Petitions Support School Fundraising with Chick-fil-A

Through online petitions, nearly 500 people have taken sides on the issue of whether Paulding County Schools should sever its fundraising ties with a national restaurant chain.

Dallas-Hiram Patch last week reported that a petition on change.org called for the school district to stop using Chick-fil-A as a fundraising partner. It was started by a user named Reagan Stewart, identified as a resident of Douglasville.

“My issue is that [Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy’s] company is actively donating millions of dollars to certified hate groups like The Family Research Council (FRC) that are actively seeking to promote discrimination towards and lobbying for legislation against the [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] community,” Stewart wrote in her petition. “Although the school is not actually donating money to known hate groups. The school is helping to do just that.”

Following our report last week, at least two online petitions were published to support the continued use of Chick-fil-A as a fundraising partner in the school district. One found on thepetitionsite.com, sponsored by Candi Goldman, asks that the board of education “reject any petition regarding the banning of Chick-fil-A as a fundraising tool in the schools.

“Chick-fil-A donates their product in an effort to support school projects, clubs and activities. Without the support of companies such as Chick-fil-A, 100% of the costs for these things would fall directly upon the parents whose children attend these schools,” the petition states. “In today’s economic climate, these fundraisers are necessary so that our children can have these vital activities.

“We further feel that no one is forced to participate in these fundraisers and therefore the banning of any fundraising is unnecessary and would be detrimental to the schools.”

As of early Friday, the “Keep Chick-fil-A Fundraising Events in Paulding Schools” petition on thepetitionsite.com had 261 signatures. Stewart’s petition as of early Friday had 205 signatures.

Should the Paulding County School System sever its ties to Chick-fil-A? Have you signed a petition focused on this issue? Tell us in the comments.

Another petition, found on the change.org site, is titled “Paulding county schools: Please continue the partnership with Chick Fil A for our schools.” It was started by a user named Mona Parks of Hiram. As of early Friday, the petition had 19 signatures.

“This is important to me because Chick Fil A is company which is focused on programs that ‘educates the youth, strengthens families, enriches marriages and supports the communities,'” Parks wrote in the petition, quoting a statement Chick-fil-A officials made in September. “Our children need more organizations such as this, not less.”

Though the number of signatures on the three online petitions total nearly 500, not every one has come from a Paulding resident. Some of the latest ones standing up for the district’s continued partnership with Chick-fil-A came from users identified as being from Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, Italy and Australia. Likewise, some of those who have gone online to call for the end to the fundraising partnership have identified hometowns in Arkansas, Illinois and California, as well as Georgia cities outside Paulding’s borders.

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