‘Giving Christians Middle Finger!’ School District Considers Erasing Christmas Holiday
A Virginia mother and parental rights activist is sounding the alarm after Fairfax County Public Schools asked families whether they would be willing to give up Christmas and other religious holidays as days off in the name of creating more five-day school weeks.
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Stephanie Lundquist-Arora, a Fairfax County mother and the Fairfax chapter leader of the Independent Women’s Network, told national radio host Todd Starnes that the district’s calendar has become so chopped up that families are struggling to keep track of when children are actually in class.
Watch the interview below:
“In Fairfax County, Virginia, fewer than 50 percent of the school weeks are full five-day weeks,” Lundquist-Arora said on “The Todd Starnes Show.” “Over time, there are fewer and fewer weeks that actually the children just go to school five days a week.”
Lundquist-Arora said parents have been asking district leaders for a more predictable calendar, but she argued FCPS responded by floating the wrong solution.
“We’re calling this the Grinch Who Stole Christmas survey,” she said. “They’re trying to figure out how they can have more five-day school weeks. And instead of saying, maybe we shouldn’t have so many teacher unions sanctioned teacher planning days, they’re saying let’s take Christmas off the calendar as a school holiday and perhaps even shrink the winter break.”
WJLA reported that it obtained an email from FCPS inviting families to complete a survey on future school calendars. The district told families, “Your feedback matters,” and said the input would be considered as part of the planning process.
According to the television station, one survey question asked families which option would be “most acceptable” if the calendar had to be modified. Options included shortening winter break, shortening spring break, eliminating holidays recognizing religious and cultural observances — including “Christmas, Diwali, Eid al-Fitr, Rosh Hashanah, and other observed holidays” — fewer federal holidays, or no day off before Thanksgiving.
FCPS told WJLA it is “committed to developing an academic calendar that works best for students, staff and families,” adding that calendar development requires “balancing many different parameters” while prioritizing teaching and learning.
But Lundquist-Arora told Starnes that many parents see something more sinister than routine calendar management.
“These same leaders, the Fairfax County school leaders have an anti-Christian bias,” she said.
She pointed to a 2022 school board decision involving spring break, saying the board voted “with the express purpose of decoupling it from Easter.”
“They did it intentionally,” she said. “They just wanted to have spring break separate from Easter to kind of wave the middle finger at Christians.”
Lundquist-Arora also blasted Fairfax County leaders for commemorating Transgender Visibility Day on Easter in 2024, saying Christians are the ones being targeted.
“This is specifically targeted at Christians because you see there’s no way that the board of supervisors would ever have commemorated transgender visibility day on Eid,” she said.
The Fairfax mother said the district’s approach to surveys has long frustrated parents. She accused leaders of using surveys to “validate their preselected decisions” rather than listen to families.
“It’s really a circus that they give us these surveys to find out what we want,” she told Starnes. “They’re only hoping that they can get enough data to justify whatever they’ve already decided to do.”
The calendar debate comes after months of parent complaints that FCPS students have too few full school weeks. WTOP reported that school board members acknowledged Fairfax has one of the region’s most irregular calendars, with parents raising concerns about inconsistent midweek days off and the burden on working families.
Still, Lundquist-Arora believes the backlash could save Christmas break from the chopping block.
“I think there’s going to be enough community pushback,” she said. “Families were leaving for vacation specifically to celebrate Easter with their families. And I think that there’s going to be enough of an uproar that they’re not going to be the Grinch who stole Christmas.”
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