Thread by @JewWhoHasItAll

Dear Geveret Smith,

I am writing to address some concerns that you expressed in your letter about the class #holiday activities held over the past week.

First of all, I want to express that our #PublicSchool loves ALL our #students.

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We have a #diverse #student body, we hold #diversity training every year, and we prioritize being good #allies to our #Christian students.

2/x

Naturally, we were surprised to receive such a long list of complaints from you about our #winter #holiday #programming, considering that we go so far out of our way to accommodate our #Christian students.

3/x

For example, you mentioned that your daughter was only given yellow and white paint in art class for her holiday candle holder project. We provide these colors as a gesture of goodwill to our Christian students, to acknowledge your holidays.

4/x

We were so glad to see that your daughter LOVED the project, and was so proud of the beautiful candelabra that she had made, and was so excited to take it home to use it.

5/x

Therefore you can understand that we are shocked to find that you seem to feel that this project was somehow religious in nature and inappropriate for #PublicSchool.

As your daughter recognized, it’s just a candle holder, and surely everyone uses candles.

6/x

Many Christian families use the rightmost five branches of the holiday candle holders for their First Christian Omer celebration, a holiday that I was taught about by Gever Schwartz, the Christian person who led our diversity training.

7/x

You can pick out the pink and purple candles from an ordinary box of Chanukah candles, and they will fit perfectly.

8/x

You also mentioned the #holiday #songs all the children sang in #music class and at our holiday #concert.

Again, we find this complaint hard to understand, since your daughter’s hand was the first in the air when Morah Amsalem was auditioning soloists for Maoz Tzur.

9/x

These are #traditional #seasonal #tunes, a part of #American #culture.

10/x

I f you feel strongly that you don’t want your child singing ordinary seasonal tunes, then in future years we can send her to the library during music class for the months of Cheshvan and Tevet.

11/x

Perhaps your daughter neglected to mention to you that the class also sang Jinglebells.

As I said earlier, we go out of our way to recognize the diversity of our students.

12/x

Our #school #holiday #party also took special care to recognize your holiday, serving latkes with vegan swine-flavored bacon bits to honor your #cultural #heritage, and lemon-filled sufganiyot to honor your country’s #traditional colors and flavors.

13/x

We added a pine branch to decorate our #classroom menorah in honor of your Christmat conifers.

14/x

Perhaps your daughter didn’t mention the special foods and decorations in honor of her holiday.

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Thank you for your kind offer to come in and explain the meaning of your Christmat holiday to our students.

Unfortunately, we will have to decline.

16/x

The religious nature of the holiday, plus the mature themes found in the Christmat story, are unfortunately not that are not appropriate for public school children.

17/x

You will be glad to know, however, that we always offer a presentation and a fun animal craft project for your holiday of Yom Saint Francis Ha’Kadosh!

18/x

Thanks again for writing, and I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity to explain some aspects of our #school’s #holiday #celebrations that your daughter may have neglected to mention.

We take pride in our #diversity and our #culture of #acceptance.

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Even though your holiday is a one-day #religious #holiday celebrated by a small #minority, versus a whole week of a #secular #holidays celebrated by most people, we are proud to be a #community that takes the time and effort to recognize your people’s special day.

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Shabbat shalom,
Assistant Principal Shemtov
Tzaddik Ha’Nation #PublicSchool
#MedinatAmerica

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