Protest Outisde N.J. School During Class Sessions

It was clear in the article and the video, that these protesters were not outside the elementary school chanting scary slogans and wielding weapons - they were rather peacefully and quietly across the street singing hymns and carrrying signs. Doubt any of the children could hear them through the brick walls of the school... Hardly likely to disrupt their studies. Of course, it did mention that counter protesters came to heckle them. Maybe they were the scary ones. The two incidents would only be comparable if they forced the children to memorize these slogans, make signs, sign hymns and march outside the school with the protesters. As it is, the children probably didn't even know it was going on. I have seen more distraction, noise, traffic and disruption at the local elementary school on election day, since it's also a polling place for the precinct. That being said, it's probably not a great precedent to protest during school hours because not all protest movements are made up of moms and peaceful types. More importantly, although the news covered it, it probably had no effect on the parties they were protesting. I would probably have staged the protest at the school board meeting, myself.

I would have to say both sides are wrong. The teachers should not have taught the song as written. I personally would not mind a song about Obama if it taught things a little more genertic about him. Like that he is the 44th president, the first African American President, Born in Hawaii..etc... But you add things like " he is good and he will lead this country like it should". Well that is when I have issues. Personal opinions about him do not need to taught to children. Just the facts. Especially at this age level. High schoolers would be a more appripate age to discuss "agree and disagree", like or dislike, or "good or bad" with about elected officials. WHy? They can debate it. Discuss it and come to their own conclusions. I don't want a teacher telling my children any elected official is "good" or that they are doing a "great job". Why? Because it is a matter of perspective and not a fact. What one person considers a good job another might consider a bad job. But then the protesters are just as wrong. They should not disrupt the children's school day with this. For some reason a political war is being waged with the kids caught in the middle of it. The teachers teaching the children to "praise" Obama and teaching them their "opinons instead of facts".The parents and other upset people disrupting classes with protests. The kids are caught in the middle and neither side is really thinking about the "children". Just their own political agenda. This whole thing probly has the kids more than a little confused and probly a little scared. THey sang the song....now a three ring circus is being put on about it. Adults screaming with signs. Mom and Dad upset. The poor things probly think they did something wrong...instead of the fact that the teacher did something wrong. Both sides should consider the children first. The teacher never should have taught the song....the upset public should not have protested. If my child went to the school I would still not protest at the school. I would talk to the teacher, principal, and the state board of education about it (not an and/or...but all of them). If they refuse to do something about the issue and stop inappropriate personal opinions being taught to kids by the teachers....well then I would just simply pull my kid out of that school. That would be the end of it. I think the upset parents would have gotten more accomplished by pulling their kids out than protesting. THe school's budget is determined by how many children go to school there. Let a whole lot of them pull their kids out and the school will stop teachers from doing this. Especially when it means a huge cut in their state budget if they don't. Gotta work smarter....not harder. THey spent a few hours protesting and really got nothing accomplished. It would have taken 20-30 minutes each to dis-enroll their children and they would have accomplished a lot more a lot faster. Just my humble opinon.

Wrong place, wrong time, wrong target. This should have happened at a school board meeting or maybe on the sidewalk in front of the teachers' homes. Not at the school. I had to laugh at the idiot who said it was just about race though.

Well Annie, I'll avoid discussing my opinions on songs worshiping the president in public schools since you can already guess where I stand on the issue. Now I'm just wondering why you think it's wrong for people who are against teaching children to worship him to protest. Sure, these kids should be learning reading, writing, and arithmetic. So why weren't they being taught those instead of being taught to sing songs worship Obama? These people weren't in the classrooms protesting. They weren't marching through the hallways. They weren't even standing in front of the door to the school. They were across the street. Heck, here in Miami murders happen across the street from schools and it doesn't disrupt children's learning so I can't see how a small protest of 70 peaceful people carrying signs is going to harm the children's ability to learn. Besides, this protest isn't pushing a political agenda, it's to PREVENT teachers pushing their political agenda on children.

This is something with a lot more nuance than the simplistic way the story is being carried implies. Fisrt, being columbus day, the protesters claimed they believed school was not in session for the day due to the holliday. Which leads me to a question. Does this mean there were no parents with children as students in the shcool in question? Maybe, but they well could have been parents with future students or even the fact that they are residents, they pay taxes supporting the school and have a vote in the school district elections and business. Now, lets compair the two action we are discussing. We have, a teacher that had kids singing praises and out right worship to an elected servant a VERY dangerous precidence to begin with, that was endorsed unapologeticly by the school administration. this is an outragous act by the school district and as I previously stated, a VERY dangerous precidence. We have a group of concerned citizens/taxpayers/school district members, protesting an outragous and legaly questionable, this not indoctirnating children in to a political ideology. It is for the most part, no different than voicing concerns at a school board meeting. Coupled with the fact that this didn't even take place on school property, it was on a property across the street. To shotrten the point, this isn't even an extrapolated compairison of the two seperate subjects, not even close.

Protesting is a right covered in our constitution or an amendment, right? Nobody is BORN political. Politics is an adult arena. Kids who are NEVER exposed to politics would never just become that way, just like kids who are NEVER exposed to religion would never just become that way. Supposedly learning reading, writing, and arithmetic? Of course kids are supposed to be learning the building blocks of education at ages 5-8, but nowhere in those building blocks is anything POLITICAL. Parents have the right to EXPECT the school will not be sneaking in political indoctrination at their child's PUBLIC SCHOOL, and upon going head to head with something like what happened at that NJ school, the parents have every right to protest, even if they ARE disrupting class. The protest is tame, actually, since the parents could have chosen to just remove their kids from the school entirely, effectively cutting the funding for that school. You have to admit though, the protest was more noticeable - to other people, the media, etc. I still have a problem with this 'song' because it was not something anybody ASKED the parents about in advance, and I believe it was because if they HAD asked the parents, a lot of the parents would have said no or kept their child home that day. I definitely would have said NO and I ever found out my kids were involved in some political scheme thought up by the school, the school would be sorry. I wouldn't just stage a protest. Parents have the right to decide and carry out what type of education their kids are receiving, and anything questionable SHOULD be brought forward to parents BEFORE it happens so parents have an opportunity to opt out or say no. Since this wasn't the case with this school, the ball is really in the parents' court and whatever they feel like doing covered under the law is A-ok in my book. I am sure you want the right to use parental control and 'censoring' about some things you don't feel are appropriate for your child. Other parents feel the same way.

I want to know what happened to Columbus day. It is a government holiday. Is this school ignoring government holidays? Doesn't that seem a bit weird, especially when they were apparently praising the President a few months ago? Parents need to be paying close attention to the curriculum taught. Ask for those school books and read them. Parents need to be involved in their child's education.

The song was wrong and the teachers who do these things are wrong. Parents and others protesting in the schools are wrong too. School is for learning not singing hymnals to any mortal. I don't care who that is. The protests should take place during the school board meetings. Both sides were wrong.

Have you ever heard the statement you cannot unring a bell? The words to the song the kids were taught will be with them for awhile and there is nothing to be done about that, I think the protest if it stayed peaceful was an appropriate counter action. Both were political children could see both sides so to speak and understand that there are differences of opinion. BUT ONE PROBLEM!!! The words were sent home to the students parents and if they did not like it they should have put a stop to it ahead of time!!!!! I do not think that political opinions good or bad for Obama, Bush, Clinton or any other president has a place in the class room. If religious opinion is out then so should be political OPINION.

If it were me I would have probably pulled my children out of school. We all know how peaceful demonstrations can turn ugly very fast and I wouldn't want my children exposed to possible violence. The protest in my opinion should have taken place at the school board building so the children learning were not disturbed. Wonder how many of the people that took part in the protest were actually residents of the area? Oh, your link wouldn't work for me.

From what I understand, the teacher who filmed the children and put it on Youtube is in a lot of trouble. As long as the kids don't have to sing that stupid song every day they're in school, I don't have any problem with it. This is a free country (well, for now,it is, lol) and people have a right to protest.

"I've already made my opinion known here, which is definitely a minority view..." You remind me of Mrs. Slocombe in, "Are You Being Served?," "...and I am unanimous." You ask, shouldn't it be just as wrong for children to be distracted by protesters outside their school as it is to be, "forced to sing a song 'praising' our first African-American President...?" Forced is the difference. The children were not, "forced," to watch the protesters. Also, the teacher could use the protest as an example of the freedoms we have in our nation. Just has you see nothing wrong with children being, "forced," to sing a song of praise for President Obama, I see nothing wrong with children seeing freedom in action.

Did you notice there was not one black protester? They panned the line, the only person of color was a counter protester. I wonder how many of them actually live or work in that school district? Why did they wait until THIS YEAR to protest a song sung LAST year? Take it up with the school board, seriously, act like adults. Picketing children....

...Hi anniepa, It would be so refreshing, if the adults would start acting like adults. It's the same as when the president spoke on the first day of school, telling the kids to work hard and stay in school, so that they could contribute to the good of the country, as they become adults, and some of the parents decided they didn't want their children to hear such a message, Okay, then I guess they want the opposite for their children, drop out, don't do your homework. They looked like idiots, but just as long as the smartest president we have had in a long time doesn't get to indoctrinate their little angels, they're fine. A great thing, if the last president, who did the same thing, but could not tell you the difference between a subject and a predicate, was speaking to them. The children would be allowed to sit and listen to him all day long. I wonder why the difference?? Are they scared of intelligence? That's a rhetorical question. Logic has been replaced with idiocracy, if there is such a word. It's a pitiful state of affairs, and the leaders with this mentality, are being blinded by a light of confusion. All I can say is God bless America, because sometimes, we are our own worst enemy. Take care. Worry not, about being in the minority, many a battle has been won with small and right, than with large and wrong, they just make more noise.

I read through some of the other responses justifying these protests...until I couldn't take any more. The reason that School Boards have meetings in the evenings is because they discuss GROWN UP stuff. This protest...regardless of what it was about...was GROWN UP stuff. I wouldn't be quite as outraged if the location was across the street from a middle school or a high school...although I'd still be disturbed...but an elementary school? Give me a break. If anyone believes that not one single child was even a little bit frightened by this display, I have some swamp land I'd like to sell them. There is no excuse for frightening children...especially the very young ones who have been in school for less than 2 months. The demonstration(s) should have been held at the next School Board meeting in my opinion.

I think you can sing and still learn reading, writing and arithmetic. I suppose the thing that I would want to make sure about if I were a parent of one of these children is that what my child is being taught in the song is the truth. It's much too soon to be singing the praises of Obama or to be too condemning of him. I would also want to know if they sing praises to the other Presidents or if it's just Obama. If it's only Obama, I'd want to know why. If I didn't agree with the song, I'd want my child to have the option not to sing just like children have the option not to say the pledge of allegiance. Of course teachers indoctrinate or influence children in their charge, just like parents, but both should teach children to be discerning and not to accept just because an adult says so.

I think that the parents had every right to protest during the school day, as long as it remained peaceful and outside of the school. I am glad that the parents are sticking up for their kids - teachers don't have a right to influence young children's political opinions. The song clearly glorifies Obama, if you replaced His name with Jesus, the kids could have easily sung it during Sunday School at Church. While I think that it would have been best to go through routes that the children were removed from at first (which for all I know were already taken by these parents), I think a peaceful protest is a good step. Next I'm sure the teachers and school district will be sued. Whoever would teach kids in a public school to sing a song like that should have already seen this coming. It's one thing to teach a song that reflects history and current events, but it's another thing to teach children a biased song that will shape their way of thinking about something that they can't possibly fully comprehend yet and cause disturbances in the way parent's are raising their children.

Those protesters were absolutely WRONG to do what they did across the street from the school while class was in session and the kids would be exposed to it. You already know how I feel about the song thing, but those people who turned up o a school day outside the school were absolutely WRONG to do that! Those children are innocent n this, they should not have to see that crap outside their school when they are there hopefully trying to learn. If I were a parent of one of those kids, not only would I have been pissed about the song, but also about the showing of my kids' image without my permission AND I'd be REALLY angry at all those fools who showed up outside my kids' school on a school day. There is a time and place for such things, those protesters were completely inappropriate in their choice of time & place.