Holiday or Not, Schools Gird for Absences

March 21, 2008

Author: Keith O'Brien

Source: The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/03/21/holiday_or_not_schools_gird_for_absences/

For as long as anyone here can remember, Good Friday, the most solemn of Christian holy days, has been a holiday for public school students, a day set aside for prayer and quiet reflection.

But not today, not in Winchester.

In the quest to create an academic calendar that played no favorites to any one religion, the Winchester School Committee scrapped the Good Friday holiday last year, rendering today, just another day on the academic schedule.

Winchester joined a growing list of public schools from Florida to Tennessee that are choosing to hold school on Good Friday, rather than bowing to pressure from other religious groups to grant holidays like Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, or Muslim holidays like Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan. In the end, some officials say, having no religious holidays - aside from Christmas, which falls conveniently during winter break - is better than having too many.