TFOGGER
06-10-2014, 09:34
http://nypost.com/2014/06/08/coney-island-principal-bans-another-usa-song-from-graduation/
A Coney Island principal has put the kibosh on patriotism — again.
Greta Hawkins caused a furor when she barred her PS 90 kindergartners from singing “God Bless the USA” at their graduation ceremony in 2012.
Now she has stopped pre-K kids from singing “Stand Up for the Red, White and Blue” at their June 19 moving-up ceremony.
A class of 4-year-olds was rehearsing the song — which they would belt out while marching into the auditorium waving mini-American flags — when Hawkins (top) halted the patriotic parade.
“You didn’t ask permission to do it,” Hawkins scolded the teachers.
Stunned and disappointed, teachers said the simple, rhyming processional was sung to cheers at a pre-K ceremony several years ago.
“It’s a nice, rousing song,” one said. “The parents got up and clapped and yahooed. The kids waved their flags, and it just got everything going.”
With a bouncy beat, the song begins:
Stand up, stand up, for the red, white and blue.
Stand up, stand up, our flag is passing through.
Our country is our land of free, our home of law and liberty.
Stand up, stand up, for the red, white and blue.
Hawkins insisted her refusal to allow the song has nothing to do with patriotism.
In an e-mail to The Post, Hawkins said the song was not on a list the teachers had submitted.
The kids will perform several other tunes during the ceremony, including “You are my Sunshine” and “What a Miracle Am I.”
“Teachers were reminded in meetings and in communiques not to add or remove from what was already approved weeks ago,” Hawkins wrote.
Hawkins also nixed the little flags, referring to them as unapproved “materials.”
Kids stand for the Pledge of Allegiance each morning at PS 90. But in September, Hawkins eliminated the daily singing of “America the Beautiful.”
In 2012, when Hawkins silenced “God Bless the USA,” the Lee Greenwood ballad also known as “Proud to be an American,” she reportedly told teachers it might “offend other cultures.” PS 90 is full of immigrants from Mexico, Pakistan, India, Russia and elsewhere.
She later told Department of Education higher-ups the lyrics were “too grown up” for 5-year-olds, though she left Justin Bieber’s flirty “Baby” on the program. The DOE had her yank that one, too.
Last week, a pre-K mom who learned about the slashed song was upset.
“I’m angry about it,” she said. “It’s the American flag. What’s wrong with that? So many soldiers died for it. Why is she against the red, white and blue?”
Her child sings the lyrics at home, the mom said. She called the waving of flags “wonderful.”
Teachers suggested kids could wave flags from other countries, as well, but Hawkins dismissed that idea, they said.
Instead, Hawkins and an assistant principal asked the teachers, “Why can’t you do something more modern?”
As of Friday, the 70th anniversary of D-Day, no new song was approved. The assistant principal said the children would enter the auditorium without singing anything.
A Coney Island principal has put the kibosh on patriotism — again.
Greta Hawkins caused a furor when she barred her PS 90 kindergartners from singing “God Bless the USA” at their graduation ceremony in 2012.
Now she has stopped pre-K kids from singing “Stand Up for the Red, White and Blue” at their June 19 moving-up ceremony.
A class of 4-year-olds was rehearsing the song — which they would belt out while marching into the auditorium waving mini-American flags — when Hawkins (top) halted the patriotic parade.
“You didn’t ask permission to do it,” Hawkins scolded the teachers.
Stunned and disappointed, teachers said the simple, rhyming processional was sung to cheers at a pre-K ceremony several years ago.
“It’s a nice, rousing song,” one said. “The parents got up and clapped and yahooed. The kids waved their flags, and it just got everything going.”
With a bouncy beat, the song begins:
Stand up, stand up, for the red, white and blue.
Stand up, stand up, our flag is passing through.
Our country is our land of free, our home of law and liberty.
Stand up, stand up, for the red, white and blue.
Hawkins insisted her refusal to allow the song has nothing to do with patriotism.
In an e-mail to The Post, Hawkins said the song was not on a list the teachers had submitted.
The kids will perform several other tunes during the ceremony, including “You are my Sunshine” and “What a Miracle Am I.”
“Teachers were reminded in meetings and in communiques not to add or remove from what was already approved weeks ago,” Hawkins wrote.
Hawkins also nixed the little flags, referring to them as unapproved “materials.”
Kids stand for the Pledge of Allegiance each morning at PS 90. But in September, Hawkins eliminated the daily singing of “America the Beautiful.”
In 2012, when Hawkins silenced “God Bless the USA,” the Lee Greenwood ballad also known as “Proud to be an American,” she reportedly told teachers it might “offend other cultures.” PS 90 is full of immigrants from Mexico, Pakistan, India, Russia and elsewhere.
She later told Department of Education higher-ups the lyrics were “too grown up” for 5-year-olds, though she left Justin Bieber’s flirty “Baby” on the program. The DOE had her yank that one, too.
Last week, a pre-K mom who learned about the slashed song was upset.
“I’m angry about it,” she said. “It’s the American flag. What’s wrong with that? So many soldiers died for it. Why is she against the red, white and blue?”
Her child sings the lyrics at home, the mom said. She called the waving of flags “wonderful.”
Teachers suggested kids could wave flags from other countries, as well, but Hawkins dismissed that idea, they said.
Instead, Hawkins and an assistant principal asked the teachers, “Why can’t you do something more modern?”
As of Friday, the 70th anniversary of D-Day, no new song was approved. The assistant principal said the children would enter the auditorium without singing anything.