Residents and students urge Hopkinton School Committee to retain Eid and other cultural holidays

Several Hopkinton residents and students told the school committee on Oct. 9 that removing or failing to recognize major religious and cultural holidays hurts student inclusion and forces families to choose between observance and school events.

Asima Silva, who identified herself as a former Hopkinton School Committee member, told the committee that Muslim families felt heard when Eid al‑Fitr was added to the calendar in 2022 and that the district’s failure to observe Eid al‑Adha forced some families to cut holiday celebrations for events such as high‑school graduation. Silva said, "To find out there could be no representation of the second largest religion in the world ... is giving preference to one religion over another," and urged the committee to either honor the major religious holidays practiced by the student body or drop religious observance entirely.

Asya Silva, a junior at Hopkinton High School and president of the Muslim Student Association, described academic and emotional impacts when major religious holidays fall on exams or graduation nights. "Muslim students already feel unheard, experiencing so much Islamophobia and microaggressions," she said, and proposed that each major religion represented in Hopkinton be allowed to select up to two holidays to be observed by the district.

Student speaker Hasika Chauhan described Diwali as a major cultural festival that requires significant family time and preparation, and said requiring students to attend school on such holidays is frustrating and unequal compared with the district observing federal holidays such as Christmas.

Committee members listened and clarified process: the session was a listening forum only and no vote on the calendar was taken Oct. 9. District staff reminded the public that the Hopkinton Teachers Association contract and state law set some constraints on scheduling and that the committee had scheduled a later meeting to vote on the calendar.

The public comments were echoed by student representatives who told the committee they had surveyed student groups and found majority support for observing a diverse range of holidays rather than prioritizing an earlier last day of school.

Reporting notes: speakers requested that the district preserve or expand recognition of religious and cultural holidays; no final calendar decision was made at this meeting.