AMHERST – Students who attend the Amherst-Pelham Regional School District will still have a vacation day on the second Monday in October.
But beginning this fall, the district calendars will no longer mark the date as one honoring the anniversary of the landing of Christopher Columbus in 1492 in the Americas.
The unanimous decision was made by the regional school committee Tuesday following a presentation by middle school students participating in Student Advocates for Change, according to teacher Matthew Venditti.
These students will ask Town Meeting next month to pass a resolution recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day in place of Columbus Day.
Venditti worked with these students as a classroom project in his U.S. History I class, with their work first leading them to present their position to the town’s Human Rights Commission, and then to draft language for a warrant article.
The resolution before Town Meeting states that the day will be “in recognition of the indigenous people of America’s position as native to these lands, and the suffering they faced following European conquest of their land.”
The School Committee, like the Select Board on Monday, voted unanimously in favor of passing the article.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
