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The focus on how public schools handle religious and cultural holidays continued Monday night in Howard County, with requests to accommodate the Lunar New Year and a Muslim holy day on next year's calendar.
Students and parents in Howard's Asian-American community asked that a county-wide professional development day be scheduled to coincide with the Lunar New Year in 2016, to enable students to celebrate the popular holiday with family and friends.
"If kids aren't given the chance to celebrate a holiday, they will probably forget about it, and then it takes away a part of the culture's traditions," said Stone Li, a sixth-grader, testifying at a public hearing filled with supporters of the Lunar New Year request.