of the Indianapolis Star newspaper, so the heat was intense before the Superintendent saw the light. The Principal said that he made an error. A reporter for the Indianapolis Business Journal weekly newspaper said it was the fault of rigid rules and regulations that do not allow for creative exceptions. Even the Democrats said that going to see a sitting President should be an excused absence no matter who the sitting President is.

The child was a member of a children's choir that had been asked to perform for the President just a few hours before the meeting, so it was a last-minute arrangement.

The school is in Hamilton County north of Indianapolis (which is in Marion County). Hamilton County includes the silk-stocking suburb of Carmel, Indiana, and people in Westfield (where the girl was from) are by no means poor. President Bush spoke at the Pepsi Coliseum on the Indiana State Fairgrounds on East 38th Street near Meridian Street in Indianapolis. There were about seven thousand people attending, and many people with invitations were turned away as these things are always overbooked according to the television.

Also, in attendance were US Senator Richard Lugar, who introduced President Bush; the Mayor of Indianapolis Bart Peterson; US Senator Evan Bayh; Indiana Governor Frank O'Bannon; and several Congressmen from Indiana. The rest of the audience were GOP stalwarts. You know, Indiana votes for the Republican candidate for President every four years, and the announcement is usually made at five minutes after six on presidental election night that Indiana has gone Republican for President. We are usually the first state to be declared. So Bush was warmly received in Indianapolis.