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Centerville Elementary School

(Hempfield School District)

UPDATE: PennLive published this story on Friday morning.

The tradition of performing "A Christmas Carol" at a Lancaster County school was cancelled this year and a Jewish family blamed by some for the action has left the county in the aftermath, at least temporarily, say reports.

Hempfield School District denies that a complaint about the line "God bless us, every one!" prompted cancellation of the fifth grade performance in Centerville Elementary School.

The district says the decision was due to the time the non-curricular event required.

But a report on Lancaster Online says a Jewish family blamed for complaining about the Charles Dickens play has left the county in fear for their safety, after reader comments on the story.

The report has reached national media outlets including Fox News and Breitbart News Network.

A Fox News opinion piece by Todd Starnes says "I'm afraid Tiny Tim's goose has been cooked by the Ghost of Christmas Intolerance. Bah, humbug indeed."

The family told LNP they didn't complain about the play, but only asked for their child to be excused from the performance, and the request was granted.

But the parents said their child was "harassed by classmates" since the play's cancellation was announced in November. They told LNP they've left Lancaster County out of concern not only for comments made about the play, but the pizzeria shooting incident in Washington, D.C.

They hope to return and keep their child in the school, said LNP.

The school's principal, Tom Kramer, denied rumors about the performance being dropped. He wrote on the Hempfield web site Dec. 15:

"We want to clarify that the decision to cancel the play was a building decision, based upon interactions between myself and the fifth grade teaching team. This decision was made based primarily on instructional opportunities for students. Producing and performing a play is not part of the written curriculum for fifth grade."

"One rumor we've been addressing is that one or two families influenced this decision. That's just not true. The instructional time issue was our primary concern. Alternative solutions were explored for offering the play differently, including the use of non-core instructional time, but it was decided by the building team to not go down this path. We also looked at having rehearsals after school hours, but, at this time, parents nor staff members have stepped forward to take advantage of this possibility."

Kramer said the play took 15 to 20 hours of instructional time, which could no longer be afforded. Kramer said he has heard from families on both sides of the issue.

The district said it's received at least 200 phone calls both for and against the cancellation.

UPDATE: The author of the Fox News opinion piece was corrected.