On January 15, before the ice storm that wreaked havoc in Portland, was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. However, we could’ve had school on MLK Day if the district had voted on it. Instead, they voted to take away a week from winter break and turned it into a week with school. This was a very controversial move for a variety of reasons.
Firstly, families and staff members already had made plans for the break, so taking the week off created a commotion. Additionally, a survey was sent out to PPS students that asked how they wanted to make up those days, and having school on MLK Day was a popular option, as it would’ve added a day to the winter break back. According to Koin 6 News Portland, over 1,000 voted to have school on MLK Day. However, PPS ignored the option and decided to keep MLK Day as a day off. But what did PPS end up doing to commemorate MLK Day?
In usual PPS fashion, they did the bare minimum to celebrate this day. On all their social media they posted an image of MLK and a quote to accompany the image. They added to their caption, “Please join us in honoring Dr. King’s legacy.” They didn’t add details about how they would honor MLK, nor did they provide any additional resources for students. This isn’t the first time PPS has created a lazy post for national holidays.
On October 9, 2023, PPS created a post for Indigenous Peoples’ Day with a caption that stated, “Join us in celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day.” In this post, they created a generic graphic and didn’t provide any resources for students. They also didn’t say how they were celebrating Indigenous People’s Day, and there was still school on this day while various federal buildings were closed. However, we did have that Friday the 13th off, even though it should’ve been off on the holiday itself.
On June 19, 2023, PPS created a post of Juneteenth. Once again, they created a post with the caption, “Please join us in celebrating Juneteenth.” With this post, they quoted Ida B. Wells, but still did not provide any resources, nor did they say how they were celebrating.
On these important days, students must get the opportunity to learn additional history and why we have these days off. Instead of half-hearted Instagram posts, PPS should start to incorporate resources and materials into these posts to add essence and honor/respect the circumstances of these holidays.
