First Jell-O, now Santa
OAK LAWN | School district considers banning traditions seen as offensive to Muslims
September 28, 2007BY ANGELA CAPUTO Daily Southtown
So long, Halloween parade. Farewell, Santa's gift shop. The holiday traditions are facing elimination in some Oak Lawn schools this year after complaints that the activities are offensive, particularly to Muslim students.
Final decisions on which of the festivities will be axed will fall to the principals at each of Ridgeland School District 122's five schools, Supt. Tom Smyth said.
Parents expect that the announcement is going to add to the tension that has been building since officials agreed earlier this month to change the lunch menu to exclude items containing pork to accommodate Muslim students. News that Jell-O was struck from the menu caused such a stir that officials have agreed to bring it back. Gelatin is often made with tissue or bones of pigs or other animals.
That controversy now appears to have been been dwarfed by the holiday debate, which became so acrimonious Wednesday that police were called to Columbus Manor School to intervene in a shouting match among parents.
“It's difficult when you change the school's culture,” said Columbus Manor Principal Sandy Robertson.
Elizabeth Zahdan, a mother of three District 122 students, says she took her concerns to the school board this month, not because she wanted to do away with the traditions, but rather to make them more inclusive. “I only wanted them modified to represent everyone,” she said.
Nixing them isn't the response she was looking for. “Now the kids are not being educated about other people,” she said.
There's just not time in the six-hour school day to celebrate every holiday, said Smyth, who sent the message to principals that they need to “tone down” the activities that he sees as eating too much into instructional time. “We have to think about our purpose,” Smyth said. “Are we about teaching reading, writing and math or for parties or fund-raising during the day?”
Robertson is hoping to strike compromises that will keep traditions alive and be culturally acceptable to all students — nearly half of whom are of Arab descent at Columbus Manor, she says. Fewer than a third of students districtwide are of Arab descent, according to Smyth.
Following the example of Lieb Elementary School, Columbus Manor School will exchange the annual Halloween parade for a fall festival next month. The holiday gift bazaars at both schools also will remain, but they'll likely be moved to the PTA-sponsored after-school winter festival. And Santa's annual visit probably will be on a Saturday.
Sun-Times News Group
Oak Lawn is a suburb of Chicago and has more than a few Muslim residents. Why shouldn’t their and their childrens’ dietary requests be honored in the public schools. I suppose that the schools could warn parents when the schools intend to serve pork for lunch (presumably so that the parents can prepare boxed lunches), but why should they go into that?
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I also suppose that public schools could, on days on which they intend to serve pork, provide a substitute for the Muslim kids.
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But, consider the following, what if some of the kids are vegetarians or Vegans (whatever that is): are the schools supposed to also specially prepare vegetarian and Vegan meals for those kids?
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Regarding Xmas and Holloween, a simple solution. Don’t hold celebrations during school hours. Under the Equal Access Act, the schools would probably be required to allow people who want to celebrate those on school property–if the schools allowed others to make use of school property–after class.
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BTW, gelatine (Jello) is served in schools because it is cheap. When I was in high school in the 1960s, the schools served some of the worst god-awful sauerkraut–they didn’t know how to prepare it properly, because the sauerkraut in Germany is actually quite tasty–because it was cheap.
…and find that it is, Kind Of.
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I’m sure the school district isn’t using the ‘more expensive spread’, but it IS out there.
I had thought Jello was kosher
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it’s made from gelatin, a rendered form of collagen, which can be derived from a number of sources, including swine.
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Most, primarily more secular Jews, apparently don’t adhere to the dietary dictates of yesteryear–my Jewish friends certainly do not–but I guess that some US Muslims still do.
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One thing that might be considered here is that, in what is laughingly referred to as a democracy, it is the nattering nabobs that get heard. I suspect that that is also true regarding the case mentioned in the post.
“When America graciously lets a person come here that person is expected to assimilate/embrace America not reject it.”
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Yep, just like those jolly early settlers did when they massacred those same Native Americans who helped them survive the first winters.
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Your headline talks about Islam, but the “movement” to ban Hallowe’en belongs to Christianity. To the point where you are advocating taking seriously the principle of government non-interference on religion, I’m with you. To the point where you’re groping for a rhetorical stick with which to beat Muslims, I’m not.
When America graciously lets a person come here…
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…I would almost be willing to wager that more than a few Muslims were born in the USofA. For those people, there would be no issue of “com(ing) here”