No Columbus Day and African American Day Off: New York's New School Calendar

New York schools canceled Columbus Day off to Indigenous Day and made Juneteenth a day off. Writes about it New York Post.

City Department of Education named October 11 "Indigenous Peoples Day" in calendar for the 2021-2022 academic year, which he posted on his website, noting the start and end dates of the school year, as well as the winter and spring breaks. Columbus Day remains an official holiday in New York State and at the federal level, but schools in New York City will not celebrate it, although students will still get a day off in honor of Indigenous Peoples' Day.

Schools will also be closed on June 20 for the occasion juneteenth (June 19). On this day in 1865, black slaves in Texas (the last in the United States) were informed that they were free.

According to the calendar, in the 2021-2022 academic year, classes will not be canceled due to snow. On snowy days, students will simply be transferred to distance learning, to which everyone is accustomed during the pandemic.

New York City Councilors Joe Borelli, Steve Mateo and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis - all Republicans from Staten Island - criticized the decision, which they said "came as a shock to parents."

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“There is nothing wrong with celebrating Indigenous People's Day, but doing it at the expense of celebrating American culture and history is downright insulting,” Borelli said. "The fact that we do it unnoticed is even worse."

The legacy of the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus has been hotly contested in New York City ever since Mayor Bill de Blasio established a Commission on Monuments in 2018 to review statues of historical figures with a history of slavery or oppression.

Juneteenth became a state holiday last year following protests against the assassination of George Floyd by the Minnesota police.

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Meanwhile, dozens of cities and jurisdictions across the United States have abandoned Columbus Day to commemorate Native Americans, following the ultra-liberal Berkeley, California, which began celebrating it back in 1992.

More cities have erased Columbus from the city's landscape since last year, including Philadelphia, whose mayor has announced plans to demolish a statue of the famous explorer. Currently, the monument is in a wooden box, while there are legal proceedings against the decision to demolish it.

City Council Education Committee member Robert Holden called the cancellation of Columbus Day "a shameful insult to people of Italian descent."

“I am proud of my Italian heritage and the tremendous role that Italian Americans have played in building this city, often facing dire adversity and discrimination,” Holden said. "There is a place in this city to pay tribute to everyone's heritage."