1:35 – 1:40

October 10, 2006

This is a 2006-07 bell schedule for a middle school that considers itself a "Channel One school."

Obligation’s Jim Metrock said, "I understand why this school is doing what they are doing. They don’t have the time to show 12 to 13 minutes of Channel One News in a busy school day. Only the weakest schools in our country have the excess time to show bubble gum and Gatorade ads and fluffy teen interest stories for an hour a week. That said, this school is breaching a contract. Channel One’s attorneys are looking the other way. They don’t want to know about the massive noncompliance with their contract. If they ‘knew,’ they would be have ‘do something’ or face possible legal consequences when advertisers, mainly the federal government, discover their paid-ads are not being seen by the audience Channel One claims.

"This school should stop breaching the contract. No school should enter into or maintain a contract when they have no intention of honoring. How can this school tell a building contractor that they must honor their contract with the school, when the school openly dishonors a major contract it deems no longer to be in the school’s best interest?

"This middle school should either honor the Channel One contract or end it. If they honor the contract at least they are doing the "proper" thing; if they end it, they are doing the RIGHT thing. Ending the Channel One contract is easy. Yes, they may come and take away the ancient TV sets dangling from the wall, but the wiring will remain and, depending on the fixture laws of the state, the bracket holding the TV will remain. It will be easy to replace the headend unit and the $130 TV sets. Then the school will OWN their TV network and not have to contend with showing Channel One News, even for five minutes."