U.S. bureaucrats keeping us safe from Polish choirboy, 12

[Kadie]

U.S. bureaucrats keeping us safe from Polish choirboy, 12

David Wiegand
Wednesday, September 1, 2004


Some Oakland boys who like to sing are taking on the Department of Homeland Security over the fate of a 12-year-old Polish kid who, in all likelihood, does not have terrorist designs on the United States.

Earlier this year, the 7-year-old Pacific Boychoir was contacted by the Youth Choir Foundation in Boston to gauge its interest in accepting 12-year- old Adam Kutny, a gifted alto who found himself somewhat stranded artistically after the choir he belonged to dissolved. Specifically, the Boston organization was seeking a choir school for Adam, and it just so happens that Pacific Boychoir is starting its own academy this month. The Pacific Boychoir Academy will be the West Coast's only choir school. And since the Boychoir itself performed with the San Francisco Symphony on its Grammy-winning recording of the Mahler Third, it wasn't exactly a ragtag bunch of kids warbling on some street corner.

In March, the Boychoir applied for Homeland Security approval for Adam to come to the United States and study singing. Music director Kevin Fox and managing director Pam Weimer were told that the application process usually takes about 90 days.

The finally got their answer two weeks ago, five months after applying for a document called an I-17, which would confer special accreditation on the school for accepting foreign students. The answer? You guessed: a definite "no. "

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/09/01/DDGUR8GVCN1.DTL