It was supposed to be a President’s Day homework assignment: write a letter to President Barack Obama in Washington D.C.
But that assignment didn’t go over well when 7-year-old Chloe Quintanilla got home from Benavides Elementary School in Brownsville.
The second grader’s mother, Bee Quintanilla, is a Tea Party member and voted for Mitt Romney in the November general election.
Quintanilla said she does not agree with President Obama’s job in Washington D.C. and does not want her daughter writing a letter to him.
“I’m outraged… completely outraged,” Quintanilla said.
The Brownsville mother said her first reaction was to tear the paper to shreads.
She scotch-taped it back together but is now seeking alternative homework assignment for her daughter.
Action 4 News spoke to the Brownsville Independent School District about the assignment.
School district officials said the assignment is a template that was downloaded from a national education website and allows students to write comments, questions or even criticisms to the president.
But Quintanilla said she doesn’t want her daughter to participate.
“Her grandmother is in the hospital at Valley Baptist,” Quintanilla said. “She can practice writing a letter to her grandmother in the hospital. That’s fine with me but she’s not going to do this letter.”
As for Chloe, she voted for Mitt Romney in the school’s mock presidential election.
Both she and her mother view seeking an alternative homework assignment as a lesson in political expression.
“I’m fine with protesting because I’m for Mitt Romney,” Chloe Quintanilla said.
School district officials said Chloe is welcome to write an alternative assignment.
The officials said parents can always go to the teacher and the school’s principal with concerns about coursework.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKGBT