“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” These timeless words stated in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment guarantee that public institutions across the nation will not favor one religion over another. However, as implicit the violation may be, Fairfax County schools do not always abide by this law.
 
Many students have questioned why spring break is so late this year. The reason is simple; the dates always coincide with Easter Sunday. While this may prove useful for the majority of students that celebrate this holiday, it leaves minorities unrepresented.

They stand in question as to why their religious days never seem to be correlated with school holidays. The numerous Eids, Kwanzahs, Hanukkahs, and other holidays go year after year with no recognition. Students must suffer academically by taking time off of school to celebrate their holiday, while the majority of Christians are given a break for theirs.  
 
“The timing of school scheduling reveals that there isn’t a complete separation between church and state. If one religion is going to have time allotted to their own celebrations, then every religion should receive that opportunity,” said junior Galila Daniel. 
       
If Easter was earlier in the year and spring break just happened to be around it, there would be no complaints on my part. However, spring break is extremely delayed this year. Most schools have already concluded their spring break, while we haven’t even started. 
 
Fourth quarter—the “home stretch” to the end of the school year is randomly interrupted for a week. This also causes teachers to worry, as their training of students for AP exams gets skewed and will have to work even harder to gear students back on track.
 
“We come back and students have one week before AP exams start. Not being in the routine and then coming back is a big struggle for everyone that has to take the test. A little bit of cohesion of an AP class is lost,” said AP Language and Composition teacher Aubrey Ludwig.
 
The timing of school vacations is undoubtedly nonsensical- all in an effort to make them correspond to select holidays. Let’s not forget our constitutional guidelines, FCPS.