A young schoolgirl was banned from performing ‘Joy to the World’ for her piano assignment after the teacher told her the song was “too religious” for the classroom.
13-year-old Brooklyn Benzel was saddened after her teacher at California’s South Sutter Charter School told her she wouldn’t be able to perform her favorite song on piano due to religious lyrics – even though the girl never intended to sing in the first place.
After Brooklyn told her mum about her shattered plans, Julianne Benzel contacted the school in question in hopes of convincing them to change their minds.
“My guess (regarding justification) is that there are words in the lyrics that can be considered religious such as ‘savior’ and ‘heaven.point 237 |
’ It is widely considered as a Christian hymn and is typically played/sung at Christmas time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ,” an anonymous official told Julianne in an early e-mail exchange.point 170 | 1
They also suggested that the girl picks ‘Jingle Bells’ instead because the song is “more cultural” and “there are no lyrics that can be construed as religious,” meaning that “people of all (or no) religions can enjoy it as a song of the winter season.”
It wasn’t until the upset mother threatened the school with a lawsuit that they decided to apologize and reverse their ban.
“You would think homeschooling would be the safest arena for conservatives. We are tired and extremely weary of our Christian faith being attacked in this country,” Benzel, who is a 2020 presidential candidate, said in an interview with FOX.
She also took the matter to Twitter where she wrote:
“Brooklyn’s piano sample for the semester ‘Joy to the World’ has been rejected as ‘too religious’. You think we’re going to relent even one bit?!? You know we’ll take it as far as necessary. Stay tuned… #FirstAmendment #CA04 #Benzel2020”
After a non-profit organization called Pacific Justice Institute decided to back the mother if it came down to a legal case, South Sutter reversed their ban and called the incident a “misunderstanding.”
“School leadership reviewed the assignment that same day and determined it was an acceptable work sample,” their spokesperson revealed in a statement obtained by DailyMail.
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Replaced!