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P.S. 3 kids shine a light for peace and tolerance

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The young students’ song, “When the Lights All Shine,” called for unity. Photos by Tequila Minsky

BY MICHAEL OSSORGUINE | At P.S. 3, the children say they feel a responsibility to stand up against hatred and violence. On Monday, a graduating fifth-grade class of 10- and 11-year-olds demonstrated this audibly. Instead of celebrating the end of the school year in their classroom, they sang a peace anthem outside the Stonewall Inn as a prayer for the victims of the Orlando massacre.

At 8 p.m., as dusk was falling, a flash mob gathered, including teachers, advisers and school parents. Passersby also paused in their commutes to watch the chorus.

The kids shouted, “Pray for Orlando!” as teachers quickly handed out candles. The mob held up signs saying “No Hate,” “No Guns” and “Now More Than Ever, New York Loves Orlando.” Before long, fifth-grade teacher Alan Tung started playing a karaoke tune on a boom box, and the class began singing, “When the Lights All Shine,” a plea for world peace.

“The song has a great message,” Tung said.

Tung — who is married to City Councilmember Margaret Chin — spent the whole year helping the class rehearse the multipart harmony, and has become a favorite teacher for many of the kids.

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“When the Lights All Shine” is a choral tune about people lighting candles in ethnically diverse cities all over the world until the Earth glows with their combined light, and “the journey to peace has begun.”

“What happened in Orlando was terrible,” said a boy from the class, who enthusiastically held up a rainbow gay pride flag during the vigil. “The guy who did it was awfully wrong.”

“We’re doing the right thing,” another boy said.

The kids seemed ecstatic to be demonstrating in the name of peace and love.

“I’m so happy we’re doing this,” a girl said after the song ended. “We could be in the classroom eating cake — or out here singing. I mean, this is a party.”

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Besides the Stonewall sing-in for peace, P.S. 3, in general, is very involved in activism and civil rights movements. The school community also includes many openly gay leaders.

P.S. 3 conducts fundraisers and also “FUNraisers,” such as bake sales, “drum-a-thons” and “sing-a-thons,” and generally makes educating its students about justice and equality a priority.

Alicia Saltzer expressed it well in a notice to the press summing up event.

“The kids are devastated by the hatred and lack of progress they see in moving toward a world more like their own, where gay and straight, Muslim and Jew study together and play together more, and weep together less,” she said.

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According to Saltzer, P.S. 3 students kids join their parents and friends in the annual Pride March through the Village every June.

Saltzer, who is openly lesbian, is happily marrying her longtime partner this weekend.

P.S. 3, known as the Charrette School, is described as a “child of the 1960s.” The Hudson St. school’s vision for a learning environment was crafted through a community workshop in the 1960s, and the same nonhierarchical structure and arts focus exists today.

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Proud P.S. 3 parents cheered their children’s performance and their song’s message of world peace and understanding.

Coincidentally, another antiviolence rally convened outside the Stonewall Inn only minutes before the P.S. 3 vigil. Black Lives Matter protesters handing out fliers saying, “NYC SHUT IT DOWN,” gathered in Christopher Park, angrily shouting, “On our streets, on our blocks, we don’t need these killer cops.” The protesters demonstrated in the park for about 15 minutes, leaving just as the voices of the P.S. 3 children could be heard from Christopher St.