Give Students Columbus Day Off, Italian-American Groups Urge Toms River Schools

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Italian-American organizations urged Toms River school officials on Wednesday night to reinstate the day off for students for Columbus Day, saying the move to have students in school diminishes the meaning of the federal holiday and feeds into national attacks on the holiday.

The Toms River Regional Board of Education on Aug. 17 approved changes to the school district's 2022-23 calendar, including the move to have students in school on Oct. 10, the federal holiday that marks Christopher Columbus's arrival and discovery of America.

Superintendent Michael Citta said the change for students — staff members already were scheduled to work that day in professional development sessions — was solely about being able to end the school year sooner and allowing students, especially the older ones, to be able to work in the local summer tourism economy.

The change has drawn some criticism from outside the district, including accusations that the Toms River schools had "canceled" Columbus. On Wednesday, Citta rejected that suggestion.

"Kids have been in and out of school in Toms River on Columbus Day historically throughout its existence," Citta said, adding that over the last 10 years or so, it's been a professional development day, so the schools are not fully closed.

"We did not cancel Christopher Columbus from our school system or our calendar whatsoever," Citta said. "We were simply moving the calendar up and having the students in (school)."

The Toms River Regional School District had been tentatively scheduled for a June 20 end to the school year, with students off June 19 for Juneteenth and a final half-day of classes and high school graduations on June 20, a Tuesday. The revised calendar with classes in session on Columbus Day has the high school graduations tentatively scheduled for June 16, a Friday.

Italian-American groups who attended Wednesday's school board meeting said the effect of the change is that it fuels attacks on Columbus Day in other school districts and towns.

Columbus Day has become controversial in recent years, with arguments made that the holiday ignores the impact on Native Americans of Columbus's arrival in North America and the contributions of Native Americans to the history of the United States. Some towns and schools have moved away from Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples Day.

"You've given ammunition to the nationwide attack that is going on right now to Columbus Day and to our heritage," said Andre' DiMino, a Brick resident and the communications director of the Italian American One Voice Coalition, which has nearly 40 member organizations. "Here of all places in Toms River with such a large amount of Italian Americans, it was really not a good thing for you to do" in having students in school for the day.

"You've given them fodder," DiMino said of those who oppose recognizing Columbus Day. "They now have a reason to cancel it."

DiMino and Robert DiBiase, a Toms River resident and chairman of the New Jersey Italian Heritage Commission, said Columbus Day is a source of pride among Italian-Americans because the creation of the federal holiday in 1892 changed the way Italians were perceived and treated.

Prior to the creation of Columbus Day under President Benjamin Harrison, Italians were subjected to abuse that included limited job opportunities, being spat on and physical beatings. In 1891, however, the worst lynching in U.S. history happened when 11 Italian men— Sicilians, DiBiase said — were killed, according to History.com. Their bodies were mutiliated in the attack sparked after the acquittal of an Italian man in the death of the New Orleans police chief, according to History.com.

DiBiase said the lynching was broadly supported, with politicians including Theodore Roosevelt weighing in and praising the slaughter. Roosevelt's remarks created a rift with the Italian government. The celebration of Columbus Day in 1892, 400 years after his arrival, aimed to ease the diplomatic crisis, he said. It was made a federal holiday in 1897.

"(The lynching has) been erased from all the textbooks. It's been scrubbed from the biographies of the cold-blooded bigots that had a direct role in the murders or condoned it," DiBiase said. "That's why Columbus is sacrosanct to us."

Citta said the district will be spending Columbus Day teaching students about Italian heritage and Italians' contributions, including using curriculum that the Italian Heritage Commission created that has been approved by the state Department of Education.

The Ocean County Columbus Day Parade Committee also had criticized the change, though bringing students into school has no effect on the parade, which is set for Sunday.

"We can do better as a society by talking about these things in the community and in the classrooms," Citta said.

"A cultural holiday is significant to any group," said Frank Lorenzo, a board member of the Italian American One Voice Coalition. "By removing Columbus Day (from the school calendar) you're telling all the students here it doesn't mean anything."

"The school calendar only shows days when kids are in or kids are out" of school, Citta said. "It's only not listed because kids are in school, not because Columbus Day does not exist."

"Toms River did not cancel Columbus Day," Citta said.