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Santa, the word Christmas, the word Christmas Party, Pilgrims, Indians, the word Thanksgiving and Christmas trees have been scrubbed because they define Christianity.
Stars can no longer be displayed in her public school because they define Judaism---like the Star of David.
The Pledge of Allegiance is also gone for the same reasons---it's offensive, and may be Christian.
Ms. Kim has given her taxpayer funded public school a politically correct, multicultural scrub down.
How long will parents and taxpayers stand for this?
We've heard it before---and frankly I'm sick of hearing about it, except that this case goes further than most before it.
And our children are worth it.
This episode underscores the fact that faith and values are being taught to children in public school. The question is, which faith and what values?
Principal Kim seems to be relentless in her mission of political correctness, multiculturalism, and anti-Americanism.
Merry Christmas, Ms. Kim. And God bless America.
The New York Post reports, "Principal Eujin Jaela Kim has banned Santa Clause. The Pledge of Allegiance is no longer recited. 'Harvest Festival' has replaced Thanksgiving, and 'winter celebrations' substitute for Christmas parties."
PTA president Mimi Ferrer told the Post that administrators told her everything about Christmas was out. "No angels We can't even have a star because it can represent a religious system, like the Star of David," she said.
A memo from the assistant principal last month suggested a "harvest festival" instead of Thanksgiving and a winter celebration instead of Christmas.
However, even the New York City Department of Education, in its directives, says it permits holiday symbols including Christmas trees, kinaras (candle holders for Kwanzaa), dreidels, Hanukkah menorahs and the Islamic star and crescent. Images that "depict images of deities, religious figures or religious texts" are prohibited.
Johanna Bjorken, the school's business manager, said in a recent memo, "In case you're wondering about grey areas: Santa Clause is considered an 'other religious figure'."
Ms. Kim and her assistant principal say they are responding to the diversity of students in the school, urging staff to "be sensitive of the diversity of our families."
Since the extent of this crusade has become public, the Department of Education has made a public statement affirming that it's "OK" if teachers want to say the Pledge in their classrooms.
OK to say the Pledge? In America?
The Post reports other questionable decisions by Principal Kim---including dumping boxes of books in the basement of the school, arbitrarily changing the curriculum, painting over historic murals, and she has had multiple big screen TVs mounted in the school costing several thousands of dollars---that have never been used.
PTA president Mimi Ferrer says, "It is ridiculous."
It is.
It is also very revealing.
I am not suggesting that these actions reflect all principals or public school administrators, or teachers---they do not. There are many very good, some committed Christian, teachers, principals and other administrators---some are my personal friends.
However, this does reflect the vulnerability of the classroom to far Left activists who are in education and are clearly on a mission.
I have been following the assault on kids in the classroom for a number of years, and have seen in recent years an exponentially increased assault and attempt to indoctrinate them, rather than "educate" them.
The last 5 years have been particularly destructive toward historic values in general and biblical principles and values specifically. The assault, for the most part, is driven by those seeking to redefine marriage, family and human sexuality---often those in public rebellion toward God.
Some points of concern.
1. Three years ago, all 50 states began constructing federally man-dated databases that track the behavior and performance of all public school students in the country. And it continues into their careers.
President Obama has been obsessive about access to this wealth of information.
At that time, the New York Post reported, "The administration wants this data to include more than name, address and test scores. According to the National Data Collection Model, the government should collect information on health-care history, family income and family voting status. In its view, public schools offer a golden opportunity to mine reams of data from a captive audience."
2. By 2008, the New York Times had become aware of how classrooms were being used to advance an extreme Green Movement.
In the Times article, they quoted a social worker from Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. who told them, "I have very, very environmentally conscious children---more so than me, I'm embarrassed to say---They're on my case about getting a hybrid car. They want me to replace all the light bulbs in the house with energy-saving bulbs."
The Times said, "Ms. Ross's children are part of what experts say is a growing army of 'eco-kids'---steeped in environmentalism at school, in houses of worship, through scouting and even popular culture---who want to hold their parents accountable at home."
The Times, who was not particularly opposed to the notion, said the demands of the eco-kids "grow ever greater and more expensive."
This is both indoctrination with so-called climate "truth" that all scientists do not agree with.
It also reveals one of many ways parental authority is undermined. Note the mother expressed "embarrassment" that she wasn't up to speed on the new Green Agenda.
3. We are seeing an accelerated attack on First Amendment rights, particularly on freedom of religious expression. I have noted in this column repeatedly how the culture, especially public education, seeks to silence any religious expression---any expression of Christianity. Public education has become so responsive to the atheist organizations, that law suits are not even needed, a letter threatening a law suit is sufficient to cause schools to reorder their entire calendar year of activities.
4. Imagine you have a 10-or-11-year- old- child, just entering a public middle school. How would you feel if, as part of a class, ostensibly about the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, he and his classmates were given "risk cards, that graphically named a variety of solitary and mutual sex acts?"
Or if, in another lesson, he was encouraged to disregard what you told him about sex, and to rely instead on teachers and health clinic staff members?
These are the questions Princeton Professor Robert P. George is asking parents. And he began asking them 4 years ago.
In the New York Times he wrote, "That prospect would horrify most parents. But such lessons are part of a middle school curriculum.
While these classes usually have "opt-outs" because parents have demanded it, the "opt-outs" are very limited, even hidden from parents who are not strongly focused on what is being taught to their child, and most often only apply to classes covering contraception and birth control.
Professor George says, "Parents are responsible for bringing new people into the world, bound to them by blood, and, ordinarily, deep feeling. These people are incapable of developing their uniquely human capacities on their own, giving parents an obligation to their children and to society to help them reach maturity."
"Parenting, especially in moral and religious matters," he says "is very important and highly personal: while parents enlist others' help in this task, the task is theirs. They are ultimately responsible for their children's intellectual and moral maturity, so within broad limits they must be free to educate their children, especially on the deepest matters, as they judge best."
He explains that this is why parental rights are so important: they provide a zone of sovereignty, a moral space to fulfill their obligations according to their conscience.
My mention of Eujin Jaela Kim, the principal at the primary school in New York, is not only about the 1,600 kids who attend that school---it's about a national public school system that is over budget while under performing.
It is about a government run school system that has been co-opted by the far Left progressives and is more intent on indoctrinating your child, than on educating him.
Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning.