New Jersey State Board of Education approves Pagan/Wiccan holidays for the 2010-2011 school year

This morning, the New Jersey Board of Education voted to approve their list of religious holidays permitting pupil absence from school for the 2010-2011 school year.

Included for the first time on this list are the eight Pagan/Wiccan holidays, or Sabbats. This marks the first time any state has approved Pagan holidays to a state calendar, and will set precedence for other districts and states across the country.

And it wasn't just New Jersey Pagans who wrote in. Brianna Ottinger's grandmother, herself a Christian, wrote to the state BOE to ask that they give Pagans the "religious freedoms that are afforded to everyone." Many of Brianna's school friends also wrote letters of support as well. Rev. Ottinger, along with her lawyer and the personal friends who had supported her every step of the way, sent in multiple packets of information on Wicca.

Rev. Ottinger not only hopes to get the Wiccan Sabbats on the calendar for New Jersey, but also to change the policy of giving individual school districts the discretion whether to allow the holidays to be excused. The holidays, Rev. Ottinger believes, should be automatically excused as a religious holiday for students who supply the necessary parent approval.

~paganwiccan/about.com~

I was sent this through SAPRA's digest and just had to share this interesting twist of things! *smile*