Pink Stink: 10 yr. old kept from singing ''Dear Mr. President'' in school.

did anybody see this....over a week old:

Coral Springs Principal Bans Anti-Bush Song

10-Year-Old Wanted To Sing The Song In A Talent Show

(CBS4/AP) CORAL SPRINGS The principal at a Coral Springs Elementary school has banned a 10 year old student from performing an anti-war song critical of President Bush as part of her school talent show. Park Springs Elementary principal Camille Pontillo says the song is inappropriate and too political, and a district spokesperson says it's her call.

10 year old Molly Shoul wanted to perform "Dear Mr. President," co-written by pop star Pink.!!!! The song criticizes Bush for the war in Iraq and policies including his stance on gay rights.

Nancy Shoul says the ban violates her daughter's right to free speech, but a Broward County School District official said the principal has the right to determine what music her students can hear at a school function.

"This is a fifth-grade student that wants to perform a song filled with lyrics about drug use, war, abortion, gay rights and profanity," district spokeswoman Nadine Drew said.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=82106

it's in the 'comments' section, almost all the way down

btw, the school official LIED about what's in the song: no mention of abortion, and the profanity is the word "hell" used as a place

looking for story link....

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-csong06may05,0,1136373.story


can somebody interview brave Molly and/or her mom? what a civics lesson. maybe I'll try to get them on our school's TV station, ha

What kind of father would take his own daughters' rights away?
What kind of father would hate his own daughter if she was gay?

You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine...

I don't recall the profanity.

I think the girl should've been able to sing the song, maybe with minor modifications to the lyrics given that it is an elementary school. The song is plenty challenging to * without mention of the whiskey and cocaine...

On edit: It makes more sense if I spell/type correctly.

http://top40.about.com/b/a/208044.htm

It seems to be a day of stories about concerns over what pop artists have to say about issues. Pink is one of the most outspoken of current top female pop artists. She has been lauded for her efforts to encourage young girls to turn against negative female stereotypes in her song "Stupid Girls." However, when she takes on President Bush it apparently is too much for some in authority.

As reported this morning in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a 10-year-old in Coral Springs, Florida, has been barred from singing the Pink song in a school talent show. The song has been deemed inappropriate and too political. The girl's mother believes her daughter should be lauded for choosing to sing a song with lyrical substance. Molly, the 10-year-old who choose the song, thinks the song is "really cool" because it speaks about important subjects like war and homelessness. Molly also liked how the song addresses the President directly. "He should try to listen to what other people say, not just himself."

can't the poor fellow afford caller ID?

and how did I miss this?

oh, yeah...I actually had a life that ight

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2265156

Kailassa (1000+ posts) Fri May-05-06 10:01 AM
Response to Reply #7

17. My son, at 9 years old, stood up in front of a parent's night at cubs and gave a beautiful talk, (all in a sweet, innocent monotone because he has asperger's sydrome,) on pollution and global warming. He had tough local fathers in tears, and changed the attitudes of a few.

I took him to the library every week and he'd always bring home an armful of adult reference books, but I had not mentioned global warming to him, and had not realized he was researching it.

Never make blanket assumptions about what people can do. Some people are drastically different to others. And even a person who you know well and think is quite "ordinary" can surprise you, showing a side you have never seen before.

Bill McBlueState in the other thread cites this precedent


Tinker vs. Des Moines school district
"The courts base their decisions on the landmark 1969 case of Tinker v. Des Moines School District, which upheld the right of students to wear black armbands protesting the Vietnam War, even in a public school."

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/rel_liberty/publics...

Thanks for giving me the impetus to look this up. I wasn't previously aware of this specific ruling.

This principal is accomplishing his mission.

was there any school wide response?

was a learning experience fashioned out of this?

I would tend to doubt it, unless the lesson learned was: OBEY

Isn't she hooked up with a freestyle motocrosser? The MX crowd is EXTREMELY conservative. hmmmm...
I smell a change coming!