Source: The Sentinel Newspaper, November 10, 2015
ROCKVILLE – Montgomery County public school students will no longer have to miss a day of school to observe the Muslim holiday of Eid-ul-Adha, beginning in the 2016-2017 school year.
The MCPS Board of Education voted Tuesday to mark Sept. 12, the anticipated date of the annual Islamic holiday next year, as a professional day.
Fatima Talib, a Wheaton High School student, said she thought the board decision was unnecessary because the date will change each year.
“I don’t have anything against it but I don’t think it’s useful personally because the Muslim calendar follows the lunar calendar, so our dates go back 11 days every single year,” said Talib.
The 17-year-old said in teachers previously marked her absent on the holiday even though, according to the Board of Education Policy on Cultural Diversity, students who miss school to observe a religious holiday should be excused from classes.
“It’s a much more in-depth issue than just switching a professional day,” said Board of Education member Rebecca Smondrowski.
The school system will have to make up the school day to meet its required number of instructional days for the school year.
Smondrowski said for the upcoming 2016-2017school year, the last day of school would be a half day on a Monday.
The board of education will meet again in December to determine how making the Eid a professional day affects the rest of the school year calendar.
Chris Lloyd, president of Montgomery County Education Association, said the teacher’s union supports the decision because “iIt honors the rich diversity of our community.”
“We look forward to working with board members for the best way to implement it,” he added.
MCPS parent Saqib Ali described students attending classes on the Eid as cultural discrimination.
“This is what institutional racism looks like,” said Ali. “It’s not always when someone uses the ‘N’-word. It’s when people in positions of power deny equal treatment for equal consideration and make excuses for equality.”
Ali said he hopes other counties will follow the County’s lead in reserving the Muslim holiday as a professional day or another way to excuse students from classes on the holiday.
“We’ve gotten more equality in Montgomery County,” said Ali. “New York went before us and now Montgomery County. And now I hope the other counties in Maryland like Baltimore County and other places around the country will take this as a blueprint.”
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