While The University of Illinois Springfield does not receive a day off for Columbus Day Monday, K-12 students do, despite controversy.
The Springfield School Board heard its first protest against Columbus and Indigenous Peoples’ Day Monday, a week before students receive a day off for the holiday, said Superintendent Jennifer Gill.
Teachers and students from the school district’s Springfield Learning Academy want to remove Columbus’ name from the holiday. Ninety-five percent of the school signed a petition in support, reported Michelle Cruz Hine, SLA teacher.
“We would like to work alongside local legislators to change our school code so that we no longer celebrate and recognize a person who is responsible for one of the largest genocides in human history,” Cruz Hine told the school board.
Gill says school policy and law require the district to keep the full holiday name.
“At this point, it is a part of Illinois school code to continue to call an official day off Columbus Day, but we have honored it as indigenous people day on our calendar already as a kind of co-holiday so that we can teach the counterpoint of this situation,” said Gill.
The holiday is under federal, state and local law, but 29 states and Washington, D.C., along with 216 cities, do not celebrate Columbus Day.
In 2021, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation officially designating Indigenous Peoples’ Day, but Cruz Hine says that’s not enough.
Those who want to remove Columbus’ name from the holiday said doing so would spark more questions and learning from students, especially since K-12 students are now required under state law to learn about Native American history.
“Kids are curious,” said Emily Anderson, SLA teacher. “They’re going to ask questions. They’re going to want to know and that’s what’s going to be ingrained in their minds – indigenous rather than talking about Columbus, thinking that he’s a hero, which he’s not.”
The students and teachers who spoke at the meeting mentioned Columbus’ slaughter of indigenous people and the fact that he never set foot in North America as two reasons to support their movement. They would like to see a change in state law.
Gill said she talked with state Sens. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, and Steve McClure, R-Springfield, along with the regional office of education.
“I don’t have a ton of extra time in my day, but if they want me to be an advocate for it, I’ll definitely connect them with our lawmakers and maybe something else will happen,” said Gill.
UIS does not formally celebrate Columbus Day, but there have been Student Government resolutions speaking out against the federal holiday.
Addison Wright is a graduate student in the UIS Public Affairs Reporting program.
