Why San Angelo Public Schools Choose to Honor Good Friday

 

Today, some city and private offices in San Angelo have closed in celebration of Good Friday. School campuses within the San Angelo Independent School District chose to do the same. For some people, this is simply a nice day off, but, for others, Good Friday has sacred meaning.

Across the nation, many debates have ensued over the separation of church and state, especially in public schools. Many people argue there is no room for religion in public schools. There's no room for prayer, and there's no room for the statement, "One Nation Under God." There's definitely no reason to close for Good Friday, being that it is a Christian observance, and Christianity is not the only religion in the U.S.

However, for other people, including San Angeloans, they believe the U.S. was built on Christianity tenets. Public prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance and Good Friday are sacred beliefs, and, as Americans, they too have the right to these beliefs. That is why they choose to honor Good Friday as a holiday despite the debates taking place.

Dwain Morrison, Mayor of San Angelo, said he supports schools closing to celebrate Good Friday.

He said, “I will do everything in my power to honor the sacrifice that Jesus made for humanity, and this sacrifice is exemplified in the Easter celebration.”

Jamie Highsmith, public information officer of SAISD said, “We always try to observe Good Friday. However, we typically select Good Friday as one of our bad weather make-up days if we have to miss school earlier in the school year for bad weather.”

So far this year though, schools campuses within SAISD have not closed due to bad weather.

For SAISD to determine what days the schools will take off as a school holiday, officials create a calendar that follows a process and determines what those days will be. Highsmith said, “About a year ahead of each school year, the district administrators start planning the calendar for the upcoming school year.”

Once the calendar is prepared by the district administrators, the District Site Base Committee discuss and vote on it. After they vote, the calendar is then taken to the SAISD School Board for approval. This process is in place for any holidays within the starting and ending day of the school year, Highsmith said.

President Brian May of Angelo State University also allows his students and staff to celebrate Good Friday as a school holiday.

“Good Friday is an observed holiday in a lot of areas, but it also is one that our school district has,” he said.

May also said he's aware and vigilant of school holidays celebrated by SAISD, and he's in tune with his staff and aware that most professors at Angelo State have children in SAISD. Therefore, he tries to have the same school holidays as they do.

May said, “We try to follow the San Angelo School District as closely as we can because we have a lot of employees who have children in those schools that would need daycare services if we did not follow the same holidays.”

Thus, for many San Angeloans, Good Friday is a great start to a three-day weekend, but for others, it's a day that signifies the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ.

Subscribe to the LIVE! Daily

The LIVE! Daily is the "newspaper to your email" for San Angelo. Each content-packed edition has weather, the popular Top of the Email opinion and rumor mill column, news around the state of Texas, news around west Texas, the latest news stories from San Angelo LIVE!, events, and the most recent obituaries. The bottom of the email contains the most recent rants and comments. The LIVE! daily is emailed 5 days per week. On Sundays, subscribers receive the West Texas Real Estate LIVE! email.

Required

Most Recent Videos

Comments

Nothing to see here. The day off was chosen by the SAISD not solely for it's religious nature. Of course, to create controversy, a remark was inserted in the article from the verbose Dwain Morrison, whose tolerance of people of other religious faiths is questionable to say the least.

live, Fri, 03/25/2016 - 14:40

He's a public figure unafraid to mention Jesus Christ.

Folks, this is Yosemite Sam's post-Christian, nihilistic world we're living in. Like it? We have random terror attacks, rampant crime, skyrocketing taxes to pay for more welfare, jails and police. Everyone lies. You know why?

in the most captivating manner the charming pictures of candor, frankness, and sincerity, while it is rioting in rapine and insolence, this country will be the most miserable habitation in the [w]orld; because we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, [as they] would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Source: John Adams 

 

Joe, it's not my "world" that you are attempting to denigrate with your hyperbole. Since that actor fellow became president in 1981 we have been living in an oligarchy. Alas, most people are blind to it and have been diverted by the demagogues of both political parties. Meanwhile, the hucksters on the religious right want to paint some type of war on Christianity and portray themselves as victims. This is not the case in any stretch of the imagination as no one has restricted your ability to pray to your Lord. Dwain Morrison is not being muzzled in any way regarding his faith but his tantrum a few years ago at a city council meeting, when a non-Christian gave the opening prayer, was immature and uncalled for. Now, please stop listening to the lies from those like David Barton but keep your enjoyable online publication going.

Um haven't we lived in an oligarchy since the constitution was adopted in 1787? The constitution defined the structure of the US government and laid the foundation for us to be federal republic. And an oligarchy is rule by more than 1, which I believe a republic qualifies. Regardless what people may want to believe, the US has always been more of a oligarchy than a democracy. A country where a candidate can lose the popular vote but still win the presidency, more closely resembles an oligarchy tham a democracy. A true democracy is always rule by the majority

We have ceased being a representative democracy. Laws and regulatory policies are now formed more by special interest groups than by politicians properly representing the will of the general people, including the lower-income class.

You are correct. The United States Constitution did not originally define who was eligible to vote, allowing each state to determine who was eligible. In the early history of the U.S., most states allowed only white male adult property owners to vote.

Post a comment to this article here: