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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Here's the latest on the NJ schoolkids singing Obama's praises...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/19/records-request-filed-connection-obama-song/?test=latestnews

Foxnews.com has filed an open-records request to view notices that a New 
Jersey school district says were sent to parents alerting them to an 
assembly performance earlier this year in which second-graders sang the 
praises of President Obama.

The request, filed Monday with Mary Ann Bell, the Open Public Records 
Act officer for the Burlington Township School District, seeks to obtain 
copies of notices officials say were provided to parents of students at 
the B. Bernice Young Elementary School prior to the assembly in February.

The song was performed again on March 23 -- and videotaped in violation 
of school policy -- when author Charisse Carney-Nunes visited the school 
in recognition of Women's History Month.

The video, which was posted on YouTube, has angered some parents who say 
their children should not have been videotaped without permission. 
Others have lambasted the school administrators for the video's message, 
which they say amounts to indoctrination.

Liz Scott, a spokeswoman for the school district, told Foxnews.com last 
week that the district would be unable to produce copies of the notices 
sent to parents before the performances.

In a statement released on Oct. 12, Superintendent Christopher Manno 
said lyrics to the song were sent home to parents ahead of the 
performance, which was videotaped "without knowledge or permission" of 
staff members. He also dismissed allegations that the performance was an 
"indoctrination," saying there was nothing "systematic" about the 
classroom activity.

"After an investigation of this event, we found that no form of 
indoctrination took place, and there was no intent for indoctrination," 
the statement read. "There was no intention to make any political 
statement or promote a political agenda at all."

But Jim Pronchick, whose 8-year-old son Jimmy can be seen on the video, 
said school officials tried to push their political views on the 
students, and he disputed the district's claims regarding the notices.

"We never got the lyrics," he told Foxnews.com. "Absolutely not."
--
Sleep well tonight, for somewhere in the ocean's depths, MY son is 
protecting your freedom on the USS Key West, currently deployed 
somewhere in the Pacific and/or Indian Ocean.  Go Navy!
EarthNSky Farm, NW Georgia, USA