Friday, June 05, 2009

100 Kindergarteners turned away from White House

NBC reported this: "Thursday was supposed to be the highlight of the year for more than 100 kindergarteners from Stafford County, Va. They got up early and took a chartered bus to the White House for a school field trip. But when they arrived, all the 5-year-olds got was a lesson in disappointment. The buses from Conway Elementary arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue a little later than planned, and they were locked out."

Obama told the kindergarteners to go home. Five-year-old Cameron Stine said, "'We were going to the White House, but we couldn't get in so I felt sad.' Parents say they were just 10 minutes late for their scheduled tour. School officials say White House staff said they needed to get ready for the president's event with the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, so they couldn't come in. So a long-planned field trip from a suburban Washington school broomed by the Obama White House. What about the children? Can you imagine the effect of this on these children for the rest of their lives, is nobody thinking about this? These kids, how long they had been looking forward to it, they were going to go to the White House. They were going to get a tour. They were maybe going to meet President Obama, an historic figure, and they show up and they're only ten minutes late, and the mean guards at the gate won't let 'em in because the Steelers are in there putting gift packages together to send to military troops overseas. I think they should've let the kids in and helped the Steelers. What a double whammy for Obama, let those kids in, they get the meet the Steelers, the parents get to meet Steelers, get to help 'em out putting care packages together for the troops. But no. The buses were sent away with the little children in tears. My friends, the long-term effects of this might incalculable.

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