Review Ordered of Video Showing Students Singing Praises of President Obama
Nearly 20 young children are captured in an online video as they sing songs that overflow with campaign slogans and praise for "Barack Hussein Obama," as they repeatedly chant the president's name and celebrate his accomplishments.
FOXNews.com
Thursday, September 24, 2009
foxnews.com
The commissioner of New Jersey's Department of Education ordered a review on Friday following the posting of a YouTube video depicting school children singing the praises of President Obama.
Education Department spokeswoman Kathryn Forsyth says the commissioner has directed the school superintendent to review what happened. Forsyth says the commissioner wants to ensure that students can celebrate Black History Month without "inappropriate partisan politics in the classroom."
As critics of the video claimed it amounted to "indoctrination," the tension at B. Bernice Young Elementary School escalated to such a degree Thursday that the school was placed temporarily on lockdown after its principal received death threats over a YouTube video that showed nearly 20 children being taught songs lauding the president, though back-to-school night events continuing as planned Thursday night at the school.
Video of the students at the Burlington, N.J., school shows them singing songs seemingly overflowing with campaign slogans and praise for "Barack Hussein Obama," repeatedly chanting the president's name and celebrating his accomplishments, including his "great plans" to "make this country's economy No. 1 again."
One song that the children were taught quotes directly from the spiritual "Jesus Loves the Little Children," though Jesus' name is replaced with Obama's: "He said red, yellow, black or white/All are equal in his sight. Barack Hussein Obama."
Click here to see the video.
The video has set off some families in Burlington, who said they were horrified that their children at the being "indoctrinated" to view the president like a cult figure.
"I'm stunned -- I can't believe it's our school," said Jim Pronchik, who told FOXNews.com his 8-year-old son Jimmy was one of the 18 students in the video. "We don't want to praise this guy like he's a god or an idol or a king or anything like that. That's the wrong message to be sending."
Click here to see the full lyrics to both songs.
Pronchik said he and his wife were never informed about the lesson, which the superintendent of Burlington Township schools says was held in February as part of Black History Month "to honor the contributions of African Americans to our country."
But Andrea Ciemnolonski, the parent of another one of the students in the video, said the song was part of a second-grade project on a variety of topics related to the month of February, such as Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day and Presidents Day.
"They did songs about President Washington, Lincoln, and they did do one about President Obama," Ciemnolonski said. "My daughter was in the class that did the songs about Obama. It was black history month. ... It was something for the kids to celebrate."
Ciemnolonski said she "just can't look at it as indoctrination," though she added, "The comparisons made were a little exuberant."
Superintendent Christopher Manno said in a written statement Thursday that the taping itself was out of order, but failed to address whether the lesson was approved. "The recording and distribution of the class activity were unauthorized," he wrote in a note to parents and the media.
Other families arriving at Bernice Young Elementary to pick up their children said they were outraged at the songs, which also tout a fair-pay bill Obama signed in January: "He said we must be clear today/Equal work means equal pay."
"I felt this was reminiscent of 1930's Germany, and the indoctrination of children to worship their leader," said Robert Bowen, father of two children at Bernice Young Elementary.
"I thought that if this was a civics class in say high school or upper level middle school, in might be appropriate to discuss policies or politics, but as far as children in first grade, second grade -- those types of levels -- it's inappropriate to discuss how a president is changing the world after only six weeks in office."
Parents said the songs were performed in Elvira James' second grade class. James, who refused to comment to FOXNews.com, retired at the end of the previous school year on a full pension in New Jersey.
Bowen said he thought there should be consequences for having provided such a one-sided lesson to impressionable students there.
"It's something that there should be serious repercussions for ... the administration here, and I think the school board needs to be answerable to the parents of the community," said Bowen. School board members did not respond to requests for comment.
Though the school was not planning to address the tape during back-to-school-night events, many parents were heading in with with a lot of questions about the tape.
"This video is disturbing," said a grandparent named Sandy, who spoke on the condition that her last name not be included. "We don't teach politics in pre-school -- or kindergarten or first grade."
"This has no place in the classroom," said Sandy, added Sandy, who told FOXNews.com she has two grandchildren attending Bernice Young Elementary. "It may have been the opinion of one or two, and someone should pay the consequences for it."
The author of the songs is unknown, but a woman -- possibly a teacher -- can be heard in the beginning of the video correcting and helping a student who has forgotten the words. Another woman, the person holding the camera, cheers the students on: "All right," she says. "I like that."
"Alteredbeat," the YouTube user who posted the video on the Internet, told FOXNews.com that the video was first put online by Charisse Carney-Nunes, an activist and author of the children's book "I Am Barack Obama," which her Web site says "allows children to see themselves through the inspirational story of President Obama." Carney-Nunes has been promoting the book during visits to schools on the east coast.
A poster for the book can been seen near the stage of the auditorium in the video of Bernice Young Elementary, but it is unclear whether Carney-Nunes had visited the school or was present during the filming.
"Alteredbeat" told FOXNews.com that he reached out to Carney-Nunes, who insisted that the program had been filmed in June as part of a Father's Day tribute to President Obama. "The kids made up the songs on their own," she wrote, according to the YouTube user.
"Alteredbeat" originally posted the video Sept. 6, two days before Obama made an address to the nation's schoolchildren in which he praised the American education system as the best in the world and urged students to stay in school.
"At the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world," Obama said. |
