School Board Votes to Remove References to Religious Holidays from School Calendar

[rug]

Board members based the decision on legal principles and the hope it will create equity among religious groups. Students will still get the days off.



Muslim advocate Zainab Chaudry speaks to the Board of Education about recognizing Eid al-Adha. (Screenshot via Montgomery County Board of Education meeting feed.)

by Andrew Metcalf
Published: 11/11/14

Starting next school year, Montgomery County Public Schools will no longer include references to religious holidays on its school calendar.

The Montgomery County Board of Education voted Tuesday afternoon to remove references to Jewish holidays such as Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur as well as the Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter.

Instead, the Jewish and Christian holidays will not be labeled on the calendar, although schools will continue to close on those days.

The change came as members of the Muslim community lobbied the school board to include on the calendar the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, during which Muslims hold a feast to celebrate the prophet Abraham and mark the end of the Hajj pilgrimage. It’s one of two major religious holidays celebrated each year by Muslims, the other being Eid al-Fitr, which typically falls in July or early August.

http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2014/School-Board-Votes-to-Remove-References-to-Religious-Holidays-from-School-Calendar/

[TreasonousBastard]

1. OK, so rather than give Muslims a holiday...

they took everyone else's away.

That's not really such a bad idea. Days like Christmas and Thanksgiving have become national holidays but others, like Jewish holidays and minor Christian ones like Good Friday could be optional, with, say, everyone having two or three optional days a year.

This isn't uncommon in many school districts, and accommodates even tiny religions. (Or non-religions)

[rug]

2. I wished they'd do the same with Veterans Day and all its obligatory faux patriotism.

[phil89]

14. Agree wholeheartedly

Keeps people in the mindset that war makes people heroic. It's ridiculous and sad.

[cleanhippie]

15. No, nothing was taken away.

They chose, instead of recognizing another religious holiday (which if petitioned by those of other faiths they would also have to include) they chose to not recognize ANY religious holiday on the official school calndar (yet those days school would still be closed).

It was the right decision. Religion has no place in public schools except in a religious studies class.

[TreasonousBastard]

16. Don't let your biases get in the way...

reading between the lines it appeared that the board was bending over backwards to avoid acknowledging a Muslim holiday and this was the way they did it.

This is not a case of inserting religion into the school system, but of recognizing social institutions outside of the system-- I can't imagine even the most militant anti-religionist seriously proposing they stay open on Christmas. Celebrating the birth of Jesus has become a largely secular affair, but it's still a religious holiday.

What is proper is assessing the absences if they allow optional religious holidays. If they see half the school is out on Good Friday, might as well close. If they see 25% is out on Rosh Hoshana, that's a good argument for closing. Other religions will likely be well below that
and missing work can be made up.

[cleanhippie]

17. Don't let facts get in yours...

We can opine about why the decision was made, and you may be right. Regardless of wether it was an avoidance of recognizing a Muslim holy day, or not wanting to open the flood gates of having to recognize even MORE religious holy days, the correct decision was to not recognize any religious holy days.

All public institutions should follow suit.

[cbayer]

3. I would rather see them be more inclusive than eliminate it all together.

It's an opportunity to learn about other religions and cultures.

But if they felt they couldn't do that, it seems reasonable to remove them all.

[Cartoonist]

4. Is this Montgomery, as in Alabama?

If so, then this is huge. It may not seem like a big victory, but to me this marks the beginning of the end of religious privilege. Just like Rosa Parks, the ball has to start rolling somewhere. This is good news to me.

Cue those who will declare this a war on Christianity. They're right. This is the first real salvo.

[2banon]

5. excellent news!

that's one smart move, hopefully followed with public prayer among other things.

excellent news indeed.

[cbayer]

7. I'm not sure I would interpret it that way.

I think it had to do more with them not wanting to include the Muslim holiday. Given the choice of doing that or eliminating them all, they eliminated them all….

but only on the calendar. The holidays will remain holidays.

And it's not Alabama, it's Maryland.

[LiberalEsto]

8. No, it's Montgomery County, Maryland

I live here.

[cbayer]

10. So what is your take on this?

[LiberalEsto]

11. It's just more MoCo political correctness

Doesn't affect me personally because my kids graduated more than a decade ago.

[cbayer]

12. I was wondering if the bottom line issue was that they would rather remove all the holidays

than permit a muslim one.

This is outside DC right? There is a great deal of political correctness that goes on in some of those communities, I know.

[LiberalEsto]

13. I can't say because I didn't follow the issue

Rather than deal with large groups of enraged parents from different religious backgrounds, the school board is trying to placate everyone.

Yes, we are just to the west and north of DC.

[beam me up scottie]

9. Well they're still closed on christian and jewish religious holidays.

They're doing this to avoid having to include all other religions in the calendar, imo.

[2banon]

6. Bravo!

[pinto]

18. The state's history may have played a part in this decision.

Maryland was founded under a land grant purchased by or granted to Lord Baltimore, which he established, in part, as an "enclave" for Catholics leaving a largely Protestant England. The state remains largely Catholic with a significant evangelical Protestant population.

Both religious populations may have wanted to side step the whole thing in this manner.