Free Republic

For the kids at Olympic View Elementary, it's the day the music died. Their popular music teacher didn't come back to the Seattle school this year. Their arts instruction has been left with a gaping hole. The reason why seems so ridiculous: Instructor Mary K. McNeill -- "Mary K" to everyone at the school -- made the "mistake" of encouraging kids to write and sing songs about love and peace during the U.S. war in Iraq. A few parents complained. The school principal met with Mary, who had been at Olympic View for a few years and whose methods had...