THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 30, 1996 TAG: 9603300002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: Kerry Dougherty
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Last Saturday morning Cox High School junior Francine Joffe had a choice to make: attend school for the Virginia Beach snow makeup day, or go to synagogue with her family.
On the advice of her rabbi, who urged Jewish students in his congregation to ``stand up for what they believe in,'' Joffe skipped school and went to religious services instead.
She may have stuck up for what she believed in, but in the process Joffe missed extra-credit tests in her math, physics and French classes.
``I was shocked when I first heard they had scheduled school for a Saturday,'' she said. ``I didn't make a big deal out of it at first, but when I brought my excuse into school on Monday I made a point of saying that I missed school so I could go to synagogue.
``No one seemed to care.''
It's bad enough that school administrators in Virginia Beach foolishly scheduled a makeup day on the Jewish sabbath. But leaving students with the impression that no one cared is inexcusable.
This is not a minor issue, especially to members of Hampton Roads' Jewish community, most of whom live in Virginia Beach. That became abundantly clear at Monday night's forum for School Board candidates, hosted by the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater. The panelists, including Jewish teachers, guidance counselors, a student (Joffe) and parents, said they were alarmed by what they called ``insensitivity'' on the part of the Virginia Beach public schools.
Giving school administrators the benefit of the doubt - that they were merely insensitive rather than uncaring - we can hope they'll make better provisions for snow days next year. They can't plead ignorance because Rabbi Arthur Ruberg and the Board of Rabbis notified all local school officials that Saturday makeup days were unacceptable to the Jewish community.
Forcing students of a minority religion to choose between school and religious services is unfair when an alternative is available. Other local school districts added hours to the regular school day or canceled teacher workshops rather than trample on the Jewish sabbath.
When I learned that Virginia Beach had scheduled a Saturday makeup day I cringed - remembering another controversy over the Jewish sabbath and public schools which I covered as a reporter in Washington in 1980.
In that case twin sisters attending Woodson High School in Fairfax County attempted to get the date of their high-school graduation changed from a Saturday morning. The girls were Orthodox Jews. And top students. In fact, both were vying to be valedictorian of their senior class.
Early in the school year, without a fuss, they asked their school principal to please change the date of graduation - pointing out that no other local school held Saturday graduations. Callously, their principal, later the school superintendent and finally the School Board refused to budge.
The case was on its way to the U.S. Supreme Court when it became moot: High-school graduation came and went, and Lynn and Susan Stein missed it. Instead, they, like Francine Joffe 16 years later, chose to go to synagogue.
I knew the Stein sisters. And all these years later, I can still see them, sitting side-by-identical-side in their parents' living room wearing brave smiles and trying not to cry. They told me about the ridicule they were enduring at school from students who had never been taught to respect other religions. They said it was wrenching to choose between school and synagogue.
Before it was over, the Stein sisters were national celebrities of a sort. And the entire Fairfax County school system got a deserved black eye.
I often think of the girls and wonder what has happened in their lives. Did being turned into religious freaks by their own school system influence their view of the world?
By the way, later that summer, very quietly, the Fairfax County school administration ended Saturday graduation ceremonies.
But school officials there never admitted they were wrong and never, to my knowledge, apologized.
Francine Joffe and the other Jewish students in Virginia Beach public schools deserve an apology. And a promise that it won't happen again. MEMO: Ms. Dougherty is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot.
by CNB