The White House’s decision to halt public tours until further notice, allegedly due to the sequester cuts President Obama signed, is upsetting some sixth graders who just want to see America’s home.
Students at St. Paul’s Lutheran School in Waverly, Iowa are begging President Barack Obama to allow their class to tour the White House on March 16. The students posted a short video on Facebook, begging the President to let them visit.
“The White House is our house. Please let us visit!” they said while holding sheets of paper with the words written on them.
The White House had confirmed the visit through a parent planning the trip, but their tour was canceled Wednesday.
“This is our first White House trip and we’d hoped to make it an annual event,” Principal Christi Line told Politicker during a phone call. “This is a new capstone project that we have initiated this year for our sixth grade.”
Even though the news was unfortunate, Line said it was good to know now, one day after the White House announced all tours will be canceled, than closer to when they were supposed to leave for their trip.
The aforementioned parent came up with the idea to make a Facebook video in order to entice President Obama to change his mind and let them visit.
“We were absolutely adamant that this not be a political issue for us. This is not about politics for our students, this is just about wanting to have the opportunity to visit the White House,” Line said. “One of the reasons we chose Washington D.C. as opposed to Chicago or St. Louis or some place else for our capstone trip was that it’s the kind of trip that not every family has the ability to take on their own.”
The student trip is still happening, but they will visit another place in D.C. to fill the time they would have spent at, what apparently is, only Obama’s home.
The White House press office has not said what Ellie S. Schafer, director of the White House Visitors Office, will be doing to occupy all of his free time. The staffer accrues $100,000 per year, a significant increase from the $70,000 salary in 2009. Perhaps, he will now be Obama’s full-time “special assistant to the president,” a position the president appointed to him last year.
Schafer won’t be the only one with a little more free time. Obama stopped White House tours to save approximately $18,000 per week, as a result of the automatic budget cuts that have affected secret service employees. After one year of no tours, this cut could almost offset his estimated $989,207 golf weekend with Tiger Woods.
Since the kids can’t make it to DC, perhaps their teacher will show them this video of First Lady Michelle Obama and Big Bird in the White House kitchen. Close enough, right?
Here is White House Press Secretary Jay Carney’s response to their plea. * Spoiler alert * Looks like the White House isn’t changing its mind.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiJly8opb3Q]
