After backlash, New Jersey school board reverses decision to scrap holiday names like Columbus Day

RANDOLPH, N.J. — Facing hundreds of riled residents, angry Italian Americans and others enraged by a school calendar it wiped clean of named holidays, a New Jersey school board voted Monday to return to its original school calendar, including a day off marked for Columbus Day.

But first, the Randolph Township Board of Education sustained a nearly four-hour onslaught of boos, jeers, calls for their resignation and about 50 speakers during the public session. The overwhelming majority of speakers accused the board of bringing what they called "woke" and "cancel culture" actions into their school system.

The few who spoke in defense of the board and reviewing the calendar were shouted down by the approximately 400 people who filled Randolph Middle School for the special meeting.

The meeting had one agenda item: to consider a resolution to undo what the board had already done.

Monday's meeting was called following a swift backlash from parents and national press coverage after the board's decision last month to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day.

Previously: Parents say Columbus Day changes come at the 'expense of Italians'

Columbus Day: Celebrating cultural heritage, or the colonization of Native Americans?

The board's attempt to mollify angry Italian Americans caused another eruption of nationwide criticism on June 8 when it approved revisions to the 2021-22 school calendar that removed references to all named holidays in favor of "day off," including Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Randolph resident John Sharples said the day after the board voted to remove all holiday names, "I woke up and found out that my town had turned into a nationwide embarrassment."

The vote on Monday to return the district to its original calendar language passed, 8-1. Security guards and Randolph police kept a heavy presence of uniformed officers inside and outside the building.

The lone vote against came from board member Susan DeVito, who criticized the media for poor reporting of the issue and for critics of the decision who were "taking on broader issues than just Christopher Columbus."

That criticism, which became fodder for conservative media outlets, led to "vicious" and "vulgar" emails and comments from across the nation, board members said.

"Let's call a spade a spade," she said. "If this was truly about Italian heritage with no other issues tied in, we would have not have been called Marxists, communists, racists."

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A recess was called at one point to help police calm the crowd, but even then, individual arguments broke out, including one in which a board supporter was cursed at by another woman.

Critics of the board were cheered during the public session and frequently earned standing ovations from the audience, many of whom carried signs with phrases such as "All Holidays Matter" and "Resign!"

Ralph Contini of the Unico National, the nation's largest Italian American service organization, called the meeting a "flashpoint."

"In your attempt to be woke, you've waken up the entire community of Randolph," he said. "We draw the line in the sand. You have overreached. Enough is enough of this anti-Columbus movement."

Other Unico members handed out American and Italian flags to the audience. Some brought their own flags. One man wore an Italian flag like a cape.

State Sen. Anthony Bucco, who represents Randolph in New Jersey's 25th District, struck a calmer tone but also called for the board to reverse its decision.

"To eliminate (Columbus Day) from the calendar, that was bad enough," Bucco said. "But when you took the next step to eliminate all holidays, you allowed your pursuit of diversity to spiral into division."

The resolution to restore the school calendar was amended to call for a study with public input about adding a day off to the school year to honor veterans.

During their discussion of the resolution, some board members apologized for the furor, including board President Tammy MacKay.

"Let me be clear: Those votes and those decisions are exclusively the product of this board," she said. "The buck stops here with those of us seated in front of you and we own it."

Following the decision to remove holiday names at the previous board meeting, thousands of people signed a Change.org petition demanding the resignation of the superintendent and all board members.

Follow William Westhoven on Twitter at @wwesthoven.

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Randolph school board: Holiday names, Columbus Day back on calendar