Michelle Obama – Yet another school has decided to make a political point by rejecting first lady Michelle Obama—this time an elementary school in Chesterfield County, Virginia.
Officials claimed that it went against school policy to allow the First Lady of the United States to speak at the school while on the campaign trail in Virginia. But according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, school officials refused to discuss their reasoning.
But James Holland, a Dale District Supervisor, and the only Democrat on the five-member Chesterfield board, was willing to talk.
“I do believe and think that Mrs. Obama, the first lady, should be allowed to attend a Chesterfield school.”
He said “I know it’s not school policy. However, I just do not agree with that, because I think it’s an honor for the first lady to visit a school.”
The Obama campaign in a released statement saying that the campaign considers a wide range of locations to when planning its events and the school was among the possible locations, however, the campaign decided on CenterStage theater as the preferred location to hold their event.
This was the second rejection in a week in Virginia—a few week ago, the University of Virginia refused to allow the president’s campaign to hold an event at one of their outdoor venues at the Charlottesville campus.
University of Virginia officials said allowing the event to be held at the venue would have led to the closing of other facilities and disruption of classes, on only the second day of the semester.
The Dispatch also reported a statement from Tim Bullis, the school division’s community relations director, who wrote, “If a political campaign were to inquire about the use of a school facility during the school day, the campaign would be referred to a School Board Policy 6100, which prohibits the use of school facilities during the school day for political purposes.”
