school daze

Teacher Exodus at Coney Island School Where Principal Banned ‘God Bless the USA’

The Edna Cohen School (P.S. 90) in Coney Island briefly made headlines back in June when its principal, Greta Hawkins, forbade her kindergartners from singing Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to Be an American” (otherwise known as “God Bless the USA”). Now, sources tell the New York Post that fully forty percent of her staff — 25 people total — have left the school over the past year. Some retired, sure, but many couldn’t stand to be in that “toxic building” any longer, while others called Hawkins “vindictive” and “malicious.” A spokeswoman for the Department of Education conceded that many of the departures were “disgruntled staff.”

Teacher Exodus at Troubled Coney Island School