First Amendment: Religious diversity, school calendars and the quest for fairness

Charles C. Haynes
Thursday, January 21, 2016

The school board in Howard County, Maryland, took the religious-diversity plunge last week by voting unanimously to close schools for the Hindu festival of Diwali, the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and the Asian celebration of Lunar New Year.

Students in the suburban Maryland district already get days off for Christmas, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah.

Welcome to the new religious America—a pluralistic society where Protestants are no longer the majority and people of every conceivable faith and belief are increasingly visible in the public square.

For many religious and ethnic communities, a place on the school calendar symbolizes a place at the American table. Petitioning to add a religious or cultural holiday to the calendar is tantamount to asking public schools to finally live up to government neutrality among religions promised by the First Amendment.
: http://www.gazettextra.com/20160121/first_amendment_religious_diversity_school_calendars_and_the_quest_for_fairness#sthash.lDnAW8sj.dpuf

http://www.gazettextra.com/20160121/first_amendment_religious_diversity_school_calendars_and_the_quest_for_fairness