Thursday, August 26, 1999
Schools sued for holy day closings
Sycamore denies it favors Judaism
BY BEN L. KAUFMAN and ERIN GIBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Church-state separatists sued the Sycamore Board of Education on Wednesday to end its policy of closing schools on Jewish high holy days.
This year, the suburban school district plans to close on Sept. 20 for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Rosh Hashana, the New Year, Sept. 11, falls on a Saturday.
The board adopted the closings last year on a two-year trial basis, saying too many students were absent on the Jewish holy days to keep schools open.
Attorney Stephen R. Felson filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio Foundation Inc.
“The true motivation for the board's calendar decision to close on the Jewish high holidays, but not the holy days of other faiths, was the defendants' desire to favor Judaism over other religious faiths,” the ACLU says in the suit.
Sycamore School District Superintendent Bruce Armstrong called that claim “completely ludicrous.”
“We have no interest in promoting any religion in the schools,” Mr. Armstrong said. “We want to promote quality education, and that called for us to reschedule those days of high absenteeism.”
Almost 15 percent of students missed school on the Jewish holy days, he said.
Closing school for the Jewish high holy days, as well as the Christian holiday Good Friday, was opposed by a Sycamore calendar committee in 1993 that included Ramesh K. Shanbhag of Symmes Township.
The lawsuit says the Sycamore closings violate the First Amendment that begins, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The complaint does not ask Judge Susan J. Dlott to bar this year's closing.
Rather, it asks her to prohibit the Sycamore board “from engaging in acts favoring one religious denomination over any others, including future acts of closing Sycamore community schools for reasons that are not religiously neutral.”
The ACLU also asks Judge Dlott to award suit-related attorney fees and court costs.
Attorney Felson said the ACLU has not challenged Sycamore's Good Friday closing because it is part of a union contract.
The ACLU claims Sycamore's student absentee numbers on Jewish high holy days do not even meet the board's standards for closings and Supt. Armstrong “admitted that the change was for religious reasons.”
Since adopting the Jewish closings, the ACLU says the board has denied similar requests for Muslim and Hindu holy days.
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