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The elementary school principal notified him about the song. They discussed it and asked the district\u2019s legal department. They were advised to \u201comit\u201d the song from the program, so it was removed, DeMallie said.<\/p>\n
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But \u201cthat\u2019s not the reason for the cancellation of the concert,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s easy enough to sing five songs rather than six at a night concert.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, he said, he decided to cancel the planned evening concert but proceed with a performance during the school day and record it for parents and others to view.<\/p>\n
DeMallie said no safety issue prompted the cancellation and that the music department staff were all still at work in the district\u2019s schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said he wished he could explain further.\u00a0\u201cUnfortunately, it\u2019s a matter that cannot be disclosed,\u201d DeMallie said.<\/p>\n
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A statement was posted on the district\u2019s website that stated in part, \u201cIt is important to note the cancellation is not related to song selection or school safety issues as some in the community have alleged.\u201d That statement appeared to have been removed on Friday.<\/p>\n
DeMallie spent part of Friday returning calls from parents who were irate that they could not watch their children sing the songs they\u2019d been practicing for weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m from here, I\u2019m a graduate of here, my children go here,\u201d he said. \u201cI understand the ramifications of the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
One parent described his 8-year-old daughter coming home in tears because her parents wouldn\u2019t get to watch her perform. He knew about the \u201cJesus song\u201d\u00a0\u2014 he\u2019d heard his kids singing the animal sounds. Although he isn\u2019t religious, he said he thought the song was funny.<\/p>\n
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The controversy was picked up by Anthony Constantino, the colorful CEO of Amsterdam-based company Sticker Mule and a newly announced candidate for the 21st Congressional District. He issued a statement denouncing the district\u2019s decision as \u201can illegal violation of the First Amendment\u201d \u2014 all violations of the First Amendment are illegal \u2014 \u201cand parents can bring legal action against the school if they want.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy lawyers,\u201d Costantino said, \u201cwill be happy to help the parents if interested!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the Fonda-Fultonville Central School District decided to drop a song from its elementary school’s holiday program, an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[67,844,610,36008,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-69533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-education","tag-latestnews","tag-local","tag-montco","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}