MCPS Removes Religious Holiday Designations from School Calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ever wonder why school is closed the Friday after Thanksgiving? Because too many people would take off the day otherwise. In contract, people don't take their children out of school for Veterans Day, so school is open on that federal holiday. No idea why they are closed on Columbus Day at this point.

I think if school was open on Good Friday and Easter Monday there would not be significant attendance problems.

Christmas through New Year's Day, however, I think there would be attendance problems if the school were open.

I don't need the school calendar to inform me the dates that are important to my religion, so I think this is much to do about nothing.

MCPS has never closed on Columbus Day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish MCPS would publish stats instead of saying "large numbers". Just be transparent. If say 40% of the MCPS population is out on a religious day and 20% of the teachers have called in for subs--- is that high? Is it 20% students out and 5% of teachers?

The Muslim community is asking for their holidays to be recognized just as the judeo- Christian ones are. MCPSs argument is that there are not enough absentee people to warrant that. That's a fine answer, but at what number would it be warranted?

This was a small group of students protesting and whatnot upcounty last year and finally wormed its way through the school board process. They caved and now a handful of students have what they want to for their college app essays.

The 10-25 person "protests" were in the Gazette last year.

I happen to think the outcome is stupid. And I can only imagine what would happen if 15 Christian kids started walking around with signs outside of a high school in Iran, Egypt, Libya, Iraq, etc. demanding school holidays for all on their faith's day or to admonish all muslim holidays and labels from school calendars.
Even bigger picture, the kid protesters should be thankful they are in America and a county as rich as this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Christmas and Easter were both noted seperately from the vacations that surrounded them. I think this decision is fine. I only look to the MCPS calendar to know when to send my children to school not to notify me of holidays.

Yes, why use one calendar with all the main days on it when you can publish two - one PC one with random days off for mystery reasons and another that let's you know you have to be at a service or family get-together!
Much better down this multiculturalism rabbit hole!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Christmas and Easter were both noted seperately from the vacations that surrounded them. I think this decision is fine. I only look to the MCPS calendar to know when to send my children to school not to notify me of holidays.

Yes, why use one calendar with all the main days on it when you can publish two - one PC one with random days off for mystery reasons and another that let's you know you have to be at a service or family get-together!
Much better down this multiculturalism rabbit hole!

You use the school calendar to figure out when your religious holidays are?

[Anonymous]

^^^including Christmas?

[Anonymous]

This might be a silly outcome but Starrs proposal was worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This was a small group of students protesting and whatnot upcounty last year and finally wormed its way through the school board process. They caved and now a handful of students have what they want to for their college app essays.

How did MCPS "cave"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:None of this harms anyone. It is all about labeling..

politics (incl public school boards): it's all about making squeaky wheels shut up. and minimizing more, or new, squeaks when doing so.

[Anonymous]

Yo necessito Dia de Muerto y Día de los Reyes Magos y Flag Day y Cinco de Mayo y Día de Las Madres y mucho Constitution Dias.

Muchos de nosotros necessito mas vacaciones/festivos.
Hasta pronto MCPS Board!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yo necessito Dia de Muerto y Día de los Reyes Magos y Flag Day y Cinco de Mayo y Día de Las Madres y mucho Constitution Dias.

Muchos de nosotros necessito mas vacaciones/festivos.
Hasta pronto MCPS Board!

Consider actually learning Spanish, instead of relying on Google Translate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My goodness people, it's the same days off as always! Just now NO religion tied to it. Who cares! I am Christian but do I care there are Jewish or whatever religion days off? No!

+1

[Anonymous]

Reading a thread like this has just got to make one depressed, and also make you think that the problems kids might be having in their achievements have far more to do with what they are getting at home than in school. It is not permissible to close schools for religious holidays, it violates the Constitution, and the Board acknowledged that. Eliminating the name does not make it any better, and the pretext, actually makes it worse as a legal matter. This is not the first school district to deal with these issues, and that fact that a growing Muslim community has raised it only tells you that they are a growing population in this area. It does not seem all that difficult to challenge the prextual explanation -- I suspect there are high levels of absences on the day before Thanksgiving, probably equivalent to the day after, and also the day before and after Spring break, and any day that is near a holiday where the parents might also be free. The Supreme Court has defined Christmas as a secular holiday so as a legal matter, closing on that day is not problematic, but the other religious holidays, no matter what you call them, are highly problematic and for those parents who have made all kinds of crazy statements on this thread about Muslims or how this is a Christian country etc., you should definitely be pushing for longer school days and year round school so your kids might have a fighting chance in terms of being educated.

[Anonymous]

"'According to a Nov. 7 letter from Superintendent Joshua P. Starr to County Councilman George Leventhal, about 5.6 percent of students and 5 percent of teachers were absent on Eid al-Adha this year compared to about 3.2 percent of students and 4.2 percent of teachers the same day the previous week.'"

So, steady state absenteeism is 3.2-4.2% of students and teachers and muslim holiday is 5.6 and 5.0%. Who knows what the standard deviation is...

http://www.gazette.net/article/20131112/NEWS/131119703/muslim-holidays-not-added-to-montgomery-school-calendar&template=gazette

Anyhow, MoCo made the national news for this, woo hop!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To be fair, the Muslims requested Eid be included. The solution was to remove everything. It's stupid and will now direct more hatred toward a Muslim population that never made such a request.

The only thing removed was the names. The days off remain.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if the Muslim community will now press their Muslim brothers in the middle east to show some respect towards Jews and Christians.

Nah - they don't care about other religions. I'm sure they are happy now that they got the Jewish and Christian holidays wiped off the calendar.