Fight for their rites
Students of different faiths increasingly want city schools to recognize their customs. But is the Department of Education going too far to accommodate them?
TWOmonths ago, principal Donna Geller was faced with a dilemma. She had set a date of June 6 for her elementary school’s annual Field Day — and the parents of her Muslim students were outraged.
Geller’s chosen date fell during the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, the 30 days when observers are expected to refrain from eating or drinking anything from dawn to dusk.
Because Field Day involves outdoor games in the sun, Muslim parents fretted that their fasting kids could faint in the heat. When Geller suggested those children sit inside, parents again were furious.
“She would not cooperate with us,” said a Muslim mom with two children who attend PS 70 in Astoria, Queens, and asked not to be named. “She told us that when you come to the United States, you have to assimilate.”
But assimilation is increasingly complex — and controversial — in a city that welcomes a growing number of people of non-Christian faiths.
Mona Davids, president of the NYC Parents Union, argues that public schools should not have to reschedule extra-curricular events like Field Day around religious holidays or observances.
“Are we going to hold kids hostage for the 30 days of Ramadan? Are we going to do it for Lent?” asked Davids, who is Muslim. “Ramadan is a way to discipline yourself. The kids have to learn how to discipline themselves.”
According to a 2015 Pew poll, 8 percent of New York City’s population is Jewish; 3 percent is Muslim and 3 percent is Hindu. The Arab American Association of New York said one out of eight (12.5 percent) of public school students is Muslim.
This growth has led to a collision between ethnic groups who prize their religious rituals and the city’s education system, which is required to separate church from state under the Constitution. But today city schools are doing everything they can to please the parents of diverse students.
“I find it perplexing that public schools that don’t allow prayer are doing so much to accommodate religious practices,” said Sam Pirozzolo, a Staten Island parent leader. “To bend over backwards for religious matters is contradictory.”
SCHOOL holidays, meals and even lessons are changing to meet the demands of students from different religions. After petitioning the city for years, Muslim groups finally won two new days off from public school for all 1.1 million kids in recognition of their religious holidays: Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan (in June or July), and Eid al-Adha, which commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son (in September).
Now Hindu leaders want the City Council to make Diwali, their festival of lights, a permanent official holiday in the city’s public schools.
Meanwhile, Muslim and Orthodox Jewish leaders want city schools to serve food that meets their religious requirements. A state bill introduced last month would mandate halal and kosher meals for any child who requests them.
“The city is much more diverse religiously now than it’s ever been,” said state Assembly member David Weprin (D-Queens), who intro- duced the bill. “It’s important that we honor and respect each other’s religions.”
Basic freedom of speech is also at issue — especially at religious schools with taxpayer-funded programs.
City-paid teacher Nina Kossman found this out in April while she was assigned to a Muslim academy in Queens and got caught in the crosshairs of a debate about Adam and Eve. Kossman was one of 220 public-school teachers sent to religious schools to help low-income kids learn secular subjects like English, math and science, but she suddenly stepped into taboo territory.
“It’s a story, a myth. It’s not real,” Kossman explained to her students at the Raza School, adding that Judaism, Christianity and Islam all share the lore about the Biblical first couple.
“I thought it would build tolerance for the ‘other,’ since they will have to live in a multi-cultural world,” she told The Post.
When one boy insisted, “Adam is not a story! He is real!” she showed kids the Wikipedia page onAdamand Eve, and a classic nude portrait of the pair popped up. The next day, furious parents complained that Kossman had “discussed Jews and showed them pictures of naked people.”
The Department of Education immediately exiled Kossman, who makes $80,000 a year, to a disciplinary rubber room, saying she is under investigation for alleged misconduct.
“They censored mefor something so ridiculous,” said Kossman, who has also taught in Catholic and Jewish schools. “This shouldn’t be happening in what we call the free world.”
At the same time, the DOE encourages teachers to help kids understand different religions as the city becomes more diverse. Colorful brochures were given to teachers in 2015, urging them to embrace the new Muslim holidays.
“It is increasingly important that we learn to respect and show empathy toward other cultures and to understand their beliefs and ways of doing things,” the DOE said in the 31-page manual. The manual includes word definitions and suggests lessons such as “Make a list of three things we learned about the Islamic faith” and “How would you explain this religion to someone who has never heard of it?”
It’s hard to make sense of the DOE’s conflicting approach to religion in the classroom. NYC Parents Union president Davids wants consistency — and said the Kossman case is a grave transgression.
“The city shouldn’t violate its own policy of openness to all religions by providing a teacher to private schools that practice religious intolerance,” Davids said. “If parochial schools don’t like it, then don’t accept a city-funded teacher.”
THE separation of church and state has always been a contentious issue in American schools, starting with the debate over the Pledge of Allegiance, which includes the words “under God.” The US Supreme Court has ruled it unconstitutional for public schools to initiate, organize or endorse religious activities — but they can’t restrict religious freedom either.
City school officials say they want to welcome kids of all faiths — and hurt none. But sometimes, in the quest to embrace minorities, the larger culture gets dissed.
In December 2015, Christians were livid when Brooklyn principal Eujin Jaela Kim tried to scrub the school of religious references during the festive season.
“Do not celebrate Christmas, giftgifting, Santa. We need to be respectful,” a school insider quoted Kim as having told staffers at PS 169 in Sunset Park.
After The Post reported on the furor, the school reinstated Santa, with DOE officials declaring St. Nick a “secular symbol.”
Other permitted school decorations include Christmas trees, kinaras (candle holders for Kwanzaa), dreidels, Hanukkah menorahs and the Islamic star-and-crescent. But “images of deities, religious figures
or religious texts” such as the Nativity are forbidden.
Big Apple students are also allowed to pray individually on school property “provided they are not disruptive or interfere” with the regular program, chancellor’s rules state. But schools must not set aside special areas for prayer.
The city also mandates that fasting kids can sit separately in cafeterias during lunchtime so they’re not close to food. But Muslim parents at PS 70 in Astoria want their kids to have a completely separate room during lunch throughout the month of Ramadan. So far, principal Geller, who did not return messages from The Post, has not made a decision on this matter.
AS the Muslim population in New York grows, so do their votes. And politicians want to curry favor. During his campaign for mayor, Bill de Blasio promised to add Muslim holidays and the Chinese Lunar New Year as days off on the school calendar and did so within his first year in office.
De Blasio also vowed to provide full-day pre-kindergarten for every 4-year-old. He launched the program in 2014 and has expanded it to meet demand with 70,000 kids enrolled today. Because public schools couldn’t handle the pre-K influx, the city hired community groups and religious schools, too, to give secular instruction.
Early on, Orthodox Jewish groups accused the city of discrimination, saying they couldn’t provide a full day of secular pre-K at their yeshivas because it left no time for religious studies for their Jewish kids.
Under pressure, de Blasio agreed to let religious schools spread the pre-K curriculum over six days, instead of five. The city also allowed a “short break” for prayer.
“The de Blasio administration panders to religious interests. It’s not just about Muslims, it’s about religious constituencies,” said David Bloomfield, a Brooklyn College and CUNYGraduateCenter education professor. “Whenthe leaders of religious schools want something from de Blasio, he accommodates them.”
Giving secular studies at spiritual schools can be tricky. Under city rules, pre-K programs in parochial schools must remove all religious symbols visible from entrances that kids use, unless it’s “impractical” to do so, Deputy Mayor Richard Buery has explained.
Andwhilecity-paid pre-Kteachers in religious schools are “not permitted to promote religious instruction,” theology can creep in. For instance, teachers can bring upNoah’s Ark in lessons about animals or counting by twos, Buery said, but they can’t tell “a story about God bringing a flood.”
These blurry boundaries disturb watchdog groups like Americans United for Separation of Church and State, based in DC. “Some of these schools are highly religious,” said legal director Alex Luchenitser. “We just don’t trust that all will comply with the restrictions.”
Recently, de Blasio announced plans to expand pre-K to 62,000 3-year-olds by 2021 — so religious schools are bound to play an even greater role in public education.
Bloomfield predicts the holy headaches will only worsen.
“It’s an endless parade of religious requests from which de Blasio will have to pick and choose — based not on principle but on political calculation.
“He has drawn the line at Diwali. Why? He hasn’t declared Orthodox Christmas Day in January a holiday — why not? Every religious group has the same claim. He’s favoring certain religions over others — and religious groups over secular interests.”
Back at PS 70, Muslim parents eventually won their Field Day battle, after principal Geller bowed to their wishes. The event will now take place on June 27, after Ramadan.
Muslim parents and their kids are elated — and non-Muslim parents at the school welcome the outcome.
“I think everyone should participate — no one should be excluded,” said PS 70 kindergarten momWendy Rodriguez.
But one Muslim fourth-grader at the school, Joudy Abdelgalil, 10, said all the adult fuss over Ramadan and Field Day was silly. She would have gladly missed the games to fulfill her faith.
“I like to fast,” Joudy said. “My mom always says if you fast, it brings something good from God.”
The de Blasio administration panders to religious interests. — education professor David Bloomfield