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New Jersey school board brings back holiday names after removing them from calendar

RANDOLPH, N.J. — Gone were the names of Christmas, Thanksgiving and Columbus Day, replaced with a generic label, but that change made by the Randolph Township Board of Education has been reconsidered.

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The school board had scrapped the holiday-specific names, but after more than 400 people packed a special meeting in New Jersey this week, Christmas has returned to the annual calendar.

But the change didn’t come until nearly four hours of speakers calling for the resignation of board members and accusations of bringing “cancel culture” into the school day, the Morristown Daily Record reported.

There were some people who supported the new naming convention but were silenced by the majority of attendees, the Daily Record reported.

Originally the board decided last month to remove Columbus Day from the calendar, replacing the name with Indigenous People’s Day, NJ.com reported, but a group of Italian Americans spoke out about the holiday’s renaming, according to the Daily Record.

Earlier this month, the board decided to wipe the names from all holidays on the calendar, replacing them with “day off.”

>> NJ school district removes names of all holidays from calendar

The district responded to the controversy saying that the intention of the change was mischaracterized.

“These state, federal and other holidays have not been cancelled or taken away by this board of education as some are falsely claiming,” the statement said, according to WABC. “Schools will still be closed on the days that we originally approved and our children will know why. Everyone should remember that the primary purpose of the school calendar is to inform parents when schools will be open and when schools will be closed.”

After the debate, the board voted 8-1 to reinstate the original calendar with the holidays, including Columbus Day, listed by name.

The board also decided to conduct a survey for community input on the calendar, NJ.com reported.