COLUMBIA, S.C.
Confederate Memorial Day is a mandatory state holiday in South Carolina, but you wouldn’t know it from the classrooms.
Only one of the state’s 85 school districts closed Wednesday in observation of the holiday, the product of a legislative compromise that also created a permanent Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“When it’s mandatory, they should observe it,” said Glenn McConnell, the president pro tem of the state Senate and a Civil War re-enactor. “When they start picking and choosing holidays, it creates controversy.”
Few districts have observed the day since 2000, when legislators set aside May 10 to mark the death of Confederate commander Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
The holiday falls during the week of state-mandated standardized testing. Many districts also don’t observe other holidays, such as Veterans Day and federal Memorial Day, because the state requires 180 days of instruction.
This year only Berkeley County School District closed for the holiday. The county’s schools have taken the holiday since August 2000 after requests from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said former school board Chairwoman Frances Brewer.
