‘Jingle Bells’ Banned at Brighton Elementary School for Controversial Past

One of the most popular holiday songs of all time, Jingle Bells, will no longer be sung at Council Rock Elementary School in Brighton due to its controversial past. This story was first reported in the Rochester Beacon, where the school’s principal Matt Tappon confirmed the song, and several others, have been replaced with different songs that don’t have the “potential to be controversial or offensive.”

Their decision comes from research published in 2017 by Boston University professor Kyna Hamill. Hamill discovered that Jingle Bells’ first public performance may have occurred in a minstrel show nearly 150 years ago, where white actors performed in black face.

Source: 13 WHAM