School official's lyrics about gunfire worry parents, but get district's OK
Logic Amen, assistant to the principal of Tacoma’s Lincoln High School since 2011, wrote a rap song called "Cancel Christmas" — sparking outrage among parents because of lyrics about a mass school shooting.
(Facebook)
School district officials in Washington state say they won't condemn an assistant high school principal who rapped about shooting up a school and brushed off critics he described as "two white women parents."
Logic Amen, who's been on the staff at Tacoma’s Lincoln High School since 2011, wrote a rap song called "Cancel Christmas" — sparking outrage among parents because of lyrics about committing a mass school shooting in gruesome terms.
“Give me a reason just to load up a rifle. Pull the fire alarm in the lobby of my high school," the lyrics go. "Leave the halls bloody like a high-noon tycoon. I’m about to cancel Christmas. I won’t leave a freakin’ witness," the song continues.
“Give me a reason just to load up a rifle.
Pull the fire alarm in the lobby of my high school.
Leave the halls bloody like a high-noon tycoon.
I’m about to cancel Christmas.
I won’t leave a freakin’ witness."
Two mothers of the school students have come out against the assistant principal over his rap career sideline.
“The fact that he’s a role model for high school students — and we know at that age they are highly sexually curious — and he’s rapping about really intimate sexual things,” Jenn Giovani told the Tacoma News Tribune. “You’re talking about gangs and drugs and smoking weed.”
“No one in a position of authority who is mentoring or monitoring our children, my children, anyone’s children, should be glorifying shooting up a school,” said Laurel Craddock.
The 43-year-old assistant principal's Christmas lyrics aren't the only messages stoking controversy. On Twitter, he once tweeted that "The white Man is biggest terrorist in the history of the americas[sic].
In another tweet, he wrote: "You're only crazy if you use violence to free Black and Brown people but you're a revolutionary when you use violence to free white people."
Amen fired back at his critics, saying they misunderstood his lyrics, and claimed the "two white women parents" were after him because they don't like him.
"Two white women parents who have admitted they don’t like me based on their interpretations of my interactions with their children decided to start an ad hominem attack on me," Amen wrote in a Facebook post.
“Nowhere in the song did I condone [violence]. I just told a short story of something that happened to a young person that inspired and caused him to commit acts of violence,” he told the Tribune. “I think it’s condescending that young adults cannot understand, with the right coaching and guidance, what’s going on in my music.”
Despite the outrage, Amen earned the support of his school district, with officials saying he didn't violate any policies and the song is just an "artistic expression."
“Logic’s good work at Lincoln High School has contributed to helping turn around the academic success of students there over the last several years, helped close achievement gaps and dramatically improved the image of the school,” district spokesman Dan Voelpel told the outlet.
“It goes without saying that anytime anyone speaks of school violence as a threat, we pay attention. In this case the language of the song in question falls into the category of artistic expression and is not perceived as a threat," he added.