Backlash over Montgomery decision to strip Christmas from school calendar
By Donna St. George November 12
The backlash was intense Wednesday to the Montgomery County Board of Education’s decision to scrub Christmas and other religious holidays from its published school calendar — without disturbing the days off.
It came by e-mail, tweets and Facebook messages — passionate views, along with some confoundment. Several Montgomery school board members reported that few people of any faith seemed happy with their Tuesday vote.
Montgomery school board member Rebecca Smondrowski, for one, was flooded with angry messages. She had supported a proposal to strip Jewish and Muslim holy days from the calendar and offered an amendment to remove Christmas and Easter, too.
A day later, she stood by her decision and stressed that students would still have the holidays off; only the calendar presentation would change. The idea, she said, was to reflect that schools were not being closed for religious observances but because of high absenteeism among students and staff members on those days.
“I just thought it was the most equitable thing to do,” she said. “I respect and appreciate so much that this is a very personal issue for so many people. I was in no way trying to imply that I don’t respect people’s religious practices. I do.”
School board Vice President Patricia O’Neill said she is confident that the board made a good decision. “It seems we’ve made multiple religious groups mad, but I believe we did the right thing,” she said. “And we’re in good company. Fairfax, Arlington, Loudoun — all are silent in calling out Christmas; they call it winter break.”
Montgomery’s school board vote to eliminate calendar references to religious holidays followed an earlier request by Muslim community leaders to give equal prominence on the calendar to the Islamic holy day of Eid al-Adha.
Muslim leaders had for years requested that Montgomery’s schools be closed for at least one of the two major Muslim holy days. They had not succeeded, but in the 2015-2016 academic year, Eid al-Adha falls on the same day as Yom Kippur, which is a day off in Montgomery. So Muslim leaders asked for equal billing on the calendar.
More at link: Backlash over Montgomery decision to strip Christmas from school calendar - The Washington Post
Yay!
By Donna St. George November 12
The backlash was intense Wednesday to the Montgomery County Board of Education’s decision to scrub Christmas and other religious holidays from its published school calendar — without disturbing the days off.
It came by e-mail, tweets and Facebook messages — passionate views, along with some confoundment. Several Montgomery school board members reported that few people of any faith seemed happy with their Tuesday vote.
Montgomery school board member Rebecca Smondrowski, for one, was flooded with angry messages. She had supported a proposal to strip Jewish and Muslim holy days from the calendar and offered an amendment to remove Christmas and Easter, too.
A day later, she stood by her decision and stressed that students would still have the holidays off; only the calendar presentation would change. The idea, she said, was to reflect that schools were not being closed for religious observances but because of high absenteeism among students and staff members on those days.
“I just thought it was the most equitable thing to do,” she said. “I respect and appreciate so much that this is a very personal issue for so many people. I was in no way trying to imply that I don’t respect people’s religious practices. I do.”
School board Vice President Patricia O’Neill said she is confident that the board made a good decision. “It seems we’ve made multiple religious groups mad, but I believe we did the right thing,” she said. “And we’re in good company. Fairfax, Arlington, Loudoun — all are silent in calling out Christmas; they call it winter break.”
Montgomery’s school board vote to eliminate calendar references to religious holidays followed an earlier request by Muslim community leaders to give equal prominence on the calendar to the Islamic holy day of Eid al-Adha.
Muslim leaders had for years requested that Montgomery’s schools be closed for at least one of the two major Muslim holy days. They had not succeeded, but in the 2015-2016 academic year, Eid al-Adha falls on the same day as Yom Kippur, which is a day off in Montgomery. So Muslim leaders asked for equal billing on the calendar.
More at link: Backlash over Montgomery decision to strip Christmas from school calendar - The Washington Post
Yay!
