Mayor Curtatone, shown here participating in last year's Halloween festivities with his family, said reports that Somerville is against holiday celebrations are completely unfounded. - Photo by Elizabeth Sheeran

Officials say holiday controversy is much ado about nothing

By Elizabeth Sheeran

Nothing has changed.

That was the response from city officials to the media furor that rained down around the city last weekend, when what began as a two-paragraph email ended with Somerville cast in the role of the Grinch-who-stole-the-holidays.

Two weeks ago, Kennedy School Principal Anne Foley sent a six-sentence email to her teaching staff, suggesting a discussion of sensitivities surrounding the upcoming Columbus Day holiday and, to a much lesser extent, Thanksgiving. The internal email somehow made its way to Boston Herald columnist Jessica Heslam, who re-printed Foley’s most provocative phrases in her column in last Friday’s Herald.

Heslam added that Kennedy is among the schools in Somerville that take a no-costumes approach to Halloween. The Herald packaged the column under the headline, “Somerville principal takes aim at cherished holidays,” with a front page that read “Nope, Nope, Next,” alongside graphics representing Columbus Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving, respectively. And so began a media feeding frenzy that by Monday had reached across international borders.

“The notion that we do not celebrate historical events or holidays and that we were doing away with them obviously went viral. It’s now everywhere and it’s wholly inaccurate,” said Somerville School Superintendent Tony Pierantozzi at Monday evening’s regularly-scheduled School Committee meeting.

The front page of last Friday's Boston Herald ignited a storm of media coverage.

“There is absolutely no validity to the stories that are everywhere about banning celebrations, banning all holidays, banning Halloween,” said Pierantozzi. “At no time did anyone representing the Somerville Public Schools state that holidays or celebrations would be reduced, changed or curtailed.”

Foley’s message to teachers, which she has said was sent with the intent of sparking a discussion about multi-cultural perspectives on Columbus Day, expressed some strongly-worded views:

“When we were young we might have been able to claim ignorance of the atrocities that Christopher Columbus committed against the indigenous peoples of the ‘new’ world. We can no longer do so. For many of us and our students celebrating this particular person is an insult and a slight to the people he annihilated. On the same lines, we need to be careful around the Thanksgiving Day time as well.”

But nowhere in the email was there a recommendation to stop commemorating either Columbus Day or Thanksgiving. As for Halloween, Foley’s email didn’t say anything about it.

In a follow-up message to parents and staff via robo-call on Sunday evening, Foley said nothing had changed regarding the instruction and events planned at the Kennedy School this year. “As always teachers and classrooms address holidays as part of their curriculum,” said Foley.

The recorded message also included the following apology: “If this message had been intended for a broader audience, I would have chosen less inflammatory words and provided more of a context for the message,” said Foley. “I apologize if my words offended anyone, that was not my intent.”

Mayor Joseph Curtatone, who has three children enrolled at the Kennedy School, said he was among those who disagreed with Foley’s use of words such as “atrocities” and “annihilated” in reference to Columbus. But he defended her right to communicate with her staff about issues surrounding the teaching of history.

“I didn’t agree with the words she used. But as the principal, she has a right to say it,” said Curtatone.

“We have the freedom of speech in this country to be able to raise issues like this,” said Alderman and School Committee member Rebekah Gewirtz. “I’m not saying tone doesn’t matter…But this is what we should be encouraging our children to do in school: to say ‘why?’ and ‘how?’ and ‘where?’ And not just to accept ‘this is a holiday and therefore this person should be revered.’ We should learn the real truth, which in some cases is an unpleasant truth.”

Not all School Committee members expressed support for Principal Foley. “I do want to publicly apologize to my constituents that we had to spend this much time, and all the hours spent this weekend by this gentleman and his administration, for one person,” said Mary Jo Rossetti, of Ward Seven, referring to the flood of media inquiries that had bombarded city officials.

For Mayor Curtatone, the media attention focused on the email was a case of form over substance, fuelled by the chance to build controversy around Foley’s choice of words. And the Mayor had his own harsh words for the Herald.

“We can agree or disagree. And I don’t agree with everything in it,” he said, referring to the email. “But to paint it as if we’re against every holiday here in the City of Somerville – which is the inference given by the Herald story – is way out of line, just wrong, and I think breaches some line of journalistic ethics.”

To further drive home the point that Somerville schools haven’t stopped commemorating holidays, Superintendent Pierantozzi presented the School Committee with a two-page list of celebrations from schools across the city. Many look pretty familiar, like Thanksgiving trips to Plimoth Plantation. Many are new twists on old traditions, like friendship cards on Valentine’s Day. And many are completely new ways of approaching the holidays, like pajama days for Halloween.

Some parents may lament the fact that school celebrations don’t all look like they used to, but Pierantozzi said educators have a responsibility to make sure individual students don’t feel excluded from school day activities because of different backgrounds, origins or religious beliefs. He said schools across the country are beginning to grapple with the issue of diversity when it comes to holidays.

“This is a real issue in our community,” said School Committee member Mark Niedergang, of Ward Five, who added that he regularly receives calls from constituents who represent various backgrounds, with different traditions. “There are disagreements in our community about how holidays should be celebrated in our schools,” said Niedergang.

Mayor Curtatone said all that diversity only adds to the celebration within the community. And he dismissed any idea that Somerville does not know how to have a good time – especially around traditional American holidays like Halloween.

“Of course we celebrate Halloween here in Somerville. On October 23 we’re going to have the biggest Halloween Festival in the state,” said Curtatone. “I want to challenge any city or school system in the country, who celebrates our country, our history, our traditions and those of dozens of others around the world as much as the City of Somerville and Somerville’s Public Schools.”