Cindy Sheehan to speak at a high school in San Francisco

… on Friday the 7th:

SAN FRANCISCO – Peace activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, is scheduled to speak to students at San Francisco’s Lowell High School this Friday β€” to the chagrin of at least one parent.

Sheehan is scheduled to speak for approximately 45 minutes at an optional morning assembly that students can attend with their teacher’s permission, according to Lowell Principal Paul Cheng. Sheehan’s visit was arranged by students in the school’s Revolution Youth group, an after-school club.

When parent Matt Mitguard, who has two children at Lowell, heard about the visit, he contacted Cheng to express concern about the school hosting an assembly featuring one point of view on the war and asked if a counter-point speaker could also be asked to participate.

“The left-wing agenda is rammed down your throat here, so kids with a different point of view are not going to speak up” said Mitguard. “The onus is on the district to provide balance.”

Principal Paul Cheng said he was not opposed to having a speaker that supported the United States’ military action in Iraq come to the school, but also felt confident that students could hear only Sheehan and understand that she represented just one point of view.

“That’s our philosophy, that all points of view should be allowed” said Cheng. “The students are able to analyze all the pros and cons and discover for themselves what they want to support or not, and what they want to believe.”

Which explains why only one point of view will be represented.

Hat tip: Expose the Left

blonde sagacity has more info on Lowell High School:

Lowell High School is an “alternative” public school (Naomi Wolf is an alumni, so that explains a lot) and this little shindig with Sheehan is a students-only event. Apparently the school is being pretty tight-lipped about the event… I want to know if she is being paid for her speech!?

In this week’s school bulletin it only says “Color Wars Rally” on the day she is supposed to be there. There is also an announcement for “Rainbow Week coming in April”.

Before anyone on the left who reads this jumps the gun, I’d like to point out that the speech is “optional” for students to attend. But that’s not the point. The point is that there is apparently no alternative viewpoint being provided for the students. Also, have parents been notified?

Let’s also not forget that a majority of San Franciscans voted last November in favor of Measure I:

The military recruitment initiative also won with 60 percent in favor and 40 percent against.

Measure I, dubbed “College Not Combat” opposes the presence of military recruiters at public high schools and colleges. However, it would not ban the armed forces from seeking enlistees at city campuses, since that would put schools at risk of losing federal funding.

Instead, Proposition I encourages city officials and university administrators to exclude recruiters and create scholarships and training programs that would reduce the military’s appeal to young adults.

The message seems to be: Military recruiters in SF schools are wrong, but staunch anti-war advocates are ok.

Read more commentary via Junkyard Blog

(Cross-posted at California Conservative)

Related Toldjah So posts on San Francisco:

Related Toldjah So posts on Cindy Sheehan:

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Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on mainstream media bias and the culture wars.

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