"Build a Detroit Public Schools Community District that is just a little bit more just and equitable than it was yesterday."
-Dr. Abdul El-Sayed
#DPSCDoff4Eid
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed reflects on celebrating Eid as a youth while encouraging young students to continue their leadership.
ABOUT
DPSCDoff4Eid is a campaign launched by students urging Detroit Public Schools Community District to close schools in observance of the Islamic Holidays of Eid. The campaign at first was just a conversation among few Cass Tech students then later became an official campaign sponsored by the Cass Tech's Muslim Students' Association. With support from students, teachers, parents, community members and other organizations, this campaign has become an example and inspiration for many.
Here is an article that shares the perspective of a student:
In our classrooms, we are taught to utilize our abilities to impact our communities. We are also taught to value diversity, and to respect those with beliefs that differ from our own. That is why, alongside a community of my fellow students at the Detroit Public Schools Community District, I am advocating for a district-wide school closing in commemoration of the Eid holidays.
Detroit Public Schools Community District provides students and staff with several breaks throughout the school year, particularly for religious holidays. During the holiday break in December, which lasts a full two weeks, students from other faith traditions are allowed to celebrate their holidays without missing their academic responsibilities. By contrast, we Muslims are obligated to miss school in order to commemorate our sacred holidays, even though the district includes a large population of Muslim students. That leaves us behind our classmates, and we are forced to catch up for doing nothing more than observing our religious holidays.
Many school districts across the nation have offered district-wide days off for the Islamic holidays. The country’s largest school system, New York City Schools, announced Eid as a holiday in 2015. Mayor Bill de Blasio, stated that this change “respects the diversity in our city.” Similarly, the Philadelphia School District acknowledged Eid as a district-wide holiday. Mayor Kenny states, “Philadelphia's history is based on being a place where religious freedom is part of its founding ethos.” Additionally, Michigan districts including Hamtramck Public Schools and the Dearborn Public Schools have routinely recognized their Muslim student bodies by providing district-wide days off for the holidays of Eid. It is clear that many districts are recognizing and respecting their student’s beliefs. What is holding us back from doing the same in Michigan’s largest city?
There are two Eid holidays, known as Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha. Islam is associated with the lunar calendar, so the holidays occur at different times every year. In many cases, one of the two falls during the summer. During Eid, we engage in an hour-long ceremony in the morning, followed by traditions that include spending time with family and catching up with friends and neighbors. The word “Eid” literally means festival and is a day where Muslims around the globe come together to celebrate. Muslim students are forced to lose a day of education in order to celebrate these sacred traditions.
As Muslim-Americans, the United States is our home. Our existence in this country dates back to the 16th century. We are citizens of this beautiful nation and the residents of this amazing city. However, unfortunately, Islamophobia is on the rise, and too many Muslims do not feel welcome in their local communities. Part of that comes from feeling neglected by institutions that aim to nurture us, like our public schools. Recognizing Eid as a district-wide holiday would go a long way in making many Muslim students feel more welcome.
As a Muslim student who attends Cass Tech, it is an honor for me to be able to pray and perform my religious duties at school when I need to, and I am grateful for the efforts the school has made to accommodate us. This is the next necessary step. If the school board and Superintendent Nikolai Vitti aim to recognize the value of our city’s diversity, they should move at once to recognize Eid as a district-wide holiday beginning in the 2019-2020 school year.
TIMELINE
As this campaign concludes, the work to build a more inclusive and equitable community continues. Therefore the community is launching a Muslim Youth Council for the city of Detroit to continue to the efforts and success of this campaign. The goal of this initiative is to bring together a coalition of young Muslim students of diverse ethnic backgrounds from across Detroit to help build a more inclusive city through education, advocacy, and service.
February 2021
October 2020
Through the constant community pressure and advocacy for the past years, the Detroit Federation of Teachers & the Detroit Public Schools Community District decided to finally acknowledge the Islamic holidays on the school calendar. Beginning the 2021-2022 school year, the district will observe Eid by closing schools for staff and students during the holiday in effort to develop a more inclusive and equitable school district.
Students continue their advocacy through social media campaign in the midst of a global pandemic. They ask Muslim students, educators, and community members to share their Eid holiday pictures while expressing what Eid means to them and how they spend the day.
August 2020
May 2020
With the support of different organizations, educators, and community leaders, students host a Virtual Townhall to educate and encourage the Teachers Union and the School District to acknowledge the value of the Muslim community and the significance of this holiday for Muslim students, teachers, and families.
After the disappointment, students continue to organize without despairing. Due to the pandemic, the students shift their advocacy to a virtual platform. They ask students, educators, and community members to join them in expressing the significance of Eid through a video campaign.
April 2020
April 2020
After verbally assuring the Muslim community that the Holidays of Eid will be observed in the 2020-2021 calendar, the school board schedules to vote the for calendar without Eid. Students remotely organize to protest this and demand for the delay of calendar approval at the virtual board meeting. Despite the objections to the calendar, the school board still fails to honor the Muslim community.
After the drama and disappointment in the previous year, students now turn their focus to the next year and engage in conversions with DFT & DPSCD to observe Eid for 2020-2021 year. District leaders verbally assure students the District will honor the Muslim community in the upcoming calendar.
September 2019
June 2019
The Detroit Federation of Teachers protests the calendar because of the additional days of professional development without pay. Disputes among the DFT & DPSCD revokes Eid from the 19-20 calendar last minute. As both sides failed to come to an agreement, the voted calendar is reverted to the calendar of the previous year and in the midst of this the Muslim community is forgotten.
After the promise at the community event, Detroit School Board votes to add Eid to the school calendar for the 2019-2020 year. Instead of closing schools for staff and students in honor of Eid, the calendar observes the holiday with a professional development day. giving the day off to only students.
April 2019
March 2019
Students organize and host community event at a local school to discuss the campaign. Several students reflect on the value of this campaign followed by words from Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. Later, Luis Solano (Deputy Superintendent) engages in a panel discussion with the community where he promises that the district will observe the holiday starting from the 2019-2020 year.
Many leaders like Dr. Abdul El-Sayed showed their support to this campaign. As students continued their fight, Detroit Free Press published an article on the campaign.
January 2019
June 2018
Students reached out to district leaders via emails and also attended board meetings to raise the campaign to the school board. Later they presented a Memorandum of their campaign to the the district leaders. Throughout the next several months, students continued to engage with community members to raise support for this campaign
The need for better accommodations for Muslim students sparked conversations among students at Cass Tech. This lead to all the Muslim students at Cass meeting to speak on this campaign. Students decided to officially a launch campaign that focuses on urging district leaders to acknowledge their holidays by closing schools on Eid for all staff and students.
April 2018
IN THE NEWS
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Detroit district approves 2020-21 calendar despite student objections over not adding Muslim holiday
The Detroit school board approved next year’s academic calendar Tuesday night, despite opposition from some of the district’s Muslim students for omitting the observance of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan. Several students called into the virtual board meeting, and others posted comments asking the board not to vote on the issue.
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Schools Reconsider the Calendar as Students Grow More Diverse
The 51,000-student Detroit district is not alone. Muslims are among the fastest-growing religious minorities in the United States, but it’s still comparatively rare for their religious holidays—or those of other religious minorities—to be accommodated in school schedules the way that Christian and Jewish holidays typically are.
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Detroit teachers threaten to take ‘action’ against new academic calendar that they say violates their contract
The union resolution voices support for one aspect of the calendar: The addition of a new district holiday recognizing Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Islamic holiday Ramadan.
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Detroit school board votes to close schools for Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr
For the first time in its history, the Detroit school district will recognize a Muslim holiday.
The school board Tuesday adopted the calendar for the 2019-20 school year that includes the observance of Eid al-Fitr on May 25, 2020, which would already have been a day off for Memorial Day, and on May 26, 2020 (a proposed professional development day for teachers). It will give students more time to observe the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.
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Detroit schools should close for Eid holidays
In our classrooms, we are taught to utilize our abilities to impact our communities. We are also taught to value diversity, and to respect those with beliefs that differ from our own. That is why, alongside a community of my fellow students at the Detroit Public Schools Community District, I am advocating for a district-wide school closing in commemoration of the Eid holidays.
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