walking backwards
kateA young Muslim girl stood up before the Hillsborough County School Board yesterday and repeated the request of her community by asking for one day off during the school year to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Instead, the school district took away days scheduled off for Yom Kippur, Good Friday and the day after Easter. (Christmas is conveniently celebrated during Winter Break and therefore remains a day off for everyone).
I have no problem keeping religious expression separate from public schools. Yet here was an opportunity to take a progressive step forward and include Muslim students as legitimate members of our family. Instead, by removing almost all religious holidays and replacing them with secular days off, we took a few steps back.
Administrators and school board members will say teachers know not to schedule exams or special events on these days. Yet, a few years ago a local high school scheduled homecoming during Rosh Hashanah. Is it fair that Jewish and Muslim teachers must use a personal day to take off for legitimate worshipping purposes while Christmas and Easter require no such sacrifice from Christian staff?
Some will blame Muslims for such a drastic measure; however, understand this was not their purpose. Recognition of a time-honored tradition was the goal and our school board members responded by turning its back.
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October 27th, 2005 at 3:15 pm
Funny, how many great, intuitive, smart comments you get, but not on this one. F*ck a duck, hmm?
October 27th, 2005 at 8:39 pm
So you read minds, too?
October 28th, 2005 at 12:39 pm
I am amazed no one has given their opinion on this.
October 28th, 2005 at 1:19 pm
[...] Kate recently bemoaned the loss of a few religious holidays at school, accusing the board of being chickensh*t. I have to say she’s right, it is chicken. But I also cannot blame the board. They made the right move. [...]
November 3rd, 2005 at 6:04 pm
[...] First of all, you need to figure this out. You may not have any kids in school. But you might one day, and this subject will be important to you then. Rachel* pointed out the lack of response here the first time it was brought up, and I have to agree that it is very disappointing. With sixteen replies to the “does Wikipedia matter?†post, you’d think something this divisive would garner some response. [...]