Inez Tenenbaum, one of the state's most prominent Democrats, returned home Tuesday in an enlarged role as President Obama's chief enforcer of consumer product safety.
Her message: Make certain playgrounds, play equipment and children's clothing are safe for the nation's "smallest consumers."
Tenenbaum had planned the stop at Richland 1's Rosewood Elementary long before President Barack Obama announced plans to address the nation’s schoolchildren on the day after Labor Day, when many public schools commence the new academic year.
But Tuesday, the new director of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, found herself in the midst of a class of fifth-graders as they watched the president on video-feed speaking live from a Virginia high school.
None of the students in Llewellyn Shealy's class had opted out of hearing the President's message, said Rosewood principal Ted Wachter, despite the highly publicized fears of some conservatives that Obama would politicize the message to schoolchildren.
But Rosewood students were oblivious to the controversy, finding some inspiration in Obama's words.
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