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Kindergarten pupils at PS 90 in Brooklyn will sing “America the Beautiful” and four other songs at their graduation ceremony on June 20 — but “God Bless the USA” and Justin Bieber’s “Baby” remain off limits, school officials said yesterday.
The kids will sing “We’re All Together Again”, “The World is a Rainbow,” which celebrates diversity, “Shake Your Sillies Out’’ by Raffi, and “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from “Toy Story.”
PS 90 Principal Greta Hawkins came under a firestorm of criticism after The Post reported that she scrapped Lee Greenwood’s patriotic ballad, “God Bless the USA,” from the program.
Following the outcry, she also removed Bieber’s flirty teen hit “Baby” from the program, Mayor Bloomberg said.
Parents backed Hawkins’ dumping of Bieber’s song, but said it was a political move to save her hide.
“She’s trying to to keep the heat off her back,” said parent Luz Lozada, whose son, Daniel, is in kindergarten.
“We made a big uproar and I’m glad they did something about it. That song was not right for this age group. They should just leave the ‘God Bless the USA’ song.”
A spokesman for Greenwood said he’s been informed that pupils may sing his song right after the ceremony is over.
Students will sing “America the Beautiful” as the final song instead of the first, with “God Bless the USA” out of the program.
Another parent, Melody Borrero, whose daughter Celena is in kindergarten, said the controversy over the song selections has ruined the ceremony.
“They should just take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese and get a day off . . . The principal can’t run a school without the parents’ say,” Borrero said.
The music war comes amid months of tension among Hawkins, teachers and parents. The Department of Education is investigating a parent’s claim that Hawkins hit a fifth-grader with a cellphone she confiscated.
The NYPD’s hate-crimes unit is also probing three anonymous letters sent to Hawkins filled with anti-black slurs, sources said.
Sources said the tires of Hawkins’ car have been slashed and feces was spread on the windshield.
“It’s a very charged environment,” an insider said.