Superintendant Robert Romines of the Moore School District today threatened to have Fox 25 reporter Phil Cross and his crew arrested if they attempted to cover a school district event.

Moore Public Schools kicking Fox 25 off property where volunteers are building this playground pic.twitter.com/IWIHPHqNxn
— Phil Cross (@philsnews) August 8, 2014

Fox 25 and our company donated more than $200,000 to Moore. Now school has banned us from covering their events.
— Phil Cross (@philsnews) August 8, 2014

While other media were at the celebration for a new community-built playground facility, Fox 25 was excluded apparently because of their reporting on another conflict in the Moore schools earlier this year.

Here is a link to the story Dr. Romines was upset with originally: http://t.co/zo0qI4pIH2
— Phil Cross (@philsnews) August 8, 2014

The school district decided to change the lines that govern which kids go to which schools. For some families, the District’s decision threatened to upset their entire lives. (All emphasis is mine.)

"When he found out he came home crying," said Amy Larson about her second-grade student at Oakridge Elementary, "He was like, ‘Mom, I don't want to go to another school.'"

Larson is one of many parents who moved into her subdivision for the schools. Her home is now up for sale so she can move in order to keep her son from experiencing the trauma of going to a new school.

Tiana Sanders, a parent and former teacher in Moore Public Schools, also decided where to live based on previous school boundaries.

Sanders says on her block the redistricting decision means the seven elementary students who live next to each other will end up attending three different schools. Sanders bought her home knowing it would mean her daughter would go to the A+ rated Oakridge and eventually end up at SouthMoore High School where she taught. Instead the district will force the children of the community into a school that's more than twice the distance away.

Around the country, parents and public school districts fight this fight every year. Families routinely decide where to live based on public school district lines, often sacrificing other elements of their quality of life for the sake of their children’s’ education. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Parents should have more choices about where to send their children to school. That is another way of saying schools should have to compete for students (and the public funds that follow the students). It already works this way for wealthy families who can afford private schools. Families fortunate enough to homeschool freely decide where to live without worrying about arbitrary school district boundary lines.

It is time to empower the rest of Oklahoma’s parents, to put the choice in their hands rather than subjecting them to school district whims.