A Chesterfield County elementary school in Virginia rejected First Lady Michelle Obama’s request to speak on Thursday, citing school policy.
Tim Bullis, the school division’s community relations director, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that School Board policy 6100 prohibits “the use of school facilities during the school day for political purposes.”
Jim Holland, the only Democrat on the school board, said the school board’s denial would be appropriate if the Obama campaign’s request was for a political event, but the board could have allowed Michelle Obama to speak if the request had been for an event designated as “non-political” or “official.”
The Obama campaign said “any time the campaign looks at venues for events, we consider a range of options” and “the school was only one of several options being considered in the greater Richmond area …”
This is the third time in the last month the Obama campaign has been denied use of a venue the campaign would have preferred in Virginia. The University of Virginia rejected the Obama campaign’s request to use its Charlottesville campus for a campaign event and the owner of the “Crumb And Get It” bakery rejected a request by Vice President Joe Biden’s staff to use the store for a campaign event because the owner disagreed with Obama’s “you didn’t build that” comment.