We think Fountain Gate PS deserves a round of applause for respecting its entire school community and hosting a happy Christmas event that does not require any parent to exclude their child for religious reasons. An overwhelming majority of schools have now switched to these inclusive events for 2014. On the other hand, a small number of schools are still dividing their students up at Christmas time ... sometimes simply because it has been a part of end of year activities for the past 20 years - which of-course does not mean to say it is right. You may remember our post here recently about a devotional Christmas concert at Somerville Rise PS - where families of children not enrolled in SRI were pressured to sign up for SRI for a day, specifically to allow their children to attend the religious event at a local church. See here for the full story: https://facebook/secularschools/posts/806859782709217 At this event, the children attending were given candy canes as they were leaving, and returned to the school eating them in full sight of the opted-out children. Understandably, some of the younger ones were upset. Not only is the giving of treats a clear breach of the SRI guidelines, it is beyond us to understand how a school could not grasp and appreciate why these events hurts families.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 08:24:01 +0000