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

[Anonymous]

Texas association for high school basketball ruling on jewish school.

I think schools should accomodate, but at the same time there is a vast multitude of religions so everyone cannot all the time be accomodated

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no problem with this. Montgomery county schools are already closed on jewish holidays. Kids do nothing Friday afternoons[/quote]

Not true at all. In MoCo the classes alternate on "odd" and "even" days. So you're very likely to get AP Calc BC on one Friday afternoon, alternating with AP Lit on the next Friday afternoon. Plus one or two other alternating classes on Friday afternoon depending on your schedule. My two MoCo kids have never had teachers who never did anything on a Friday afternoon, sure maybe a movie once in a blue moon, but as a general rule, no way.

Our MCPS high school has a regular 8 period schedule every day. Classes are in the same order each day. AP calc on Friday afternoons is no different than on Monday afternoons. I suppose a student could schedule lighter classes for the last period but not sure this really works. My DC has six academic classes, plus lunch, so only has one period for an elective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

I don't live in Montgomery county, so I was curious--when are football games? When I was in high school (on the west coast) they were ALWAYS on Friday nights or the occasional (maybe once per season) Saturday afternoon. We didn't have a very large Jewish population, so I never really thought about it before.

I have a friend who used to live in Deerborn, Michigan. She was not happy at all about how her son's high school handled football practice during Ramadam. To accomodate fasting Muslim students, they held football practice from 11pm until 4am. Yep, 4 AM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

I don't live in Montgomery county, so I was curious--when are football games? When I was in high school (on the west coast) they were ALWAYS on Friday nights or the occasional (maybe once per season) Saturday afternoon. We didn't have a very large Jewish population, so I never really thought about it before.

I have a friend who used to live in Deerborn, Michigan. She was not happy at all about how her son's high school handled football practice during Ramadam. To accomodate fasting Muslim students, they held football practice from 11pm until 4am. Yep, 4 AM.

Football practice is 5 hours long?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

I don't live in Montgomery county, so I was curious--when are football games? When I was in high school (on the west coast) they were ALWAYS on Friday nights or the occasional (maybe once per season) Saturday afternoon. We didn't have a very large Jewish population, so I never really thought about it before.

I have a friend who used to live in Deerborn, Michigan. She was not happy at all about how her son's high school handled football practice during Ramadam. To accomodate fasting Muslim students, they held football practice from 11pm until 4am. Yep, 4 AM.

Football practice is 5 hours long?

Yes, crazy, huh? This was at Fordson High School.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

I don't live in Montgomery county, so I was curious--when are football games? When I was in high school (on the west coast) they were ALWAYS on Friday nights or the occasional (maybe once per season) Saturday afternoon. We didn't have a very large Jewish population, so I never really thought about it before.

I have a friend who used to live in Deerborn, Michigan. She was not happy at all about how her son's high school handled football practice during Ramadam. To accomodate fasting Muslim students, they held football practice from 11pm until 4am. Yep, 4 AM.

My understanding of Islam states that travelers, pregnant women, etc., are allowed to make up Ramadan at a later time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

I don't live in Montgomery county, so I was curious--when are football games? When I was in high school (on the west coast) they were ALWAYS on Friday nights or the occasional (maybe once per season) Saturday afternoon. We didn't have a very large Jewish population, so I never really thought about it before.

I have a friend who used to live in Deerborn, Michigan. She was not happy at all about how her son's high school handled football practice during Ramadam. To accomodate fasting Muslim students, they held football practice from 11pm until 4am. Yep, 4 AM.

My understanding of Islam states that travelers, pregnant women, etc., are allowed to make up Ramadan at a later time.

That doesn't include playing football.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

We had a bus in another district that took a group of Jewish kids. That bus was not paid for with public money and the PP's experience was probably the same. If a room or learning cottage [trailer] is empty then fine. They can roll up and store mats. Asking for a 100% dedicated space is not something taxpayers should fund. Nor is dedicating a private bath as off limits to others acceptable use of public funds. Middle and high school students could request schedules that free up Friday pm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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".

Because it IS tradition. This is a nation founded by Europeans, with a Judeo-Christian tradition. Like it or not, that IS our tradition. I am an atheist, so a day off is just a day off for me, but please don't rewrite history.

Our Juedo-Christian history and European-based culture are not things to be ashamed of an try to eradicate. They are the basis of our freedoms and should be celebrated. It's why people move here from the non-European countries in which they were born.

Public schools, and all public institutions, should be as religion-free as possible --whether it is the dominant religion (Christianity) or a minority one (Judaism and Islam).

Those wishing to immerse their children in their faith have the option of after-school and weekend classes or private schooling.