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Kanwal Rehman, 15, attends a Maryland public school that gives a day off for Rosh Hashana, but none for Muslim holidays. |
Growing religious diversity has public schools around the country re-examining how they accommodate the holy days of different faiths.
The Virginia Department of Education allows each locality to determine its own academic calendar, said Julie Grimes, a department spokeswoman in Richmond.
"I'd like to think local school officials would take into consideration the population of their community and consider that there would be students not in school because of specific holidays," Grimes said.
The Virginia Board of Education's guidelines on religious activities in public schools encourage school officials to do just that.
"Whenever feasible, schools should strive to avoid scheduling exams and special events on days when it is foreseeable that some students will be absent to celebrate religious holidays," the policy states. "Similarly, if a school gives awards for perfect attendance, it should not withhold such recognition from students whose only absence is necessitated by holidays where observance is prescribed by the student's faith."
The Fredericksburg school system considers input from its four schools when creating its academic calendar, Superintendent Dale Sander said.
"Each school makes an ideal calendar knowing what they know about their kids," Sander said.
The superintendent's office then drafts a single calendar based on those requests and submits it to the city School Board for approval, he said.
The state requires that the school year begin after Labor Day, unless the local school board receives a waiver from the state Board of Education.
For religious observances that fall on regular school days, parents and staff can make special arrangements with teachers in advance, Sander said.
"Teachers know that there are certain faiths that have times of fasting," he said, citing the fact that a fasting student would be excused from participating in physical education as one way schools try to meet the needs of different religious observances.
Stafford County resident Michelle Swanson, who is Jewish, grew up in a Michigan town that was 75 percent Jewish. Schools closed on the High Holy Days: Rosh Hashana (the Jewish new year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement).
Swanson's son Jim recently graduated from Stafford High School, and her daughter, Elizabeth, is a rising freshman there.
Swanson said she always notifies her children's teachers well in advance that her children will be absent on major Jewish holidays.
"There are very few Jewish families in Stafford County, so it's not a matter of closing down the schools, because they're not going to do that," she said.
At the same time, Swanson said, students should be allowed to make up exams and other assignments.
"They should not penalize these kids," she said.
Stafford's public schools are sensitive to the needs of students of all faiths, said Nancy Guth, multicultural facilitator for Stafford public schools, in an e-mail response to The Free Lance-Star.
"By working with each family, we try to fulfill our mission to educate all children, to the very best of our ability and resources," Guth wrote.
Virginia's public elementary, middle and high schools are religiously diverse, and its public universities even more so.
"We have 28,000 students who hail from all 50 states and over 100 nations," Virginia Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski said. "As a result of that, the diversity of religious observances among people in our community--including faculty, staff and students--runs the gamut. There is no way one could create an academic calendar that is mindful of the vast myriad of religious holidays."
Owczarski said it's up to students to communicate with their professors in advance of a religious observance that requires the student to miss class, and likewise for faculty members and their supervisors.
The University of Virginia, with nearly 20,000 students from 49 states and more than 100 countries, has a similar policy, said Jeff Hanna, a U.Va. spokesman.
"We ask students and faculty to communicate with each other and for the faculty to respect the needs of students in a multicultural environment such as we have," Hanna said.
Some colleges around the country, such as the State University of New York at Albany, canceled classes on major Muslim holidays out of concern for Muslim students after the Sept. 11 attacks, The Associated Press reported.
The school returned to its original calendar last fall.
But what about Hindus, Buddhists and other faiths?
"Can you operate a university and give each religious group an accommodation? I think the answer is, 'No,'" Kermit Hall, the university's president, told the AP.
That hasn't stopped some schools nationwide from trying.
Some school districts in Michigan and New Jersey have granted days off on major Muslim holidays. New York's legislature recently passed a bill that takes all religious holidays into account when scheduling mandatory state tests, according to the AP.
But Maryland's Baltimore County district recently approved a calendar with a day off for Rosh Hashana, but none for Muslim holidays, despite a Muslim group's lobbying at every School Board meeting.
"Either I go against my faith, or I miss my schoolwork and have imperfect attendance," said 15-year-old Kanwal Rehman, who will enter 10th grade in Baltimore this fall, in an AP interview.
In January, her midterm exams fell during Eid al-Adha, one of the two most important holidays in Islam.
A school board in Florida's Tampa Bay region ended days off for all religious holidays, which prompted more than 3,500 e-mails. The board restored the original calendar for the upcoming school year, with days off for Good Friday, Easter Monday and Yom Kippur.
"You would hope in a country of religious freedom all would be recognized, but we know that's not practical," said Nikhil Joshi, a board member for the national Hindu American Foundation, in an AP interview.
Associated Press writer Cara Anna contributed to this story.
To reach NATASHA ALTAMIRANO:
Email: naltamirano@freelancestar.com
