Waterbury school board votes to recognize Eid holidays

By Ali­cia Gomez
June 14, 2023
The Con­necti­cut Examiner

WATERBURY – After hear­ing con­cerns from the Water­bury Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty, the Board of Edu­ca­tion vot­ed 9–1 on Tues­day to mod­i­fy the aca­d­e­m­ic cal­en­dar to rec­og­nize Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as school holidays. 

About 50 local Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers attend­ed the meet­ing, with many speak­ing about the ben­e­fits of rec­og­niz­ing Eid. Mus­lim stu­dents rea­soned that includ­ing Eid as a school hol­i­day would open a con­ver­sa­tion with non-Mus­lim stu­dents in the school dis­trict and could become a teach­ing moment about their cul­ture. Stu­dents said the hol­i­day could also help reduce the bul­ly­ing they experience. 

Stu­dents told board mem­bers that that poten­tial­ly miss­ing out on edu­ca­tion when absent from school dur­ing Eid caused them stress and worry.

“A lot of Mus­lim stu­dents agree that they feel invis­i­ble. They’re out there, but they’re invis­i­ble. There is no acknowl­edge­ment,” said Jawad Ashraf, a Water­bury Islam­ic Cul­tur­al Cen­ter mem­ber. “If we give them the hol­i­day off, that’ll go a long way in actu­al­ly ini­ti­at­ing a con­ver­sa­tion and the oppor­tu­ni­ty for our teach­ers and instruc­tors to be able to engage students.”

In col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Con­necti­cut Chap­ter of the Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Rela­tions and the Water­bury Islam­ic Cul­tur­al Cen­ter, Waterbury’s Human Rights Com­mis­sion Vice Chair­man Fahd Syed has led the Eid hol­i­day cam­paign for the past few weeks. Syed esti­mates there are between 4,500 and 5,000 Mus­lim stu­dents in the Water­bury school dis­trict, mak­ing the recog­ni­tion necessary. 

Syed, CAIR and the WICC held a Zoom meet­ing in May with Water­bury school admin­is­tra­tors and over 100 com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers to con­sid­er adopt­ing the two Mus­lim hol­i­days. More than 200 peo­ple also attend­ed a Board of Edu­ca­tion meet­ing on May 18, where many Mus­lim par­ents and stu­dents addressed the board with their concerns.

“We want to have equal treat­ment like all,” Syed said.

Water­bury Schools Super­in­ten­dent Ver­na Ruf­fin encour­aged atten­dees to express how they felt to the board. 

“I believe that it is impor­tant for school dis­tricts to lis­ten to stu­dents, par­ents and the com­mu­ni­ty in which they are locat­ed, and I believe that the com­mu­ni­ty, espe­cial­ly our Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty should have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to express how they feel,” Ruf­fin said. 

Sev­er­al school board mem­bers said they sym­pa­thized with stu­dents who want­ed to observe their reli­gious hol­i­days with­out wor­ry­ing about school and bullying. 

“What both­ered me most was lis­ten­ing to bul­ly­ing that stu­dents had to go through,” Board of Edu­ca­tion Com­mis­sion­er Roc­co Orso said. “It real­ly both­ers me, and no child should have to choose between school and being there with their par­ents and pray­ing dur­ing their holiday.”

Com­mis­sion­er Thomas Van Stone was the only school board mem­ber to vote against the pro­pos­al, wor­ried about non-Mus­lim par­ents that would need child care while they are at work. 

“I just don’t think we put this togeth­er well,” Stone said. “In the future if we could make this a city­wide cel­e­bra­tion, I’d proud­ly vote yes.” 

In 2015, Water­bury was Connecticut’s first pub­lic school sys­tem to rec­og­nize Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, allow­ing stu­dents excused absences dur­ing the Islam­ic hol­i­days, Ashraf said. 

Eid al-Fitr is an Islam­ic hol­i­day that marks the end of Ramadan, a month of fast­ing.  Eid al-Adha is known as the “Greater Eid” and marks when thou­sands of Mus­lims make a pil­grim­age to Mec­ca. Their tim­ing dif­fers annu­al­ly, as they fol­low a lunar cal­en­dar, with Eid al-Adha fol­low­ing Eid al-Fitr by a lit­tle over two months. In 2023, Eid al-Fitr was cel­e­brat­ed on April 9, and Eid al-Adha will be cel­e­brat­ed on June 28.