It's Beginning to Sound a Lot Like Yesteryear

[RedEarth]

It's Beginning to Sound a Lot Like Yesteryear
By PETER APPLEBOME

Maplewood, N.J.

THERE probably isn't an ideal time for a school district to decide to ban all Christmas music from the winter concerts at its schools. But after a month of the Great Christmas Carol Controversy in the South Orange/Maplewood School District, all sides agree on at least one thing: The district picked a particularly dicey time to try.

......

For all the controversy, the issue here is not new. In the early 1990's, after concerns that a high school chorus's concert was essentially a celebration of Christmas, the board adopted a policy on religion based on three ideas - school activities should have a secular purpose, activities should neither advance nor inhibit religion and activities must have relevance to the curriculum.

The policy was passed again in 2001 and this year new guidelines were drawn up for its enforcement in student performances. The school board's president, Brian O'Leary, said administrators and staff members could not agree on what materials to include. "They tried to reach agreement on what was acceptable, and they couldn't get to the goal line," he said. "It wasn't quite a shoving match but there was a fairly frank conversation. So it ended up with the hard line that if it had religious content it should not be included."

........

When the new guidelines were announced on Oct. 29, applying even to instrumental renditions, the controversy was on, fanned by media reports; threatened lawsuits by an Arizona-based religious-right organization, Alliance Defense Fund; and by outrage from at least a part of the local population.

"It's horrible; someone who wants to take Christmas music away from the children is a Grinch," said Shirley Babilya, who has a seventh grader in the district and has circulated a petition against the policy. "You hear rap music all the time and they want to do away with Christmas songs? I don't think they have enough to do."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/15/nyregion/15towns.html?ei=5006&en=c2601d9edd8d2d77&ex=1103864400&partner=ALTAVISTA1&pagewanted=print&position=