NEWS ALERT: Himes Addresses Obama's Speech to Students

Rep. Jim Himes held a press conference Monday at 4 p.m. on the steps of Town Hall with New Canaan parents ahead of President Obama's speech to the nation's school children.

The White House has posted the text of the speech President Obama will deliver at noon Tuesday from Arlington, VA.

Himes has also sent a letter to school superintendents in the 4th district urging them to give students the opportunity to hear the speech Tuesday.

In response to concern from parents, David Abbey, the superintendent of New Canaan public schools, sent a letter Friday explaining that the speech would not be presented to students in kindergarten through fourth grade Tuesday. Instead, according to the letter, elementary school administrators and teachers would review the speech, "deciding its appropriateness for various grade levels." It would be left to the discretion of teachers at Saxe Middle School and New Canaan High School whether or not to show the speech live.

Although Abbey's intent was to avoid censorship of the president while dispelling furor over the speech, in his letter to superintendents Himes called decisions by Abbey and other educational leaders to delay its presentation or not show the speech at all "deeply disappointing."

"I prefer an America in which our schoolchildren watch the speech and are asked to think about it. In which their teachers ask them if they agree with the President or not," Himes wrote. "I imagine an America in which students return home on Tuesday and hear what their mom and dad thought of the speech and have a discussion about it over the dinner table."