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Education

Update: Mass. 4th Graders Will Be Allowed to Sing ‘God Bless the USA’ During Assembly

Apr. 7, 2012 11:36am Madeleine Morgenstern

Fourth graders at a Massachusetts elementary school will be allowed to sing “God Bless the USA” during an assembly after administrators had planned to remove the word “God” from the song.

As The Blaze previously reported, Stall Brook Elementary pulled the song from the program after parents reacted with outrage when students were taught to sing “We love the USA” instead of “God bless the USA” during the chorus of the Lee Greenwood song.

Bellingham Public Schools Superintendent Edward Fleury said in a statement Thursday “God Bless the USA” will be included in the assembly’s song line-up and that students will be allowed to sing or not sing the words.

“No other words will be substituted,” Fleury said.

He admitted that “[p]olitical correctness is certainly a consideration in the public sector” but said the district “believe[s] the use of the word God is acceptable in patriotic songs.”

“The district has no intent to censor any patriotic songs,” Fleury said. “We are certainly sorry if this approach was perhaps considered as disrespectful. That was never the intent.”

Greenwood had told Fox News he objected to the school changing his lyrics, saying “the most important word in the whole piece of music is the word God.”

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Comments (41)

MetalPatriot
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 5:05pm
Next step is to fire Fleury and those that follow his lead. He never said that pulling the song was wrong, only that he was sorry it wasn’t tolerated.

Find a new job, Communist.

Our kids are truly at stake and are the grand prize in this war. Literally Good vs Evil.

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- MAMMY_NUNN
  Posted on April 7, 2012 at 7:27pm
  Teachers will cut their own throats by pushing their union agenda when parents start withdrawing their children from schools that teach inferior beliefs that go against the parents.
  
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dontbotherme
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 3:31pm
God wins.

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Micah.Stone
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 2:44pm
So, these leftist extremist socialist indoctrinators (what used to be jokingly called “teachers”) won’t demand that the word “obama” be substituted for word “God” ? Amazing !!!

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BigEddieB
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 2:41pm
if I was Lee Greenwood I would do every thing within my power to prevent this travesty of Political Correctness Run Amok up to, and including lawsuits against the school and school district if necessary, to prevent this from happening…

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Mad_as_Hell...
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 2:29pm
Until we can say that sentence without the words “will be allowed” we still have issues.

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- lukerw
  Posted on April 7, 2012 at 6:46pm
  Agreed!
  
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piper60
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 2:07pm
Sometimes conservative push back works. Public embarrassment helps.

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JustPeachy
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 2:07pm
It’s stupid we have to continually fight these battles, but we do.

PC seems to be a rampant disease!

I guess the “cure” will be to continue to stand up/speak out–one stupid battle at a time. . .

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MS-GlenNBC
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 1:44pm
All these Severely Conservative issues coming from Romney’s State…..

He would make a good running mate to Obama….. Oh wait. Romney is Obama’s Running Mate.

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- HowTruthHurts
  Posted on April 7, 2012 at 10:18pm
  @ MS-GLENNBC
  
  What does your name mean? I see the mix of “MSNBC” and “Glenn” (as in “Glenn Beck” I presume), but I don’t perceive the point.
  
  (this is NOT a sarcastic question – I’m genuinely curious)
  
  Report this comment
truthseekerusa
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 1:39pm
Compliments to the parents for stood their ground in forcing the principal to use the original words. In time more parents will withdraw their children from the public schools and the only ones left will be the minority controlled inner cities where the kids will be taught to hate America.

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- grandmaof5
  Posted on April 7, 2012 at 2:09pm
  They should probably remove this administration and replace it with people who have a moral code. That was just a bizarre decision on their part.
  
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ThankBabyJesus
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 1:17pm
God bless the usa!

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- pavepaws
  Posted on April 7, 2012 at 1:35pm
  Enough good people banded together for a common cause can make a difference.
  
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- Cat Ballou
  Posted on April 7, 2012 at 1:38pm
  A better headline: School officials are not allowed to infringe on the rights of their 4th grade students & will be removed from their positions
  
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searching for the Truth
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 1:16pm
” It’s a miracle! “

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IMCHRISTIAN
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 1:03pm
That is a very good choice, Bellington. I hope all remember that it was God that made the earth for us to live and we will be with him when we Die. You can think what you want but you can see what the world is now without following Gods holy ways. If you have any doubts to Gods being just take time to look around and study each thing that you can to see and the complication it takes in establishing each person, each plant etc. God Bless America.

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possom
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 12:45pm
These peckerwwod lib’s need to get a clue and leave the kid’s alone!!!!

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reelmom5
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 12:33pm
Was the meaning of Greenwood’s verses lost on these educators? “And I’m proud to be an American/ where at least I know I’m free”? These educators will chip away at the truth in the name of correctness until there is no truth remaining. Thank you, Massachusetts parents, for taking a stand. Mr. Fleury apologizes if the omission of God was “considered . . .disrepectful.” I don’t consider it disrespectful–I recognize it as evil.

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wianno94
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 12:26pm
Irony….

Thursday April 5. “School disallows the use of the words “God bless the USA in a song to be sung by school children because it might be offensive to some.

Friday April 6. “Schools closed for Good Friday.”

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G.E.R
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 12:22pm
This song sucked in 80′s when it was first released and got worse over the years. There’s other and better songs of patriotism they could have used
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SPOT_OF_TEA
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 12:10pm
If you slipped in to a coma about 20 years ago and woke up today and turned on the news you would probably freak out but the day by day encroachment of our freedoms are almost unnoticeable,..and since they are taken away in such small increments,there is no outrage.

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momrules
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 12:10pm
This whole country needs to be begging God for help but instead we have the PC police patrols out removing His name from every public place.
I’m glad they decided to sing the song as written but the word God should never have been removed for ANY reason to begin with.

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FloridaFarmGirl
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 12:03pm
Hopefully the online education system will be everywhere soon so kids don’t have to go to these liberal schools. This will be great for those who can’t stay home and home school their kids. Classrooms will be a thing of the past and everyone’s kids will be the better for it.

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Gonzo
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 12:03pm
Pretty soon we’ll have to refer to God as “the G word” in public.

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- SPOT_OF_TEA
  Posted on April 7, 2012 at 12:13pm
  Only until Sharia Law settles in.Then it will be a different story.
  
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- Mil-Dot
  Posted on April 7, 2012 at 12:20pm
  No, pretty soon we are going to have to resort to dragging these commies and politicians out of their offices by the **** and hanging them. It will never stop without some sort of revolution.
  
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CORRUPTION
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 12:01pm
Change the words to “we love the USA”. Yea right. These Communist who has infiltrated our schools don’t even love the U S A.

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kickagrandma
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 11:55am
Remember when we used to say, “GOD bless you!” when people sneezed?
We still do.
Why don’t you?
GOD IS THE MOST IMPORTANT “THING” in everything we do.
Without HIM, we are nothing.
If you wonder what being “nothing” is like, check out the left and current “leadership” in AMERICA.
Great examples of life without GOD and what “nothing” is.

The superintendent is still playing games. No spine for GOD?
Eternity without HIM isn’t worth being pc or bc or cd or anything else, folks.

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aragona
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 11:50am
This example, in a long list of similar examples of liberal indoctrination in our schools, reinforces the fact that if we stay on top of this and expose them as these things come up, the parents can protect their children from this poisonous thinking.

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thekuligs
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 11:49am
Sang that song in school in the 3rd grade with no fuss what so ever. Of course, that was in Texas and 20 years ago.

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Mark0331
Posted on April 7, 2012 at 11:47am
The fact this is even an issue, shows you how demented some of our neighbors can be…the twisted agenda of the left, filtering down to the impressionable youth, brainwashing them into thinking saying “God Bless…” is a curse word, offensive and punishable….simply disturbing.

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- Balpit
  Posted on April 7, 2012 at 3:13pm
  But “God damn”, is fine.
  OK, so you’re saying the dreaded “G-word”, but you’re taking his name in vain, so it’s different!
  And if you say it against America like Jeremiah Wright did, bonus!
  “Not God Bless America! God DAMN America!”
  
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