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The Problem With Fish Fridays

Separation of church and state: it’s in the Constitution. Yet many people seem to have forgotten this, especially in connection with public schools. People had to fight to stop teachers from forcing students to pray to a God that they may not even believe in. And yet, there’s still a great deal of controversy over something that has been in the Constitution from the beginning. But I’m not discussing prayer in public schools today, but rather another issue that has been almost entirely overlooked in this controversy, the issue of school lunches during Lent.

Have you noticed what a coincidence it is that there is no meat served on Fridays during Lent? Well, at least it’s claimed that this is a coincidence, as if it wasn’t, it would be unconstitutional. But I think it’s wrong that schools accommodate the Catholics in this way. They might as well leave pork out of the menu entirely as well, as if they’re willing to change the menu for Catholics, they may as well do the same for Jewish people. How would you like to only be able to eat what the book of Leviticus says is clean? Well, that’s how I feel about the meatless Fridays. Although it may not be illegal, I think it is wrong to change anything in school for the benefit of people of one specific religion, no matter how popular it is.

People may argue that not having meatless lunches on Fridays is discriminating against those who cannot eat meat those days. Well, it’s not. There are several other choices, available to students every day that don’t result in starving. If they have a problem with the menu, they should just eat salad bar or go out for lunch like everyone else. Yet, apparently people think that because religion plays into this, it makes it somehow special. Well, in my view it doesn’t. I think that they should just live with it, and not make the rest of the school suffer because of them.