Baltimore County School Board Votes Against Closing For Muslim Holidays – Baltimore Sun
Liz BowieContact ReporterThe Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore County school board voted six to five to keep schools open on Muslim holidays.
A move to close schools in Baltimore County for Muslim holidays failed by one vote at the school board Tuesday night.
The 6-5 vote came after an emotional discussion among school board members, while dozens of Muslims stood in the audience.
Some school board members said they believed it was the right time to give equity to the Muslim community.
“It is time to do the right thing. Set aside your ambivalence. … Recognize the realities of Baltimore County, the nation and the world,” said school board member Michael Collins, in support of recognizing the holidays. “We will say something powerful and something correct. We will clearly do the right thing.”
But other board members questioned whether closing schools would meet a legal challenge. They argued that court rulings said that schools could only close for a secular reason. School board member Ann Miller said there was no data to prove that enough Muslim students would be absent and disrupt the normal course of business in classroom to close schools. “I don’t believe any kind of data or any anecdotal data has been presented. We know there is a lot of support for this,” Miller said.