A Long Island school district released a statement Thursday defending its decision to remove all holidays from its school calendar after the move drew the ire of some parents.
Levittown Schools said it made the decision due to the large number of celebrated holidays, as well as the fact schools are closed on some and open on others.
"Due to the number of holidays celebrated and the fact that our schools are closed on some and open on others, it was decided to eliminate all references to holidays and simply indicate the days schools are closed in the printed calendar," Superintendent Dr. Tonie McDonald said in a statement. "In making this decision, we were also mindful of the risk of accidentally omitting any holidays."
The district’s online version of the calendar, which is updated throughout the year, does include annual holidays like Christmas and Diwali.
Earlier this summer, the Southampton School District re-added religious holidays to its calendar after a similar backlash over its “culturally sensitive” calendar, according to 27east.com.
However, Southampton Schools left out Columbus Day after a group of students voiced their objections to the holiday. Those students had asked for the day to be marked as “Indigenous Day” on the calendar, although that request was not adopted, 27east.com reported.
