Thread: Classes on Chavez holiday bother some students

Classes on Chavez holiday bother some students

10:00 PM PDT on Thursday, March 29, 2007

By SHARON McNARY
The Press-Enterprise

Inland county and court offices are closed today to commemorate Cesar Chavez, however most schools remain open, prompting some students to demand the day off.

The state Legislature declared the farm-labor union leader's birthday a holiday in 2000, giving school boards the option to close campuses March 31, or keep them open as a special day of service.

A group of high school students has pledged to miss school today and march instead in Palm Springs and seven other California cities to demand a Chavez school holiday, said Hoku Jeffrey, 29.

The organizer for a youth-oriented civil-rights group called By Any Means Necessary said the marches are intended to protest recent increases in immigration enforcement by the federal government and to give the holiday honoring Chavez the same day-off status as the holiday devoted to Martin Luther King Jr.

"We will say enough of the (immigration) raids, enough of the unequal treatment," Jeffrey said. "Latinos don't deserve a second-class holiday."

But Anthony Chavez, a grandson of Chavez, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, said he would prefer students remain in school.

"We want them to honor our grandfather's legacy by staying in class and putting it into action," said Chavez, 21, a religious-studies major at Cal State Bakersfield.

He recommended students volunteer that day to help in school yards or convalescent homes, or donate to farm workers displaced by the recent citrus freeze.

There are several reasons, most having to do with money, why the Chavez holiday has not been declared a day off in many school systems, said Bill Hedrick, a Corona-Norco Unified School District board member since 1988.

He said he preferred to see students in school performing some sort of volunteer service or studying Chavez's life rather than making it a day off.

It is expensive to give paid days off to school-district employees, and the school calendar is generally a subject of negotiation between the district and the unionized staff, he said. The number of holidays in most districts' school year is already 10 to 11 days, he said, so adding a Chavez holiday without adding to the number of paid days off might involve swapping it for another holiday, such as Lincoln's birthday.

State employees do not have Chavez's birthday among their 12 official holidays, which include the federal holiday recognizing Martin Luther King Jr., Columbus Day and both Presidents Day and Lincoln's birthday in February.



http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stor ... c1c7f.html

Government entities throughout Arizona do give the day off for Cesar Chavez' birthday. One year I used my day off to be with the Minutemen. This year I used my free day to have surgery on my foot. Oh well, the taxpayer footed the bill...