Mark's Notebook

School Yuletide Observances Shift Into Neutral

KTLA Television Los Angeles

By Erika Hayasaki and Joel Rubin

In many parts of the country over the last month, conservative Christian groups have lashed out against what they say are practices that dilute Christmas from a profound religious celebration to a bland "holiday season."

But across Southern California, school officials say the combination of ever-more-diverse student populations and the threat of lawsuits by all sides leaves them little choice.

"We try to keep it pretty generic and just leave it at 'winter' and 'Santa Claus,' " Matassarin said. "We have Jehovah's Witnesses, who don't celebrate any of the holidays, we have Jewish students, students who celebrate Kwanzaa — the whole gamut."

This month, the Anti-Defamation League sent letters to school administrators throughout Southern California asking them to "be cautious in how they choose to employ religious symbols and teach about the holidays," and to include religious information in holiday activities only if it is "presented objectively as part of a secular program of education."

On the other side, Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative legal group based in Sacramento, objected that "teachers are sometimes unlawfully prohibited from acknowledging holidays such as Christmas."

The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based Christian legal group, wrote more than 5,000 school districts nationwide to explain that the U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled that public schools must ban the singing of religious Christmas carols or prohibit the distribution of candy canes or Christmas cards.

http://ktla.trb.com/news/local/la-me-xmas22dec22,0,2602873.story?coll=ktla-news-
1

Articles

Last updated Tuesday 13 May 2008