The Grinch couldn't steal Christmas, but the school board sure can.
Very few San Antonio area school districts refer to "Christmas" or "Christmas Vacation" in their official communications and schedules, although all specifically designate holidays for "Thanksgiving," "Veterans Day" and "Martin Luther King Day," 1200 WOAI news reported today.
In the Northside ISD, Bexar County's largest, as well as in the Judson district, the time off that happens to fall around December 25 is officially referred to as "Winter Break." In the North East and Edgewood districts it is "Winter Holidays." It's "Holiday Break" in the New Braunfels ISD, In the Randolph Field ISD, it's even more politically correct, referring to the time off simply as a 'Teacher-Student Holiday.' In San Antonio, only the East Central, South San and Harlandale school districts refer to "Christmas, although Harlandale calls it the "Christmas/Winter Break," and South San pleases everybody with "Christmas/Winter Holidays." Moving further away from the city is apparently good for traditional values. The Boerne, Seguin, Pleasanton, and Comal ISD's all refer to the holiday as 'Christmas."
No district appears to have the same PC problems with "Thanksgiving" and many even refer to Easter. But Christmas, apparently, is a no no.
"We have all kinds of families that live out here," Northside's Pascual Gonzales explained. Not everybody celebrates Christmas.
Polls shows roughly 85% of Americans consider themselves Christians and celebrate Christmas, and that figure is larger among Latino families. In fact, polls show a far smaller percentage of Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, Veterans Day, and Martin Luther King Day, although all those are prominently named on the official Northside calendar.
Parents in the Northside district have had it up to here with political correctness. They call the holiday Christmas and they want the school district to call it that too.
"Right now in society if you offend people, they are anxious to sue and get on TV and get publicity," one Northside parent told 1200 WOAI's Michael Board.
Another woman rejected the use of the term 'winter break' in a part of the country that doesn't have a traditional winter.
"If it's during Christmas time, why would it be 'winter break'?" she asked.
"We thought it would be better to call it is 'winter break' because it does better describe the time of the year," Gonzales said.
_______________
From WOAI.com
|
© 1989-2005 by The Merry Network, all rights reserved.
This article may be reproduced free of charge in its entirety only as
long as this notice remains intact with due credit given to the author and with a return link to My Merry Christmas.
Kindly notify us of how and where this article is
used so that we can link to your site or publication.
|
| Additional Resources Provided byFind Christmas
|
