Excerpt:
Concord-Carlisle High School (CCHS) Principal Peter Badalament released a statement Thursday explaining the school's reasoning behind reciting a poem about a Muslim ritual and not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance during Wednesday's observance of the 12th anniversary of Sept 11.
"We had the well-being of students at the forefront of our thinking when we chose to acknowledge 9/11 by reading a poem that focused on cross-cultural understanding rather than unsettling words and images associated with the event," Badalament said.
According to Badalament, the poem "My Grandmother Washes her Feet in the Sink of the Bathroom at Sears," written by Mohja Kahf, was read over the school's intercom on Wednesday, Sept. 11.