Columbus Day Will Remain In Melrose Through The End Of 2020

MELROSE, MA — Columbus Day is hanging around.

The School Committee on Tuesday night voted to table a motion to strike Columbus Day from the district's calendar, a move sought as a "correction" to last month's decision to keep the holiday on Oct. 12 while adding Indigenous Peoples' Day.

Margaret Driscoll led a charge to postpone the discussion until January, saying there wasn't any notice for the public to weigh in — a similar criticism to what occurred in the Aug. 11 vote to add Indigenous Peoples' Day — and that she hoped to bring in the rest of the city to make a broader community decision on the matter. Driscoll said she hopes to discuss a change with the City Council.

"I don't disagree, I just don't think this is the time for that," Driscoll said, saying the calendar should be considered under policy review. "If the calendar comes on [the agenda] next time, is it going to be something different?"

Mayor Paul Brodeur and School Committee members John Obremski and Jen Razi-Thomas voted with Driscoll.

Jen McAndrew made the move to rid Oct. 12 of Columbus Day, calling it an "important change" several weeks after her unanimously approved — then almost universally panned — move to add Indigenous Peoples' Day without dropping Columbus.

"This is a correction to a mistake that I made," McAndrew said, adding she also hoped the City Council would discuss broader changes. "I think it's an important change. It's one document, it's one change for the public schools, but I do think it's important to get it right."

The Aug. 11 decision to add Indigenous Peoples' Day without eliminating Columbus Day was unexpected and received by advocates as a frustrating half-measure.

"While we have no doubt that the decision to celebrate both holidays simultaneously was made with an eye toward inclusivity, the impact is actually more harmful than if the district were to maintain the status quo," the co-founders of Indigenous Peoples' Day Melrose said in a letter to the School Committee. "With this change, MPS now celebrates a brutal colonizer alongside his victims."

Christopher Columbus, hailed for centuries as a conquering hero who discovered America, has been under fire for years as sordid details of his legacy become more widely known. Historians say the Italian explorer was a brutalizer who ushered in the genocide of millions.

A handful of other cities — including Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville and Amherst — have pulled the plug on Columbus Day altogether. In Melrose, the discussion hasn't gone beyond the school district level.

Related: Columbus Day Compromise Misses Mark In Melrose, Advocates Say