Issue 9, Volume 32 December 22,1995
South wordS
Maine South H.S. Park Ridge, IL
Religious celebrations in school To be protected, or to be protected from? by Natalie Mazzuca When one considers the issue of safety, protection from thought does not necessarily come to mind. With signs of the holiday season omnipresent in the halls and classrooms of Maine South, the question of students' safety from the religious ideas that are the basis for these winter festivites is raised. The overwhelming majority of festivities at Maine South are Christmas-related. With the nearing of winter break, the plastic tree is pulled out in the library and adorned with ornaments. Paper decorations cover the windows of the health and attendance offices. Foreign language classes sing Christmas carols. The winter hohdays concert is always full of Christmas music, and at the end, the choirs .and orchestra traditionally perform "A Triblute of Carols." Santa has also made appearances at Spanish and French club activities. Although the majority seem to feel that the decor that dots the school is harmless, a vocal few find the decorations offensive and a threat to the learning environment. Any sort of representation of the various religious celebrations, they feel, is not proper in an institution that is meant to teach all views and ideas equally and without bias. Some take it a step further saying that even if all winter holidays, such as Christmas, Chanukah and Kwanzaa, were represented justly, the fact that a religion was being indirectiy "taught" to students in a
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Administrators Clifford Adamo, Kenneth Reese, and Ralph Borowiak trim the trtt. Southwordsy?/e photo public school is a violation of the separation of the "Fall Carnival." church and state. Many in the district see the whole matter in So then, why not keep any sort of holiday a different light. They feel that the subject has orcelebration absent from the school? This been taken to extremes. The learning environsituation is best exemphfied by the current ment is no longer clean from prejudices, but policy in the Grayslake school district. overly sanitized to the point of causing new Gray slake, faced with the same concerns from ones from lack of awareness of other cultures. students and parents, took a politically correct The concensus is to keep holidays in school, route. The district felt that the only way to just to represent all opinions and beliefs as fairly resolve the situation was to censor all equally as possible. holidays. In turn, the winter holidays concert Most students agree with this in regards to was moved from December to January and the the decorations at Maine South. Janet Lucchfestivities were renamed "Winter Carnival." esi, a junior, says, "Holidays are part of our Not only December hohdays were affected, culture as much as anything else. Our beliefs however. Valentine's Day is now deemed make us who we are and should not be re"Friendship Day," and Halloween is called (see Celebrations continued on page 6)
Student Council helps Maine South share by Jennie Palermo The spirit of the holidays often leaves many students with feelings of generosity and compassion, especially towards those less fortunate. At Maine South, these emotions of giving are illustrated through the actions of the Student Council. During the week of December 11-15, Smdent Council sponsored its annual food drice. This year, it was named SHARE, which stands for Students Helping And Reaching ' Everyone. As in previous years, SHARE was a comf)etition between the classes, to see which class could raise the most money, which was converted to points.
Pennies counted as negative points, and all other forms of money, as well as canned food donations, counted as positive points for each class's total. On Wednesday, Double Dollar Day, points counted for twice their original value, encouraging students to bring donations. Friday was deemed Double Dollar Day II in hopes of generating more money. This year the money raised went to local charities and groups. These included the Marillac House, Little Sisters of the Poor in Palatine, and the Maine Township Food Pantry, which are all organizations that work to help the poor. Under the direction of junior Larry
Logsdon, the Public Relations Committee posted signs encouraging all students to participate in the food drive. Special announcements were even made on Tuesday and Thursday reminding students about Double Dollar Day on Wednesday and Friday. The food drive itself was under the direction of sophomore Meghan O'Neill and the Social Committee. Her responsibilities included planning, counting each day's earnings, and changing the "thermometer" total each day. With the goal of the food drive set at $5,000, Student Council's SHARE activity was a large success due to the effort of all workers and contributors involved.