NJ school board slammed as 'arrogant and incompetent,' reverses decision to remove holiday names from calendar
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A New Jersey school board has reversed plans to remove all holiday names from their school calendar after parents expressed outrage at an emergency meeting on the decision.
The Randolph Board of Education voted 8-1 Monday to reinstate the holidays after dozens of members of the community voiced outrage during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Tom Tatem, a Randolph Township father of four who created a petition demanding school board members resign, and James Jacobi, a Randolph Township father of three, told "Fox & Friends" Tuesday that the victory should be a lesson in transparency for towns across America.
"It's not about being the loudest to get your way, it's really about learning that this needs to be a transparent and accountable and collaborative process with the town that you live in," Jacobi said. "And that's one of the biggest messages we were giving the board last night, consistently across 40 different speakers. And that's what they really need to come and think about."
"They got the message," Tatem said. "They reversed course on their decision, which is very much appreciated."
Earlier this month the board voted to start listing holidays, including religious and national holidays such as Memorial Day and Thanksgiving, as "day off" on the school calendar after receiving backlash for renaming Columbus Day as Indigenous People's Day.
Tatem created a petition demanding Randolph Township school board members and Superintendent Jen Fano "resign immediately," saying they "clearly do not have the best interests of our children in anything they do" after they voted the day before to remove holidays from the official school calendar.
Tatem told Steve Doocy that it was a "little surprising" that none of the board members or superintendent resigned at the meeting. As of Tuesday morning, Tatem's petition had garnered more than 4,500 signatures.
"Truth be told, they've lost the trust of our community and I feel between a mixture of their arrogance and incompetence that they're not really the best people to proceed forward in helping to rebuild and help our community heal," Tatem said.
Another Randolph Township parent told "America's Newsroom" Tuesday that he remains "wary" about the school board's agenda after a member called parents "right-wing fanatics" during the meeting.
"I'm concerned about the tone and tenor of what's going on in town and really in the world," Michael Viespoli told Bill Hemmer. "It just doesn't feel right to me… last night was not a political event. It was a community coming together and speaking their voices."
Tags
Who is online
439 visitors
Parents across the nation are leading the way for we the people.
Ever onward!
Wait, would parents not know what day the holidays fell on unless they appear on the school calendar?
" Bobby, Halloween does not appear by name on your school calendar so that means Halloween doesnt exist anymore. Tough tootsie rolls."
I can reasonably see some parents not being thrilled that the "names" of holidays were removed from school calendars. Maybe seeing the names and sharing that special moment with their kids had a sentimental value to them.
"Gee honey, it's Olivia's first Valentine's Day at school ! This is so special.
But demand that the people who changed the calendar get fired or forced to resign ?
[deleted]
Yawn!
"Arrogant and incompetent." Finally, the lives lost from Bunker Hill through the sands of the OIL Dynasties have been avenged.
Holy crackers, the conservatives have finally figured out how to make bricks from Soybean chaff.
There is a petition to have every one of those school board members fired. I'm hoping.
There is a lot missing to this story. It never says what the school board was really doing other than removing holiday names. They can't remove holidays so the kids still got days off - so why are parents pissed again?
That's fairly obvious. To have the Fourth of July or Christmas day marked simply as a day off is erasing what America values. I hope every one of those school board members loses their jobs.
Again, who gets to define "American values"? The values of one group differ from another as we are a true melting pot. Why do ultra-conservatives get bent out of shape when large groups try as best they can to be sensitive to the ideal that all people deserve some respect? Who are you (anyone) to dictate how others celebrate, or not celebrate, any given holiday? Assigning labels to things do not affect the things themselves. People can call Thanksgiving anything they want to call it and I'll still enjoy a turkey dinner with my family. Same goes for any holiday, I don't care if it's Christmas, XMas, Noel, the Nativity, Saturnalia, Winter Solstice or Festivus. I'll spend that time in joyous celebration of friends and family as I have done my entire life. I won't get bitter or outraged because the people next door are celebrating differently.
are the days off due to a federal holiday? if they do not want to recognize federal holidays then the kids should be in school and the teachers working.
Hopefully it will never be a professor at UC Berkeley.
I won't get bitter or outraged because the people next door are celebrating differently.
This isn't about the people next store. It's about the people we trust to teach our children
And THAT my friend is one of the main reasons multiculturalism doesn't work. Can't please everyone at the same time. I have no problem with people celebrating and displaying their heritage but, in order to be successful society, there needs to be common understanding and practices that EVERYONE follows and recognizes as a virtue of being said society. Our PC society is melting that away as we try to please everyone. Old saying, "You can't rob Peter to pay Paul because even though Paul is happy, Peter is sore and everyone knows you can't do business with a sore Peter."
And they could teach them how the names of the federal holidays are done. Be a good lesson for the children instead of just ignoring the process.
What parent was trying to dictate how others celebrate?
Bullshit. It's about anyone trying to be inclusive and different than what some people have deemed the norm. People generally don't like change and this is change and this irrationally upsets them. For generations one group of people dominated power and control to define "American values" in the main stream. If another didn't like it, tough. If they made waves they were ostracized, run out of town, or worse. The general population is no longer content to keep to their neighborhoods of Little Italy or Chinatown. They want a seat at boardrooms, schoolboards, city councils and everywhere else. That also means that our language changes to accommodate this inclusivity. And it pisses off the Alt+Right identity political populist idiots.
True and for the last few generations that was WASP men. Now that more people are joining in all aspects of leadership that common understanding is going through change to include others. Sorry you don't like it, but it's happening anyway.
So I'll wager you have no problem with open borders then..................Sorry but being an American US citizen had, and still should have, an underlying philosophy which all citizens embrace. There was a period of time in which the American Dream was real to the point of immigrants making sure they understood prior to coming here. Other countries, including Mexico and many European countries have basically what we have (or at least had). A quota system on how many and what contribution people desiring to come are let in. Assimilation is still the only way to have a sovereign country. Celebrate, as said, your heritage but embrace your present. Don't just bring your old life to new land.
There is so much going on in that post it's almost nonsense
One thing doesn't have anything to do with the other. Our immigration system is broken and has been for a long time. Only Congress can fix it and neither side will touch it likely because it raises campaign cash.
Yes, it's ALL people being equal and having a say. Now that it's happening in practice those that had all the say before seem pissed.
Sounds vaguely authoritarian.
Exactly what would you change in our immigration system? I'll wait.
Not at all. Didn't in the past and shouldn't going forward. Otherwise we are just a subcontinent with many countries with our boundaries. And that isn't what the US is or ever should be about.
Almost nonsense?
You do know how the federal holiday dates are chosen and named?
ALL people have had their say and the school board has changed their position.
Fully funding immigration courts to keep track of people and move cases through in a timely manner would be a great start. Upgrading the work visa system where it actually helps our businesses as they have requested and floated in both Republican and Democratic bills would be nice. There is more, but this is off topic and I'm done with the derail.
Shoving homogenous white European evangelical ideals down the throats of everyone was and still is authoritarian.
No one is demanding anything like this.
Who has done that? Federal holidays are not mandated except for federal employees.
Just who in the hell founded this country and made it what it is today? So now all of a sudden the ideas and ideals of those founders should just go away? It is our country. All of us. And as such we set the rules. Every single US citizen.
As far as your "fixes",
What cases are you speaking of? Those of illegals? If that is the case BULLSHIT!! That has nothing to do with legal immigration as they got here illegally. You do know how the immigration system and quotas are justified and filled right? Doesn't seem like it with your "approaches" to "fix" the system. It has worked for years and years and now all of a sudden it needs to change? I think not.
Some folks just make up shit as they go along, obviously!
We no longer arrange marriages Nor do we no longer only count the votes of wealthy male landowners. The point is that things change. They always will. And there is no damage done to anyone if a school district puts out a calendar without holiday names in it.
Immigration has NOTHING to do with the issue of the seed.
It is authoritarian, EG. Forced assimilation has been tried by the US to the devastation of the groups being ''assimilated''.
The US has also tried the opposite, forced exclusion and we know how that has turned out.
They also thought The Apprentice was real ... and oohed 'n ahhed all the way to the voting booth dragging their pet rocks behind them.
Now that is funny.
There it is again - the "I know & you don't" attitude.
It is and were the shoe on the other foot, so to speak, the same ones advocating would be screaming even louder than they are now. They can't make a cogent, logical, argument about how something so trivial as not naming holidays on a calendar schedule will harm them, or their children.
How does it harm a child to see the names of holidays on a calendar?
People of color were not "equal " on July 4, 1776, and they were not equal for the next ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY EIGHT YEARS !!!!! until 1964 but maybe not fully equal then either.
You cant just say we need to follow the example of the Founders when the example of the Founders was so utterly lacking in so many ways.
We can adapt the ideas of the Founders to the 21st century, we can expand the ideas of the Founders to provide more inclusivity for minority groups,
but just follow the wishes of the Founders blindly? hell no.
When veterans start getting Veterans day off like all the banksters do, I might try to care to listen to this drivel from right wing snowflakes. Till then..... go stick it!
That and election day should be no question.
Pretty dumb of the school board, pretty sure they have other more pressing issues to address.