Principal Who Banned 'God Bless The USA' Getting Racist Death Threats
CONEY ISLAND, BROOKLYN (WPIX)— The controversy over the songs kindergarten students will sing at their graduation from a Brooklyn school continues. First, Lee Greenwood's patriotic "God Bless the USA" was out and Justin Bieber's flirty tune "Baby" was in, but that has all changed.
Now, controversial principal Greta Hawkins has canned Bieber's song too.
P.S. 90 in Coney Island has been in the headlines following Hawkins decision to scrap Greenwood's song because she felt it was offensive to some cultures and religions.
The Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott weighed in on Hawkins decisions saying, "One of the things we've done over the last few years is empower our principals to make decisions as far as their schools are concerned." He went on to say, "She made that decision and I support her in making that decision."
Hawkins scrapping of the patriotic song has resulted in nasty hate mail aimed at the principal that's being investigated by the schools and N.Y.P.D.
One letter says, "You are a filthy, dirty, ugly subhuman gorilla," another says, "Lets hope that AIDS will do what sickle cell anemia failed to do, exterminate your whole simian race."
And there's this one "N------- and their Jew commie bosses are the scum of the earth."
All of this is under investigation and there is a lot of anger over all of this, especially when you consider we're talking kindergartners singing.
There's plenty of time for the controversy to continue to grow, graduation is set for June 20th.
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You have got to be fucking kidding me.
(Yeah I'm focusing on that because it's too damn early on a Saturday to cope with racist fuckwits.)
I first heard about this story when they were from "God Bless the USA" to "Baby". Did no one think of "This Land is Your Land", "Yankee Doodle" or "You're a Grand Old Flag"?
...
Or they might end up being like the people who send her hate mail
Seriously, what's so hard to understand about the fact that not everyone in America is a Christian, and don't feel like singing about wanting that god to bless the country?
*dials up 'hate all people' to 11*
I loathe that 'god bless' song - it make my hackles go up and my lip curl. I just cannot stand that kind of junk. I also detested reciting the 'pledge' in school and quit doing it in third grade.
"Jew commie bosses."
WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? Is that like how Obama is an 'Atheist Islamist'?
Edited at 2012-06-16 04:16 pm (UTC)
Did she really "BAN" the song or did she just make a decision to go with a song that was more contemporary and that the students would enjoy singing? I don't see anything in the story itself about her banning anything. FFS writer of the headline needs a fucking dictionary.
FFS THIS IS WHAY I HATE THE MEDIA. If this woman did the later the media is complicit in her treatment.
I did have some kindergarten teachers tell me once that they wanted me to teach the Star Spangled Banner to their kids because it was "in their standards". Uh, no. that song is entirely too difficult for kindergarten; the range is too wide, the rhythms are too difficult, and the vocabulary is over their heads. And it was not actually "in their social studies standards"; what WAS in there was knowing what it is when they hear it and knowing what to do. Not being able to actually SING it. I did teach it to fifth graders, but kindergarten? No. And I never ever taught "God Bless the USA". "This Land is Your Land" was always fun to teach though. (There's a neat countermelody that goes with the chorus that is a fun introduction to part-singing :D )
TBH it's not like the principal's going to have them singing some hate-based or obscene song instead of the national anthem, so I'm not sure why people care so much? Maybe they need hobbies.
*assuming here, since I've never actually seen the score for the song.
*I* sang Three Dog Night and Woody Guthrie and still prefer those values to syrupy nationalism.
Uh, not really. More like, "Where I THINK I know I'm free... we stole this land from the folks who were here and murdered millions of them."
Three cheers for Greta Hawkins and thumbs down to racist bullies.
with just my children and my wife." *GAGS*
I had to hear this fucking song like 15 times on repeat when I got my EGA, so FUCK THIS SONG, it oughta be banished to the deepest pits of fucking Hades.
Holy fuckballs, people that write that shit need to be dropped out of the gene pool. If you get THAT PISSED that kindergartners can't sing an insipid shitty country song, you have problems.
/puzzled ex high school teacher here.
Everything else is horrible and headshakingly so, but I'm still stuck on graduation ceremonies for kindergarten?
Edited at 2012-06-16 08:22 pm (UTC)
But it's mostly because some schools do not house a kindergarten class. And if they do, like ayarane said, it considered a different "school". Like Pre-K to Kindergarten, 1st to 6th grade (now to 5th grade these days) is Primary/Grade School, 7th to 8th Grade (now from 6th Grade) is Middle/Junior High School, and you know the rest.
Well, when I was younger, it was rare to have kindergartens in a grade school(which was 1st to 6th grade). The private school I went for my grade and junior high school years was a rare beast to have schools from Daycare and the kids from the grade school and junior high never interacted with them unless they have a sibling or family member in those classes.
God Bless the USA my ass.
Edited at 2012-06-18 07:23 am (UTC)