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| You Are Here: Home > Online Library > Articles > School Choice > Article |
| + See No Christmas, Hear No Christmas, Speak No
Christmas. Linda Clark, principal of Durham Middle School in Cobb County, Georgia, sent a memo to teachers and staff advising them not to use the word “Christmas” when referencing the “holiday season.” New Superintendent Joseph Redden applauded her sensitivity, but said she may have gone a little too far. After reviewing the relevant case law, a school system attorney found “it doesn’t really preclude you from using the word ‘Christmas’ in school,” Redden said. This is not a frivolous question. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the Newton County school board was forced, under pressure from the ACLU, to reverse its previous decision to refer to the district’s two-week vacation as the “Christmas holidays.” Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post performed a public service by surveying DC area public schools to learn about their Christmas policies. She uncovered more than she realizes. “I try not to use the word ‘Christmas,’” said Mount Vernon Elementary School Principal Lulu Lopez. “We talk about our winter break. We are having a winter holiday music sing-along.” “We have plans for teachers to take kids to see the Nutcracker, and we have one group going to New York to see the Rockettes,” explained Eastern High School Principal Jerome Shelton. “We have another group, in business classes, going on a shopping tour to one of the new malls.” “We had a Christmas sing once, but we moved it to February. December is so packed with things,” said Wyngate Elementary School Principal Barbara Leister. “And in our holiday sing, we gave everybody equal time, but then parents wanted to know why we couldn’t sing some of the religious songs. So we moved it to February.” “Some classes have winter parties,” said Sterling
Elementary School Principal Arlene Glaser. “In Article taken from the Education Intelligence
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