Syracuse Schoolchildren Upset Over White House Response to Letter

The students of the H.W. Smith School in Syracuse, N.Y., are upset with President Obama for answering an invitation to visit their school with a form letter, local television station WSYR reports. The children mailed the president a letter on Nov. 13, inviting him to come help them build a snowman. They included a photo of the group, and wrote about how building a snowman together would demonstrate unity and peaceful living.

The reply they received from the White House was dated Nov. 6 -- a week before they sent their letter -- and was addressed to "students." Most of the students said they did not expect the president to visit them, but they had hoped for something more personal than a form letter.

"I was disappointed because I think his office could have done better than that," Kiana Furgeson, a sixth-grader at H.W. Smith said. Simeon Greenberg, a third-grader, added: "I felt disrespected. It was very disappointing to get that kind of response."

The students decided to answer the White House with a complaint about its informal response, and sent Obama another letter asking him to consider having his staff write personal responses to his mail. "If they wrote the letter we received as an answer on a test, they would not have a passing grade because they did not answer the question," the students wrote.

The WSYR report did not include a response from the White House.