The school board for PS 169 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, overturned a radical decision to ban the Pledge of Allegiance, Thanksgiving, and Santa Claus.
The department of education told principal Eujin Jaela Kim that “Santa is considered a secular figure and is welcome.” The school can also show off “Christmas trees, menorahs, kinaras and star and crescents.”
Only deities, religious figures, and religious texts cannot be displayed inside the school.
Hundreds of parents signed a petition to remove Kim as principal.
The school called Thanksgiving the “Harvest Festival,” and Christmas parties were known as “Winter Celebrations.”
“We definitely can’t say Christmas, nothing with Christmas on it, nothing with Santa,” explained PTA president Mimi Ferrer. “No angels. We can’t even have a star because it can represent a religious system, like the Star of David.”
A memo from assistant principal Jose Chaparro told the staff to “be sensitive of the diversity of our families. Not all children celebrate the same holidays.”
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