Primary School Bans 'Jingle Bells'

A New York primary school banned children from performing "Jingle Bells" because educators say the beloved Christmas carol has a "questionable past."

The Rochester Beacon first reported "Jingle Bells" had been removed from the playlist at Council Rock Primary School.

"Jingle Bells," Council Rock principal Matt Tappon wrote in an email to the newspaper, has been replaced with other songs that don’t have "the potential to be controversial or offensive."

According to the school's diversity page, there were songs that had been previously used that had a questionable past. One of the examples the school listed was "Jingle Bells."

The school noted other questionable songs were removed from the curriculum and "are no longer in our repertoire, and are replaced with more contemporary, and relevant content."

The Beacon reports the school's decision was based on a 2017 article written by Boston University Professor Kyna Hamill. Hamill alleged she had found documents proving the song had first been performed publicly at a minstrel show in 1857.

When told of the primary school's decision, the professor said she was stunned.

"I am actually quite shocked the school would remove the song from the repertoire. … I, in no way, recommended that it stopped being sung by children," she told the newspaper. "My article tried to tell the story of the first performance of the song, I do not connect this to the popular Christmas tradition of singing the song now."

Armed with that information, the Rochester Beacon confronted the Brighton Central School District and asked for an explanation. The one they got is mind-blowing.

"Some suggest that the use of collars on slaves with bells to send an alert that they were running away is connected to the origin of the song 'Jingle Bells,'" Allison Rioux told the newspaper. "While we are not taking a stance to whether that is true or not, we do feel strongly that this line of thinking is not in agreement with our district beliefs to value all cultures and experiences of our students."

Let me cut to the chase: There are a frightening number of morons in charge of the teaching children in the Brighton Central School District.

I wrote about this terrible cleansing of our traditions in my book, "Culture Jihad: How to Stop the Left From Killing a Nation."

Many of our public schools are actively engaging in this sort of Marxist behavior – turning our beloved history and traditions into a heaping pile of rubble.

I can only imagine hordes of triggered educators tearing through music cabinets looking for any Christmas carol that might cause yuletide offense.

There's no doubt that "White Christmas" will have to go – and so will that capitalist anthem, "Silver Bells." What about the poor people who are not rushing home with their treasures?

"Baby, It's Cold Outside," "Let it Snow," and "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" are also no-no's in this age of hashtag justice.

"Deck the Halls" should still be permissible, though – provided you sing the song while donning gay apparel.

Todd Starnes is America's Conservative Anchorman. Click Here - to subscribe to his Podcast. He's also a best-selling author and award-winning journalist. He hosts a nationally-syndicated talk radio show from 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. His website is ToddStarnes.com. Read more of Todd Starnes' reports — here.