In a decision prompted by complaints from Muslim families, the board of education in Maryland’s largest school district on Tuesday voted to remove all Christian and Jewish holidays references from the school district calendar.
According to the Washington Times, the parents of Muslim children in the Montgomery County School District argued that religous holidays were not being observed equall, because school was not closed in observance of Muslim holidays but was closed for Christian or Jewish holidays.
According to the Times, Muslim community leaders complained that the Eid al-Adha holiday was not getting equal recognition on next year’s school calendar with the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, both of which will fall on Sept. 23, 2015.
The Times reported that Superintendent Joshua P. Starr responded by recommending that the board adopt a plan that removed calendar references to Yom Kippur and another Jewish holiday, Rosh Hashanah, which would have dealt with the specific complaint at issue.
The board went further, though, voting 7-1 to remove references to all religious holidays.
This may be a hollow victory for the Muslim parents because despite the absence of religious holidays on the calendar, schools still will be closed and students will still get vacation days for the Christian and Jewish holidays — just without the religious reference — while school will remain open for most Muslim holidays.
The Associated Press reports that Muslim leaders are not pleased with the result. They didn’t want religious labels removed from the other holidays, just for Muslim students to have their own holiday recognized.
Last year, Muslim parents, working with the Maryland chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, unsuccessfully petitioned the school system to cancel classes on the Islamic holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
Officials declined to close the district’s roughly 200 schools on the holidays, noting that the absentee rate was not high enough among students or staff to warrant it. The district does offer excused absences for students on religious holidays that fall on school days and encourages teachers to plan tests and other activities around them.
Confirming that no-one is happy, the issue recieved wide media attention.
“By stripping the names Christmas, Easter, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, they have alienated other communities now, and we are no closer to equality,” Saqib Ali, a former Maryland state delegate and co-chair of the Equality for Eid Coalition, told the Washington Post. “It’s a pretty drastic step, and they did it without any public notification.”
Question for the Montgomery County School Board: Now that nobody is happy, is everyone happy?
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