New Jersey School District Reverse Ban on Religious Music at Holiday Concerts

November 20, 2003

Source: The Associated Press

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--school-holidayson1120nov20,0,4487759.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire

On November 20, 2003 The Associated Press reported that "district students can once again perform songs with religious themes at holiday concerts. The Board of Education agreed Monday night to reverse the ban it had imposed in May. It came about after many residents and district staffers claimed the religiously oriented songs were discriminatory. 'We were trying to address the community's concerns about what was viewed by some to be an imbalance in the content of the winter and the holiday concerts having to do with religious music,' Superintendent Salvatore Sansone said after the board voted 6-2 to reverse the ban. Dozens of people had come to the Hanover board's Oct. 28 meeting to protest the decision, claiming that students were being deprived of traditional holiday music."