Do you think schools should let Muslims students off early every Friday to attend Mosque?

[Anonymous]

I teach at a high school in FCPS and we have many Muslim students. We offer a room for prayer if they want it, but we also often have many students who regularly check out each Friday to pray. While I am sure some of them are actually going to pray, there are others who admit they just use it to leave and go home and sleep. They are responsible for any missed work, but it is definitely not ideal because they miss the last two classes of the day each Friday (at my high school classes meet every other day, so they are missing 1 out of 3 of their afternoon classes each week).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I was a teenager, we were going to move to Kuwait (didn't as it turned out--Gulf War 1 happend). My sister and I were going to attend the American School of Kuwait. Though it largely catered to kids from other countries, the "weekend" was Thursday and Friday. So, although we are Christian, I would have been attending school on Sundays. I suppose I could have gone to at late afternoon/evening service, but I would not have been able to attend a service in the middle of the day.
When you are living in a country, you have to go with the prevailing customs of that country.

Having said that, I like PPs suggestion about making a room available so that a student could go at midday and pray. Seems like a reasonable accommodation.
And of course, Muslims should absolutely get excused absence from school for major holidays.

I lived in a Muslim country as a teen and we had Thursday/Friday weekends. Christian churches held their services on Friday mornings. We adapted to the culture of the country.

I think occasional religious absences from school are fine but missing a 1/2 day every week would seem to be disruptive to learning.

[Anonymous]

When I attended elementary school, reliogious ed for the local catholic church was Tuesday afternoon. There was a bus that took the children from the public school to the parish school - and an early release only for the children who were enrolled in religious ed.

Note: My school district was about ~40% Catholic, 40% Jewish

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure how Elementary school works, but for high schools, maybe they could make sure to schedule some non-learning classes on Friday afternoons (like a gym class, study hall, or some other type of "elective" like that). Then, they could require that all Muslim students who want to leave early on Fridays for Jummah prayers take those classes on Friday afternoons. That way, the will not be missing any important classes where they actually learn something in.

[Anonymous]

No. My family is Muslim. Most schools I know allow Muslims to pray in a separate room. And it's considered an excused absense to miss for a holiday. We've also never seen a test scheduled on Eid. That's perfect, IMO.

[Anonymous]

I have no problem with this. Montgomery county schools are already closed on jewish holidays. Kids do nothing Friday afternoons

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems like they should be able to set up a space for prayer so that Muslims can pray maybe during lunch or recess. I attended GMU for school and there were Muslim prayer areas (in the corner of the restrooms - this was 20 years ago), and at Freddie Mac, in the building where I worked, they had 2 rooms set up with prayer rugs. It seems like this could be simple to set up.
If that is not enough, I agree with the PP who suggested private Muslim school.

At a public school? Absolutely not.

Do they set up a Eucharistic adoration chapel so Catholic kids can go reflect about the resurrection during holy days? Nope.

What about a bible area so Evangelical kids can gather to read scripture and save people? No again.

A place for wiccan students to go worship mother earth? Not happening.

An ancestral shrine for Shinto students? No, not in a public school.

Why the hell do you think that a public school should set up a prayer area for one religion over another? Completely wrong and unconstitutional, unless they are willing to build little chapels all over their public school campuses, or designate a different corner of each classroom for all the different religions served by the school.

I can't believe you are even suggesting such a thing. Utter nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure how Elementary school works, but for high schools, maybe they could make sure to schedule some non-learning classes on Friday afternoons (like a gym class, study hall, or some other type of "elective" like that). Then, they could require that all Muslim students who want to leave early on Fridays for Jummah prayers take those classes on Friday afternoons. That way, the will not be missing any important classes where they actually learn something in.

Do they do this for lent? Ash Wednesday? Holy Friday? Passover? If they don't offer this for all religions, then they should not offer it to only one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach at a high school in FCPS and we have many Muslim students. We offer a room for prayer if they want it, but we also often have many students who regularly check out each Friday to pray. While I am sure some of them are actually going to pray, there are others who admit they just use it to leave and go home and sleep. They are responsible for any missed work, but it is definitely not ideal because they miss the last two classes of the day each Friday (at my high school classes meet every other day, so they are missing 1 out of 3 of their afternoon classes each week).

Does this same fcps high school offer a room for the Baptists to have their Bible study?

[Anonymous]

We are going frickin nuts with all of our "accommodations" .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. My family is Muslim. Most schools I know allow Muslims to pray in a separate room. And it's considered an excused absense to miss for a holiday. We've also never seen a test scheduled on Eid. That's perfect, IMO.

PP here. I agree. This makes sense and is fair.

All but the separate prayer room. Unless they are offering the same designated special room to all religions. If they are not, then they should not offer it to just one religion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I attended elementary school, reliogious ed for the local catholic church was Tuesday afternoon. There was a bus that took the children from the public school to the parish school - and an early release only for the children who were enrolled in religious ed.

Note: My school district was about ~40% Catholic, 40% Jewish

Did they offer similar accommodations to the Jewish kids? If not, they should have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure how Elementary school works, but for high schools, maybe they could make sure to schedule some non-learning classes on Friday afternoons (like a gym class, study hall, or some other type of "elective" like that). Then, they could require that all Muslim students who want to leave early on Fridays for Jummah prayers take those classes on Friday afternoons. That way, the will not be missing any important classes where they actually learn something in.

Do they do this for lent? Ash Wednesday? Holy Friday? Passover? If they don't offer this for all religions, then they should not offer it to only one.

Totally true.

Same thing for weekends. Since they expect Christian kids to come to school on their Sabbath, they should absolutely expect the same of Muslim kids.

Oh, yes, and then there's Holy Days. I'm sick and tired of my kid having to go to school on Christmas, and Easter, and Good Friday.

Oh, wait. That's right, when a Muslim student needs Friday afternoons off for religious observance, that's "special treatment". But when a Christian student gets far more accommodations, it's "tradition".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It seems like they should be able to set up a space for prayer so that Muslims can pray maybe during lunch or recess. I attended GMU for school and there were Muslim prayer areas (in the corner of the restrooms - this was 20 years ago), and at Freddie Mac, in the building where I worked, they had 2 rooms set up with prayer rugs. It seems like this could be simple to set up.
If that is not enough, I agree with the PP who suggested private Muslim school.


At a public school? Absolutely not.

Do they set up a Eucharistic adoration chapel so Catholic kids can go reflect about the resurrection during holy days? Nope.

What about a bible area so Evangelical kids can gather to read scripture and save people? No again.

A place for wiccan students to go worship mother earth? Not happening.

An ancestral shrine for Shinto students? No, not in a public school.

Why the hell do you think that a public school should set up a prayer area for one religion over another? Completely wrong and unconstitutional, unless they are willing to build little chapels all over their public school campuses, or designate a different corner of each classroom for all the different religions served by the school.

I can't believe you are even suggesting such a thing. Utter nonsense.

This makes more sense than anything I have read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure how Elementary school works, but for high schools, maybe they could make sure to schedule some non-learning classes on Friday afternoons (like a gym class, study hall, or some other type of "elective" like that). Then, they could require that all Muslim students who want to leave early on Fridays for Jummah prayers take those classes on Friday afternoons. That way, the will not be missing any important classes where they actually learn something in.

Do they do this for lent? Ash Wednesday? Holy Friday? Passover? If they don't offer this for all religions, then they should not offer it to only one.

school is closed on passover. Nobody celebrates ash wednesday.u