Montclair Girl, 11, Wants Her School To Give Day Off For Eid

MONTCLAIR, NJ — Is Montclair “falling behind the eight ball” when it comes to recognizing Eid al-Fitr? That’s the question an 11-year-old girl and her family are asking as the local fifth-grader pushes to make the religious holiday an official day off at her school.

Recently, Laila Khan, 11, launched an online petition that’s been dubbed “Laila’s Referendum.” It seeks to create an official holiday for Eid at Bradford Elementary School and the rest of the district.

As of Monday, the Change.org has gained more than 1,000 signatures. See it here.

Eid is a religious holiday marking the end of Ramadan, a month of fasting, prayer and reflection observed by Muslims worldwide. The Montclair Public School District currently has district-wide holidays for Christmas, Yom Kippur and Good Friday.

The Montclair student’s mother explains what motivated her daughter to launch the petition:

“Recently my 11-year-old 5th grader wrote a letter to her new principal urging her to consider making Eid a school holiday. This request was born out of the fact her world includes many family members and friends in New Jersey and New York who were off but she was not. As she is my little activist, of course we encouraged her and support her stance. She pointed out that several other religious holidays were acknowledged and celebrated, but hers was not and this put a stress on her that she would like to eliminate. An 'excused' absence is fine, but the work she misses still has to be made up (not the end of the world, but clearly not fair when compared to others). She pleaded for inclusivity from her school and my wife and I plead for your support from and for our town.”

Saiful Khan continued:

“We, along with many of you, moved here because of the progressive and inclusive nature of this great suburb, but we are falling behind the eight ball when even our neighboring towns acknowledge and allow for this celebration. One out of every four people of the world at large celebrates Eid, and the number would be much higher when we are allowed to include our friends and neighbors if school were to be closed. We ask for your support in this very important issue to my family and many other families here in Montclair. Let's come together and make Laila's referendum a reality.”

Laila’s Referendum has been picking up steam, with several Montclair residents chiming in with comments on the petition page:

• “I'm signing because an inclusive holiday calendar benefits all children. While we are not Muslim, we have enjoyed celebrating Eid with our neighbors and learning more about the holiday.”
• “If we recognize important holidays on the Christian and Jewish calendars--and we do--we should also recognize those on the Muslim calendar. We are a diverse community and our school calendar should reflect that.”
• “Our school system should recognize equally major religious holidays to ensure we support and welcome all faiths and diverse peoples.”

A number of similar petitions asking schools to give students a day off for Eid have trended on Change.org this year, including victories in the Iowa City Community School District and at Metro Early College High School in Ohio.

Khan pointed to a recently released trailer for “American Eid,” a Disney production that she said is remarkably similar to her daughter’s own campaign.

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