Free Republic

A controversial Coney Island principal who grabbed headlines for banning the patriotic tune “God Bless the U.S.A.” from an end-of-year kindergarten ceremony in 2012 is at it again, school staffers told the Daily News. Public School 90 boss Greta Hawkins on Monday killed a plan for pre-K students to march into an end-of-year celebration carrying flags to a song called “Stand Up for the Red, White and Blue,” teachers said. Hawkins, 49, of Brooklyn, told teachers she banished the patriotic display planned for the June 19 festivities because the staffers who organized it didn’t ask her permission. But staffers said...

The principal of a Brooklyn, N.Y. elementary school has reportedly pulled the song “God Bless the USA” from a kindergarten graduation ceremony so as not to offend other cultures, according to the New York Post. The kindergartners had spent several months learning the song, which was set to close out the program, until P.S. 90 principal Greta Hawkins came into a recent rehearsal and told teachers to scrap it. “We don’t want to offend other cultures,” teachers quoted Hawkins as saying, according to the Post.

A controversial Coney Island principal has pulled the plug on patriotism. Her refusal to let students sing “God Bless the USA” at their graduation has sparked fireworks at a school filled with proud immigrants. Greta Hawkins, principal of PS 90, the Edna Cohen School, won’t allow kindergartners to belt out the beloved Lee Greenwood ballad, also known as “Proud to be an American,” at their moving-up ceremony. ...snip... She told the teachers to drop the song from the program. “We don’t want to offend other cultures,” they quoted her as explaining. ...snip... The DOE reprimanded her in 2010 after teachers...