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St. Petersburg Times - November 9, 2005
Facing community pressure, the Hillsborough
School Board restores religious holidays
By MELANIE AVE
TAMPA - After listening to passionate speeches about God, country, children and tradition, the Hillsborough School Board restored several religious holidays to next year's school calendar, reversing a 2-week-old decision that garnered national attention.
By a 5-2 vote Tuesday night, the board adopted a school calendar similar to the existing one that gives children days off on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the Christian Good Friday and the Monday after Easter.
After 24 people spoke, most of them in favor of religious holidays, board members embraced superintendent MaryEllen Elia's recommendation to restore them to the calendar and study the issue further.
A desire to focus on education rather than the controversy over the calendar was the stated reason for the board's about-face. Four of the seven board members changed their opinion on the holidays, saying many people misunderstood what they were trying to do….
Two weeks ago, a majority of board members approved a 2006-2007 calendar that no longer tied vacation days to religious holidays. The religious days were replaced with time off for Washington's birthday in February and two days near the end of the school year.
The only religious holiday left on the calendar was Christmas, which falls during the district's winter break.
Board members and administrators said the secular calendar, which resembled the one in place for years in Pinellas County and dozens of school systems around the nation, treated all faiths the same and more clearly separated church and state.
They said children could take days off for religious observances without being penalized.
Tuesday's vote came a year after the Council on American-Islamic Relations requested all Hillsborough students be given a day off for Eid al-Fitr, the end of the 30-day fasting period of Ramadan. The district's calendar committee studied the issue this summer but forwarded the secular calendar to the board for approval.
The only dissent came from the committee's lone Muslim member.
When the board approved the secular calendar, local Muslims said they feared a backlash from people who would view the action as Muslims causing the end of religious holidays for Jews and Christians.
Many of the 3,500 e-mails received by school officials did in fact blame Muslims, labeling them as foreigners not deserving of holidays in the "Judeo-Christian" United States.
The man who made the Muslim holiday request, Ahmed Bedier, Florida director of CAIR, called Tuesday's vote a "temporary fix." "I'm disappointed but I'm satisfied. We're back at square one," he said. "If others are getting their holidays it gives us hope we'll get ours as well someday."….
AT A GLANCE: CALENDAR CONTROVERSY
JANUARY 2001: Hillsborough School Board votes to give all students a day off on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Hillsborough is the first Tampa Bay area district to recognize a Jewish holiday.
DECEMBER 2004: About 30 Muslims ask the School Board to give all county students a day off for Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan. The board asks administrators to study the issue.
JANUARY 2005: The School Board adopts a 2005-2006 calendar with days off for Yom Kippur, Good Friday and the Monday after Easter. Board members ask the district's calendar committee to examine religious holidays for other faiths.
JUNE: The committee adopts a calendar with no religious holidays other than Christmas. The only dissenting vote comes from the lone Muslim member. The calendar is forwarded to the School Board.
OCT. 25: The board, by a 5-1 vote, okays the secular calendar.
OCT. 28: Hillsborough County Commissioner Brian Blair blasts the School Board on Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor. Florida Senate President Tom Lee, R-Brandon, urges the board to continue the practice of timing days off with religious holidays.
NOV. 2: The County Commission, at Blair's urging, adopts a resolution asking the School Board to restore religious holidays. The Tampa City Council refuses to approve a similar measure a day later.
NOV. 4: Superintendent MaryEllen Elia says she will ask School Board members to restore religious holidays next year while further studying the issue.
Tampa Tribune – November 11, 2005
Charter school may include Muslim holiday
MICHELE SAGER
TAMPA - -- The Muslim community failed to get it on Hillsborough County's school calendar, but at least one public school in the district wants to recognize the holiday marking the end of Ramadan.
Terrace Community School, a charter school at the Museum of Science & Industry serving fifth through eighth grades, wants to add a day off next school year to observe Eid al-Fitr, the holy day at the end of Ramadan. Principal Gary Hocevar took the proposed calendar to the school's board Wednesday night.
"Our policy is to celebrate and respect the diversity of our school and community," he told board members. "I believe this is the right thing to do. I expect it will be controversial. It would require you to step out of the box."
Controversy erupted in the district when Muslim representatives asked the Hillsborough County School Board to amend next year's school calendar to include the holiday. Instead the board approved a secular calendar that did not observe any religious holidays other than Christmas, which fell within the winter break.
This week, after receiving thousands of e-mails and phone calls and much national news media attention, the board reversed that decision, thus putting days off for holidays such as Yom Kippur and Good Friday back on the calendar. It did not include a day off for Eid al-Fitr.
Hocevar said he was inspired to change his school's calendar when a Muslim student questioned the controversy. "The student wanted to know why our school didn't respect his religion when he is expected to respect others'," Hocevar said. "His point really affected me."
Charter schools operate as public schools but without many district restrictions. They are free to create their own calendar, but most operate on the district's schedule to accommodate school services and parents who might have children in other schools.
If the charter school board approves the new calendar, it will be the first time the school's schedule will differ from the district's. The school's calendar still would include days off for Yom Kippur and Good Friday.
Ahmed Bedier, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, applauded the charter school's board for considering the calendar change.
"We hope other charter schools and public schools will follow their great lead," he said.
About 5 percent of the school's 352 students are Muslim….
http://news.tbo.com/news/MGB4A5Z0WFE.html
Duluth new-Tribune – November 9, 2005
Religious freedom must be equal for all faiths
by PARVEZ AHMED & AHMED BEDIER
A Florida school board's recent vote to drop Christian and Jewish holidays from the school calendar creates a very negative precedent for reasonable religious accommodation in our nation's educational system.
The decision also has a negative impact on Muslim students and families because it came after a request to include the Islamic holiday of Eid ul-Fitr on the school calendar. Eid ul-Fitr, or "festival of the fast breaking," celebrates the end of the month long fast of Ramadan.
It makes no sense that Christians and Jews should be penalized just because Muslims are seeking their rightful place within the fabric of our nation's multi-faith society.
In deciding to ban all religious holidays, the school board invoked the separation of church and state. But concerns over church-state separation were not an issue until Muslim parents requested the school board accommodate the Islamic holiday. Many Muslims are asking themselves whether newly-discovered constitutional concerns are merely a smoke screen to hide Islamophobic prejudice.
The First Amendment clause stating that government shall make no laws "respecting an establishment of religion" ensures that expressions of faith are not coerced by the state. It was never designed to bar religious expression or place hardships on people who want to celebrate their religious traditions.
Allowing a student to mark Eid ul-Fitr, Good Friday or Yom Kippur with his or her family does not imply establishment of any one religion and does not infringe upon the citizenship rights of others. These reasonable accommodations are merely a concrete demonstration of our nation's rich religious diversity.
While a debate over the establishment clause is certainly welcome, what is unacceptable is the associated call for religious exclusivism. During a brief segment on the topic, Fox News talk-show host Bill O'Reilly called it "absurd" for members of non-Judeo-Christian religions to expect school districts or other government entities to cater to their holiday schedules.
America, he said, was founded as a Judeo-
Christian nation. A local county commissioner also said Muslim holidays should not be recognized and that anyone who does not like "American" holidays should take a hike.
The school board's arbitrary and extreme ruling only serves to increase hostility toward Muslims, who will be unfairly blamed for the loss of all religious holidays. American Muslims are seeking inclusion, not marginalization of all faiths.
Give Christian and Jewish students their holidays, even if Muslim students are denied theirs.
[PARVEZ AHMED is chairman of the board of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Muslim civil liberties and advocacy group. AHMED BEDIER is the Director for CAIR's Central Florida office in Tampa.]
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthtribune/news/opinion/13119913.htm
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