Williamston, Michigan fourth grade teacher Brett Meteyer will not allow his students to watch Donald Trump’s inauguration address because he’s worried there will be “profanity” and “inflammatory and degrading comments.”

In an e-mail to parents, the Explorer Elementary School teacher said that despite the historical nature of the event, President Trump is not someone kids should be seeing:

Dear Parents,

Because I am concerned about my students and your children being exposed to language and behavior that is not in concert with the most conservative social and family values, I have decided to show the inauguration of Donald Trump this Friday, but will not view Mr. Trump’s inauguration speech. Because every peaceful transition of power is a historic moment, I put in a request to the Trump team to preview this speech, but I have not heard back from them.

I showed the speeches of President Obama and Bush in 2009 and 2005, respectively, but I am anxious about showing Mr. Trump’s inaugural address, given his past inflammatory and degrading comments about minorities, women, and the disabled. I am also uneasy about Mr. Trump’s casual use of profanity, so I sought an assurance that as their teacher, I would not be exposing children to language that would not appear in G- or PG-rated movies.

I do not know if Mr. Trump’s speech is something that would be provided to the press or concerned citizens beforehand, but these plans may change if I hear back from them.

Hopefully,
Brett Meteyer

This e-mail was sent to Watchdog.org by a local conservative radio host, Steve Gruber, whose children attend school in the same district. He told them, “As the son of a fifth-grade teacher, it infuriates me when those in charge of our kids are trying to train them instead of teaching them. I found the letter to be outrageous!”

“What kind of message does this send to kids? ‘This president is a bad guy, and kids should not watch him?’” he added. “This is a piece of history, and the kids should be allowed to watch.”

Gruber contacted Meteyer personally to ask why he feels he can make this decision for his students. The teacher said, “I don’t need to justify what I did to you.”

Meteyer said he stands by his letter and feels “good about what I’ve done.”

Gruber asked if the school district had approved Meteyer's letter beforehand and he was told to contact them directly. He did but never heard back.

Another educator, John Mulloy, reviewed the letter for Watchdog.org and noted this is out of line with the education process:

“The letter has an obvious anti-Trump bias to it. That I have issue with. Our job as teachers is to teach diversity of thought vs. what we believe in. I don’t believe that I am in the business of teaching students my political bias.

“In the same situation, I would get parental permission. The reason why is that we are so polarized & people are so strongly either pro or anti-Trump. If his motivations for sending out the letter are true then it is a sad state of affairs that we censor our own president.”

“This guy has an agenda, and what he’s not realizing is that it’s the attitude like his that propelled Trump to victory in Michigan in the first place,” Gruber added.