Vets visit to Minnesota school canceled

FOREST LAKE, Minn., March 25 (UPI) -- A planned visit by decorated veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars proved too controversial for one Minnesota high school, the principal said.

Forest Lake Area High School Principal Steve Massey said school leaders decided to call off the appearance by a national touring group of veterans after the school fielded several calls from parents and others opposed to the school campus event, the Star Tribune reported Tuesday. The event was to have been attended by about 150 social studies students.

"We thought we'd provide an opportunity for kids to learn about service in the context of our history classes," Massey said. "As the day progressed, it became clear that this was becoming a political event ... which would be inappropriate in a public setting."

Instead, organizers of the National Heroes Tour moved Tuesday's event to the American Legion building in Forest Lake.

"I think it's extremely unfortunate that a school would bow to the political pressure of outside groups and not bring in a veterans organization," organizer Pete Hegseth, a 1999 graduate of the school who served with the 101st Airborne in Iraq in 2005-2006, told the Minneapolis newspaper. "Are we saying that patriotism and duty and honor have no place in our public schools?"