St. Paul school kisses Valentine's Day, other 'dominant holidays,' goodbye
Article publisher:
Freedom Outpost
Article date:
4 February 2016
Article category:
Our American Future
Medium
Article Body:
Celebrations of Valentine’s Day and the other “dominant holidays” are ending at one St. Paul elementary school, according to a letter from the principal addressed to families.
Principal Scott Masini of Bruce Vento Elementary School, whose student body is overwhelmingly nonwhite, explained in the letter that “my personal feeling is we need to find a way to honor and engage in holidays that are inclusive of our student population.”
With Valentine’s Day a little more than two weeks away, Masini noted, “I have come to the difficult decision to discontinue the celebration of the dominant holidays until we can come to a better understanding of how the dominant view will suppress someone else’s view.”...
The letter listed the holidays that the East Side school will no longer celebrate as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine’s Day. Masini said the decision was made in consultation with his staff...
Some schools across the country have been deciding to forgo Halloween celebrations, including schools in New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, citing concerns for student inclusiveness...
Schools in the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan district have also shifted from holiday parties to seasonal parties...
According to the latest state demographic data, the student body at Bruce Vento school is 52.3 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, 35.4 percent black, 6.9 percent Hispanic, 4.3 percent white and 1 percent American Indian/Alaskan Native. More than half the students are learning English as a second language, data show.
The district is one of the state’s largest and most ethnically diverse. As of October, its student body was 31.5 percent Asian-American, 30.3 percent black, 22.5 percent white, 13.9 percent Hispanic and 1.82 percent American Indian, according to the district’s demographics Web page. Among its 37,000 or so students, more than 100 languages and dialects are spoken, the Web page added...
CAIRCO Notes
The Minneapolis - St Paul Twin Cities area has a significant Somali muslim population. Yet that population surprisingly is not listed in the state demographic data noted above.
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Minnesota Public School Principal Bans Valentine’s Day, Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs, February 2, 2016.
The Muslim world has long hated and banned the romantic holiday, Valentine’s Day. Now we see St. Paul is following suit.
While many public school districts across America have submitted to Muslim demands and agreed to observe the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and make it an official holiday, other school districts are stripping away our long-held traditions and holidays, as part of the increasingly poisonous leftist-Islamic driven agenda...
The [Saint Paul Public School] district spokesperson told Starnes that their schools are multi-cultural and include a large Somali population, indicating that this is somehow an excuse for their PC-insanity...
No other country other than Western ones strip away their traditions, holidays, customs and cultural mores to suit their immigrant populations.
Minnesota Elementary School Scrubs these Holidays to not Offend Minorities!, Freedom Outpost, February 2, 2016
Becoming Minnesotan: Stories of Recent Immigrants and Refugees, Minnesota Historical Society, 2016.
Somali Population: U.S.: 103,117 (2009), Minnesota: 28,450 (2009 American Community Survey estimate; other sources have placed the number closer to 60,000).
... Thousands of Somalis who originally settled in other parts of the U.S. have now relocated to Minneapolis or St. Paul, or smaller cities like Rochester, St. Cloud, Owatonna, Waseca, Marshall, or Faribault. There are jobs in these places that don’t require fluency in English, so are often the first stopping point for newly arrived Somalis. Some Somalis eventually move to Minneapolis and St. Paul to be part of a larger Somali community...
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New census data: Minnesota Somali population grows, Minneapolis Star Tribune, October 27, 2011.
Minnesota's Somali population is still the largest in the United States, according to new census data released early Thursday that raised the number of people of Somali ancestry in the state to more than 32,000.
The new estimate is based on American Community Surveys taken by the bureau from 2008-2010 and updates last year's estimate of nearly 27,000 Somalis in the state. Because the estimates are derived from surveys, they include a margin of error, which means the census calculates the population could be as high as 36,000 or as low as 29,000.
"The (Somali) community has long felt it is a bit larger than the Census Bureau estimate, but this number doesn't feel uncomfortable to me," State Demographer Tom Gillaspy said.
The estimate includes both people born in Somalia and their descendants. Other states that have large Somali populations include Ohio with 12,300, Washington with 9,300 and California with 7,500, according to the latest estimates.
The Somali immigration to Minnesota has been the largest part of a broader influx of people from sub-Saharan Africa in recent years in the state. That broader group now numbers more than 100,000 in the state, according to the new estimates, and promises to keep growing as young couples marry and have children.
Like most immigrant groups, Somalis in Minnesota are younger than the general population with a median age of about 25 years. About half of the Somali population is 24 years old or younger. The median age of the state's general population is more than a decade older at 37 years, and only about a third of the population is 24 years old or younger.
Members of Minnesota's Somali community have been in the news amid long-running federal investigations into recruiting and financing of people from the U.S. to train or fight for al-Shabab in Somalia. U.S. government officials consider the group to be a terrorist organization with ties to al-Qaida...