| "Tut tut. Merely an accidental bit of propagandizing..." |
Presidential debate number three is in the books, and most polls show the race a dead heat. Thursday, the Missoula School District studied how documents promoting the democratic ticket ended up going home to parents of third-graders at Hawthorne Elementary. School officials are already apologizing for what they call an honest mistake. Hawthorne Principal Steve McHugh: "It's a whoops, it's a mistake. We're sorry -- Missoula, we're sorry."
This was not meant for parent's eyes. But, pro-Democrat literature accidentally went home with third-grade students from Hawthorne Elementary. McHugh: "It was definitely a mistake. Certainly we're sorry that it happened, we're certainly not trying as a school district or Hawthorne school to tell people who to vote for." The paperwork is from the Missoula Unified Political Action Committee for Education. It supports state and national democratic candidates for office. Officials say the information was intended for teachers, not students. McHugh: "It is very clear to people in the district that work for the district that you are not to do anything that will try to persuade anybody when you're working for the school district during the day." It's a simple error that shows how careful educators have to be to keep political views out of school discussion. Both parents and school officials say they understand why this happened, and believe there was no intentional wrongdoing. Principal McHugh says he apologized to the 14 families that received the paperwork. |