Baltimore Business Journal

President Barack Obama has tapped the head of the National Security Agency to head up the military’s cybersecurity effort, potentially drawing hundreds of jobs to Fort George G. Meade in Anne Arundel County.

Obama has nominated Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, now director of the super-secret spy agency, to serve as director of a new government agency called the U.S. Cyber Command.

If Alexander is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he would run the outfit from the NSA’s headquarters at Fort Meade. U.S. Cyber Command would be charged with overseeing the nation’s efforts to protect itself against computer hackers and other electronic attacks.

As the Baltimore Business Journal reported July 31, the agency could draw hundreds of jobs to the Anne Arundel County military base and create new opportunities for Greater Baltimore’s IT community to do business with the agency.

We received the following statement this morning from Patti Caplan, public information officer of the Howard County Public School System:

Several weeks ago, all Longfellow Elementary School first graders were shown a videotape of President Obama’s speech to students as part of the school’s Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Program (PBIS), which focuses on being safe, responsible and respectful. As the classes were gathering in one of the first grade classrooms, the teacher was playing a CD of a song she and her students composed last year for a technology competition. She also played the song as the students were leaving.

One (yes only one) parent called and emailed the school with his concern that the students were being forced to “glorify and worship” President Obama. The school administration responded to this parent and provided him with a copy of the lyrics, which his wife posted on a blog. The school administration has met with this parent and he apologized for the posting and for creating so much trouble for the school. He indicated that the school had addressed his concern.

The objective of this lesson was to motivate students with a positive message to be respectful, stay in school, work hard and do their best. The lesson supports the work the school is doing as part of PBIS. The children did sing along to the song, which repeats “Yes I Can” and “Yes We Can.” Repetition of this nature is a common element in songs for children of this age.

The focus of the lesson was on the children and positive behavior, not the President. There was no intention or attempt to glorify or worship the President. Educators often use positive role models in their lessons, including Presidents of the United States, and this practice is supported by the Howard County Public School System. The Howard County Public School System does not require nor encourage teachers to include references to President Obama in their lessons, nor does it discourage the use of such references.

The Howard County Public School System respects the right of individuals to disagree with the words of the song and/or even the use of the song in this context. However, the idea that a public school system would have a “policy” to force students to “worship” the President is so ludicrous it deserves no response.

What should concern everyone is the fact that the name of the school’s assistant principal was posted on the blog and has now been circulated widely on the Internet. As a result she has received uncivil, vulgar and threatening calls and emails from all over the country. These come from individuals who have no clue what really took place at the school. Enough already! This is much ado about nothing. These attacks are harassment and must stop.

Previously:
Lyrics from Obama worship song in Maryland elementary school
School admin claims MD Obama song story ‘not true’

On our last post about the lyrics of a song that was reportedly taught to student at Longfellow Elementary School in Howard County, we received the following comment from someone named Lisa:

The scary part, this story, I CAN ASSURE YOU, was never verified. IT’S NOT TRUE. It’s sad to see so many people jumping on a bandwagon of criticism. Anyone who is disgraced by this should be even more disgraced by the fact that they believe everything they read. Give the school and the administration some credit.

Based on the email address and the Howard County Public Schools IP address of the commenter, we’re fairly certain that the comment was left by Lisa Ciarapica, an assistant principal at Swansfield Elementary School.

We will be sending an email to Public Information at Howard County Public Schools to see if they have any official response to the Obama song story. Contact information for their public information office is publicinfo@hcpss.org or 410-313-6682. We will run any response from the school system unedited and uncut in a later post.

The story has since been picked up by Michelle Malkin after originally being mentioned by Brian Griffiths and Sean & Frank.

In our initial post earlier we just included the song’s lyrics. However, both Griffiths in his post and Sean & Frank (via a Word document) had this complete email that consists of an email that appears to be from a parent mentioning the situation along with forwarding a response that is allegedly from the Assistant Principal at Longfellow Elementary:

From: (Removed)
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 1:30 PM
To: (Removed)
Subject: Song
Hi everyone, below is the email that our son’s Assistant Principal sent us to let us know the wording of the Obama song that our son told us his class was instructed to sing last week…the teacher is part of the first grade team of teachers and is really nice, but this is not what we want our son doing at school or anywhere!

Any advice?

Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 11:33 AM
To: (Removed)
Subject: Song

Hello Mr. (REMOVED),
The words to the song are below.
Thank you!
Laurel Marsh

Obama,
President Obama,
President Obama,
President Obama,
President Obama–He says
Yes we can!
President Obama–We say
Yes we can!
President Obama–I say
Yes I can!
President Obama–He says
Yes we can!
Barack Obama–Oh yes he rates,
The first Black President in the United States!
He’s smart and he’s–so so good!
He’ll lead this country as he should!
He wants us all to work together,
To make this country even better!
Prez’ Obama says–”Yes We Can!”
Make the US better–hand in hand!
Obama,
President Obama,
President Obama,
President Obama
President!
————————————————-
Laurel Marsh
Assistant Principal
Longfellow Elementary
410-313-6879

Laurel Marsh is indeed listed as the Assistant Principal at Longfellow. As we mentioned, we had the comment apparently from an assistant principal at another school saying the whole story is false so that implies that Lisa Ciarapica is claiming the whole email above along with the song lyrics are fabricated.

We look forward to a response from Howard County Public Schools, Lisa Ciarapica, Laurel Marsh and the parent who reportedly forwarded this email to Brian Griffiths or WCBM.

UPDATE: I’ve been told via email that I will be receiving an official response in this matter from the Howard County Public Schools. Stay tuned to Inside Charm City for more details.

I somehow missed something that Brian Griffiths picked up last week.

I was reading Sean and Frank’s page today to see their link to one of our stories yesterday and noticed the song lyrics and then I found the Red Maryland link by Griffiths above via Google.

The following song was taught to students to sing at Longfellow Elementary in Howard County in recent weeks:

Obama,
President Obama,
President Obama,
President Obama,
President Obama–He says
Yes we can!
President Obama–We say
Yes we can!
President Obama–I say
Yes I can!
President Obama–He says
Yes we can!

Barack Obama–Oh yes he rates,
The first Black President in the United States!
He’s smart and he’s–so so good!
He’ll lead this country as he should!
He wants us all to work together,
To make this country even better!
Prez’ Obama says–”Yes We Can!”
Make the US better–hand in hand!

Obama,
President Obama,
President Obama,
President Obama
President!

Press Release of Senator Cardin
CARDIN CALLS FOR IRANIAN ACTION, NOT PROMISES

Contact: Sue Walitsky: 202-224-4524
Friday, October 2, 2009

Click here for associated multimedia.

“I sincerely hope President Obama is correct in his assessment of today’s talks with Iran as a ‘constructive beginning.’ But I remain concerned that the international community may be providing an opportunity for an historically belligerent regime to stall for time without taking any action. President Obama is right to insist that Iran take concrete steps. Promises alone are insufficient for a regime that has repeatedly avoided meaningful negotiation while developing a covert nuclear program. I support the administration’s effort to find a peaceful resolution of the world community’s dispute with Iran, but if faced with further defiance, we must be ready to impose substantial economic consequences to prevent Iran from ever obtaining nuclear weapons.”