Texas Parents Steamed About Public-School Showing of Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11'
by Jim Brown
October 12, 2004
(AgapePress) - A high school in Beaumont, Texas, has raised the ire of parents by showing students a film produced by liberal activist Michael Moore that claims President Bush lied about a link between Osama bin Laden and Iraq.The controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 makes no bones about its intent. The movie's website describes the flick as a "searing examination" of the Bush administration that conveys an "atmosphere of confusion, suspicion, and dread" created by the administration prior to its "headlong rush towards war in Iraq." Released to theaters in late June, the documentary has been applauded by many in the liberal media -- and panned by many conservatives as being filled with anti-American propaganda.
The R-rated film was shown to high schoolers of all ages (9th- through 12th-grade) recently at Pathways Learning Center in Beaumont, much to the chagrin of parents like Michael Kurth. Kurth, a veteran, says he was outraged to hear his 17-year-old son Matthew was forced to view the film in his English class.
"Given the political charge affiliated with Fahrenheit 9/11, I can only assume that there was a personal agenda," the dad says, "because no teacher in their right mind using sound judgment would show such a controversial short film to students that are following a public educational curriculum."
Kurth says he is upset for two reasons. First, he says, the film was shown without the permission of parents. Second, he says it appears the school is attempting to indoctrinate students. "In public schools, private schools, it should make no difference. We're here to educate our children, not indoctrinate them," he says.
"You can tell a child how to think; then you enslave them to your knowledge -- [or] you can teach a child how to think and make knowledge his slave. That's my goal with the education of my children. I want the knowledge to work for them; I don't want them indoctrinated. That's not the purpose or goal of a public school."
Kurth says Fahrenheit 9/11 is not a movie he would deem appropriate for any of his children, regardless of their age.
Apparently Kurth was not alone in his reaction to the film being shown to the students. According to Tuesday's Beaumont Enterprise newspaper, several upset parents have been assured by the school superintendent that the documentary would not be shown again in the district's classrooms.
That report says Superintendent Carroll Thomas told parents who had called in with their concerns that the "one-sided movie" had no place in the Beaumont Independent School District. Thomas is quoted as saying, "We don't need to be showing biased viewpoints in BISD."
