NY Elementary School Bans 'Jingle Bells' Due To Song's Alleged Racist Past

The wokes have struck again and this time it's at a New York elementary school where the administration decided it would ban "Jingle Bells" and several other songs that have a "questionable past" as determined by the administration.

Matt Tappon, the principal at Council Rock Elementary in Brighton, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester, told the Rochester Beacon that "Jingle Bells" and the other songs were being replaced by songs that wouldn't have the "potential to be controversial or offensive."

Seriously.

Tappon and administrators point to a 2017 report by a Boston University professor that noted "Jingle Bells; or, The One Horse Open Sleigh" was first performed in 1857 as part of a Boston minstrel show. Another administrator, Allison Rioux, Brighton Central School District assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, told the Beacon that "Jingle Bells" was banned because "some suggest that the use of collars on slaves with bells to send an alert that they were running away is connected to the origin of the song.”

Kyna Hamill, the BU professor who wrote the report on the legendary Christmas song, says she's "shocked" that the school banned the song and that doesn't support what the school has done.

“I, in no way, recommended that it stopped being sung by children,” Hamill told the Beacon.

“My article tried to tell the story of the first performance of the song, I do not connect this to the popular Christmas tradition of singing the song now... I would say it should very much be sung and enjoyed, and perhaps discussed.”

Matt Tappon, principal at Council Rock Elementary

Brighton Superintendent Kevin McGowan

Allison Rioux, Brighton Central School District assistant superintendent

Nope, nothing to see here.

“I can assure you that this situation is not an attempt to push an agenda," McGowan told WHAM. "We were not and are not even discussing the song and its origins, whatever they may be. This was very simply a thoughtful shift made by thoughtful staff members who thought they could accomplish their instructional objective using different material. The change in material is also not something being forced on children or propaganda being spread.”

Wait, didn't one of McGowan's employees infer that the song is racist? Get your stories together, Kev.

No agenda?

The elementary principal said the song was being replaced by songs that don't have the "potential to be controversial or offensive."

Come on, Kev, you really want us to believe the three of you didn't get together and come to the conclusion that "Jingle Bells" was racist and it was time to ban it so you can collect your woke street cred coins?

Good try. We're not falling for it.