Fiorina Hijacks Pre-School Field Trip for Pro-Life Rally

[GeoBQn]

A group of preschoolers was supposed to go on a field trip to the botanic gardens near Des Moines.  Instead, they were ushered into a pro-life rally and campaign event for Carly Fiorina taking place at the same venue.  

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/21/carly-fiorina-accused-of-ambushing-children-for-anti-abortion-rally

The parents never gave the school permission for their children to attend the event, and they are livid.  When asked for comment, a Fiorina staffer said, "We were happy that these children chose to come to Carly’s event with their adult supervisor."

They are PRE-SCHOOLERS.  They didn't have a choice!  And where was the "adult supervisor" in all of this?  If I was a parent of a child involved, I would pull my child out of the preschool and be calling for the supervisor to get fired.

[notfundy]

3 minutes ago, GeoBQn said:

A group of preschoolers was supposed to go on a field trip to the botanic gardens near Des Moines.  Instead, they were ushered into a pro-life rally and campaign event for Carly Fiorina taking place at the same venue.  

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/21/carly-fiorina-accused-of-ambushing-children-for-anti-abortion-rally

The parents never gave the school permission for their children to attend the event, and they are livid.  When asked for comment, a Fiorina staffer said, "We were happy that these children chose to come to Carly’s event with their adult supervisor."

They are PRE-SCHOOLERS.  They didn't have a choice!  And where was the "adult supervisor" in all of this?  If I was a parent of a child involved, I would pull my child out of the preschool and be calling for the supervisor to get fired.

I saw this on the news just now.  I would be BEYOND pissed, BEYOND angry - if my preschooler were ushered into any kind of a political rally, especially this one with those pictures up (re: anti-abortion).

WTF?  Does this craziness never end?   The GALL of that woman (Fiorina) and her staff.  

Edited to add:    "A Fiorina spokeswoman said in an emailed statement: “We were happy that these children chose to come to Carly’s event with their adult supervisor."    WTF - the children CHOSE to come to the event?   

[quiversR4hunting]

I would be livid! Wait what am I saying, these aren't even my kids and I am livid! Why didn't the preschool supervisors usher the kids out when they saw that it was not the right room?

Abortion and fetus at age 4; oh my god. Fiorina's campaign had better give each of those kids a free pass to the botanic gardens so they can go back.

[sparkles]

Outrageous. Not only would I be ready to rip into Fiorina, I'd be knocking down the door of the school demanding to know why none of the adults in charge put a stop to this. I have a sneaking suspicion that one of them may have been involved. It just seems too convenient that the kids happened to be while this event was going on and no school chaperone put the kibosh on it. When it comes to spewing their propaganda to any audience, no matter how inappropriate, I won't put anything past the forced birthers.

[RosyDaisy]

This is borderline kidnapping as far as I'm concerned.

[FundiesInParis]

I don't even have children and I'm livid at this.

The wench better at least buy them new botanical garden tickets.

[Mecca]

Gee, an anti-choice candidate taking away the choice of parents. Par for the course when it comes to the Republican Party.

I cannot imagine the expletives that would roll off my tongue if that had been my child used in such a manner. Hell, I do not even have kids and this angers me. 

[GeoBQn]

Someone posted the article on the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden FB page, criticizing the organization for not stopping this from happening.

Quote

 

Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden The Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden is a public institution is open to everyone, including rentals. We do not discriminate against anyone visiting our facility or renting the facility. We do not endorse any political party, candidate or group and any rental by these groups does not constitute our endorsement. The children's field trip at the garden was completed and the group was still on site enjoying the garden as public figures. It was the chaperones decision if the children attended the private rental event. We do not make decisions for our visiting public.

[NAME] You can't make a statement that it was a public institution and, in the same comment, make it clear that it was a private rental event. Someone dropped the ball and it wasn't just the preschool chaperones.

Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden We are a public institution that holds private rental events. However, based on this event we are amending our rental contracts and communication with rental clients requiring the client to acknowledge that they cannot lobby our visiting public to participate in their events.

 

 

[Anonymousguest]

Shouldn't this be on the school, not Fiorarina, or whatever her name is? Wouldn't the rally have been planned in advance? It's not like she heard some preschoolers were going to the botanical gardens and decided to crash their party. The preschool should have been aware that there was an event at the gardens and gone another day.

[Mecca]

Carly and her campaign bear some responsibility here. It is completely unethical to use kids without permission of the parents for a campaign topic such as abortion. Kids are not props. 

 

 

[Pianokeeper]

2 hours ago, notfundy said:

I saw this on the news just now.  I would be BEYOND pissed, BEYOND angry - if my preschooler were ushered into any kind of a political rally, especially this one with those pictures up (re: anti-abortion).

WTF?  Does this craziness never end?   The GALL of that woman (Fiorina) and her staff.  

Edited to add:    "A Fiorina spokeswoman said in an emailed statement: “We were happy that these children chose to come to Carly’s event with their adult supervisor."    WTF - the children CHOSE to come to the event?   

And I was ready to call these Fiorina people anti-choice. Just depends on whether you actually need words to mean what they mean! All settled, then. Yay!

[Alicja]

maaan, if I were those kids I'd be so bummed. I loved the botanical gardens as a kid. heck, I still do

[meda]

I guess it somewhat depends on if the pre-school had a religious affiliation and/or what blanket permissions and waivers parents sign when they enroll the kids. I will simply note that if my son's WMCA affiliated daycare that receives taxpayer funding and public grants ever pulled such a stunt with my kid there would be hell to pay

[samira_catlover]

2 hours ago, Anonymousguest said:

Shouldn't this be on the school, not Fiorarina, or whatever her name is? Wouldn't the rally have been planned in advance? It's not like she heard some preschoolers were going to the botanical gardens and decided to crash their party. The preschool should have been aware that there was an event at the gardens and gone another day.

Sorry, hon, but I don't think that drone flies very well. It takes a fair amount of lagtime to arrange a school event (transportation, chaperones, permissions, etc.). Expecting the visitors to a public space (especially a nice, neutral, peaceful place like a garden)  to track whoever else might be attending is a little much.

Those chaperones have a LOT of explaining to do. I concur with the possibility of some of them going "oh, goodie! publicity!", or a chance to push an agenda. Once they spotted the pix, etc., it should (IMNSHO) have been "come on kids, we're going for ICE CREAM!"

Wonder if the parents can get an injunction or something against CF, to prevent use of photos, etc.---who could sign the photo waivers?

[Toothfairy]

I would pull my kid from that preschool. Stop using children to push you're political views

[SassyPants]

Which adult gave consent to that BS?
 

This is lawsuit worthy.

[happy atheist]

I would sue Fiorina and her campaign if my child was involved in this bullshit. 

[Fascinated]

There are very few incidents that would cause us to remove our kids from their school. We would pull them for this. And very quickly. How fucking dare they do this with young children, or anyone, for that matter. 

[notfundy]

So awful. Makes me more furious by the minute. The adults from the day care center are accountable for this, as well as Fiorina and her despicable campaign. Using children as props as usual. Kids look bored silly of course and one can only hope they had no idea what the crazy lady was talking about.

[Hellogorgeous]

Teenagers aren't mature enough for sex-ed that goes beyond abstinence but let's have 3-4 year olds hear about abortion and organ harvesting. Perfect!  

[DarkAnts]

Who is going to pay for the therapy the children will require?

[Bad Wolf]

Agree with everyone. Who in their right mind would want a bunch of wriggly preschoolers when you're trying to get your point across anyway? Those poor kids will have nightmares.

[Mecca]

You know, the more I think about this the angrier I get. This is the same group that do everything in their power to cut programs and education that would help those very same kids that were used to spread this nonsense. Spare me the bull shit, Carly.

There she is spouting off about guns at the same event while using children the same age as the children that were killed at Sandy Hook. Come on. Who are they kidding here? If the Republicans want to actually save children, then how about backing better gun laws, healthcare, affordable housing, increase in pay and education? Nope. Can't do that. It is better to use scare tactics with blown up pictures in the back ground to get votes.

Assholes. The lot of them....

[Guest]

My mom taught for many years at a well-regarded preschool that was affiliated with a Protestant church.  Shit like this would have never flown.  Heads would have rolled, people would have been fired.  I hope the parents sue the school and Fiorina.  I certainly would.

Quote

“We have to take our country back. We have to take our country back,” Fiorina said. “We can do big things again but we’ve got to take our country back.”

She seems really articulate.  

[December]

The biggest crock of the whole story is this: "We were happy that these children chose to come to Carly’s event with their adult supervisor." As if a bunch of children who are too young to cross the street without holding hands can consent to attending a political rally because they just have so many feelings about abortion and why we need to make America great again...

I'll be interested to hear how the children's "supervisor" was involved in all this insanity. You don't just stumble into an anti-abortion rally with a bunch of preschoolers and then just decide to have the group hang around there for no reason.