Diwali holiday sought in Texas schools

India Post News Service

DALLAS: Indians here have been pitching with Coppell Independent School District (CISD) in suburban Dallas for declaring Diwali, the most popular of Hindu festivals, as official holiday. The district has 47.4% students of Asian origin and many are from India.

They stressed that CISD should seriously and speedily work towards declaring Diwali (which falls on November 7 in 2018) as a holiday, thus recognizing the intersection of spirituality and education.

The campaign spearheaded by Rajan Zed and supported by many like minded persons noted that the awareness about other religions created by this type of declaration – such as holidays like Diwali – would make CISD students well-nurtured, well-balanced, and enlightened citizens of tomorrow.

Rajan Zed said that Diwali holiday in CISD would be a step in the positive direction in view of the presence of a substantial number of Hindu students in the District; as it was important to meet the religious and spiritual needs of these pupils.

Diwali fell on October 19 in 2017 and six New York school districts declared holiday for students on this day, which meant that no examinations were given on Diwali,

For 2017 in New Jersey, Glen Rock Public Schools announced closure of schools and offices on Diwali. Unionville-Chadds Ford School District headquartered in Kennett Square in Pennsylvania approved closure of schools on Diwali while Harvard Public Schools in Massachusetts declared October 19 as “early release day”, reports note.There are about three million Hindus in USA.

“High-performing and innovative” CISD, whose tagline is “Empowering Educational Excellence”, serves 12,635 students in 16 schools in 23 square miles area covering Coppell, Valley Ranch, Grapevine, North Irving, and Dallas (Cypress Waters). Tracy Fisher and Brad Hunt are Board President and Superintendent respectively of CISD whose Mission includes “develop strong moral character”. There was a school in the Coppell area as early as the 1870s.