They’re proud to be un-American.
City Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott is standing behind a Brooklyn principal’s controversial decision to pull the plug on a popular patriotic song that was scheduled to be performed at a kindergarten graduation.
PS 90 Principal Greta Hawkins won’t allow the boys and girls to belt out Lee Greenwood’s ballad “God Bless the USA” because it’s not “age appropriate.”
And Walcott yesterday said that’s fine by him.
“It’s her judgment to make that decision,” Walcott said. “It’s important to reinforce that they start out the morning every day of the school year with the Pledge of Allegiance and ‘America the Beautiful,’ and that, to me, is what this country is about, and they celebrate that, and that’s how we should start our day.
“You have to really wonder about some of the lyrics in the song, so I have to rely on the principal’s judgment along that line.”
Walcott was responding to The Post’s story about Hawkins’ unpopular decision to ditch the ditty after marching in on a rehearsal for the June 20 moving-up ceremony.
Still on the the playlist was Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” a flirty song about teenage romance.
At issue, according to a Department of Education spokeswoman, are lyrics from the tune’s opening verse: “If tomorrow all the things were gone/I’d worked for all my life/And I had to start again/with just my children and my wife.”
They were deemed inappropriate for the 5-year-olds.
Staffers quoted Hawkins as saying, “We don’t want to offend other cultures.”
Parents and teachers angry over Hawkins’ decision yesterday launched a Facebook page demanding her ouster.
“If the DOE has any brains they should remove her tomorrow,’’ seethed one angry anonymous staffer in a posting. “We were the victims of 9/11. It hit New York really hard. That song became famous because of that tragedy. Removing that song is horrific. It’s opening the wound again.”
Hawkins could not be reached for comment.