Eden Prairie district faces backlash over graduation date conflict with Eid al-Adha

Editor’s note: Babar Khan and Juliana Allen co-authored this report.

Students, families and local faith leaders have appealed to Eden Prairie Schools to reschedule the 2025 graduation ceremony because it conflicts with Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday.

The district informed seniors and their families on Jan. 22 that it had finalized a contract with U.S. Bank Stadium to hold the ceremony at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 7, which is during the time Eid al-Adha will be observed this year.

That forces Muslim students to choose between attending graduation and celebrating their faith, said Fadumo Hassan, an Eden Prairie parent and former district employee. She said Eid al-Adha is “one of the most important and well-celebrated religious events. It is a day of charity and family reunion, no different than events like Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter, which are not limited to just one family dinner meeting.”

In the few days since the date was announced, community members have met with school leaders, sent messages and given public comment to the Eden Prairie School Board. A Change.org petition to change the date of graduation was also launched on Jan. 28.

On Jan. 24, a large group of parents – estimated at 25 people by district leaders but counted as more than 35 by an Eden Prairie Local News reporter who was present – raised their concerns with Jaysen Anderson, Eden Prairie High School principal, and Robb Virgin, assistant superintendent of secondary education. Hassan said she appreciated school leaders’ willingness to meet. At the district’s request, this was not considered a public meeting, despite the high number of attendees.

Several parents present at that meeting expressed anxiety and disappointment about the decision to hold graduation on Eid al-Adha, criticizing it as insensitive, discriminatory and in violation of the district’s mission statement, “Inspiring each student every day.”

Amina Adeyemi, a community member, said the graduation ceremony should not have been scheduled on Eid al-Adha as it is a “one-time deal.” She and other parents suggested finding a new date.

Parents also emphasized that, in the meantime, they wanted the district to inform families immediately that the current date was not confirmed, but rather tentative, so that families do not make travel plans based on June 7.

Francesca Pagan-Umar, a former school board member, said her daughter’s graduation is a big emotional celebration for her whole family. However, now that it is on Eid al-Adha, out-of-town family members may not be able to attend.

Pagan-Umar noted that her family moved to Eden Prairie because of its values of inclusiveness, but said this decision doesn’t feel inclusive. She also cautioned that scheduling such a school event on a major religious holiday for a significant portion of the student body could violate the Minnesota Human Rights Act.

Virgin told parents in the meeting that the district had tried to be accommodating, but several factors limited their choice of date, including community preferences expressed in a survey last fall, the school calendar, and the fact that staff contracts end on June 11. He said the district also consulted two school cultural liaisons and four local faith leaders about holding graduation on June 7 and was told it would be fine.

However, attendees said that the perception given forth by the district that the imams helped choose this date was “disinformation” that resulted in a temporary split in the Muslim community, until it was clarified by the imams. They said they believed the school first decided the date, then consulted the imams “to manage their mismanagement.”

One of the faith leaders consulted by the district, Sheikh Abdirahman from Masjid-e-Irshad, clarified that he had not suggested June 7 as a good date and that reports implying otherwise were taken out of context. He added that he agreed with the Muslim community on the significance of the holiday to families.

John Beithon and Yarob Yaghi, parents of an EPHS student, also expressed concern about the lack of direct input from the main stakeholders, namely the students and the families, about this date. Beithon also said the graduation survey results from last fall seemed compromised and not representative of the community.

It was suggested that in the future a survey like this should be done by a professional survey company rather than by the district. Parents also said that the dates of Eid al-Adha should have been blocked from the start before sending out the survey.

Protests shared at board meeting

More protests were heard at the Eden Prairie School Board business meeting on Monday, Jan. 27. The meeting was standing room only as 10 people addressed the board and Superintendent Josh Swanson. Among those present were Minnesota State Reps. Alex Falconer (DFL-49A, Eden Prairie) and Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn (DFL-49B, Eden Prairie), EPHS Principal Jaysen Anderson, district administrators, and many other community members.

The choice of a graduation date was made by the superintendent’s cabinet, which includes Swanson, Virgin, and other key leaders.

Speakers urged the board and Swanson to change the ceremony date, arguing that it was exclusionary and discriminatory. Many argued that the district should have ruled out the date immediately after consulting its faith calendar and discovering the conflict with Eid al-Adha.

Pagan-Umar said that “a very significant population” of the district’s students are Muslim. (She later cited an estimate from the Muslim American Society of Minnesota that about 20% of EPHS students are Muslim. The Class of 2025 includes about 850 students across EPHS and EP Online.)

She also argued that because Muslim students come from many ethnic groups, the four faith leaders consulted by the district did not represent a broad enough cross-section of the community’s ethnicities and religious practices. “It is unconscionable that you’d make a decision that would impact so many students and families by interviewing four people,” she said.

Onaiza Ansar, the parent of a graduating senior, said her family was originally drawn to the Eden Prairie School District years ago because of its diversity. However, she said this felt to her like an attempt to “reduce the number of Muslims, predominantly the big Somali population, because they have to choose between their religion and the most important day of their academic life.”

Ansar said that while the district claimed it consulted the full community by sending a survey to parents last fall about graduation preferences such as date, time, and location, the survey was offered only in English and Spanish, not Somali, which is typically included in district communications.

She asked the district to reconsider the date for the sake of all students. “Muslim and non-Muslim students are very open-minded,” she said. “They want to walk with their friends (at graduation). Even the non-Muslim students are very upset about it because their friends will be missing.”

The Rev. Trish Sullivan Vanni, pastoral director of Eden Prairie’s Charis Ecumenical Catholic Community and an interfaith circle board member, sent a prepared statement to be read on her behalf. She expressed her “great disappointment in how tone-deaf and disrespectful the Eden Prairie school planners are to the needs of non-Christian communities.”

Vanni said holding graduation on Eid al-Adha would have a “heartbreaking impact” on the school’s Muslim seniors and their families, placing them in the “untenable position of having to choose between an important secular ritual honoring our youth and their faith tradition. This is completely unacceptable to me as a pastoral leader in the city.”

Najma Hajj Momin, the parent of a graduating senior, told the board, “This is not a fight. It should be the right thing to do, to be inclusive for both religions and everybody and every child that is attending Eden Prairie High School.”

After leaving the board meeting, Zahara Umar, a senior at EPHS, said, “A lot of students, Muslim or not, are very upset about this, and they’re sharing that they don’t think this is right.” She noted that the current seniors were freshmen when the district changed the first day of school because of Rosh Hashanah, and many want to know why the district won’t make similar accommodations now for a Muslim holiday.

Pagan-Umar added, “How do you not include everybody? Some of these kids are National Merit winners, some of these kids are athletes, and they have so many different colored cords they’re going to wear. Some of these kids barely made it by the skin of their teeth, and what a triumph it is.”

Legislator, faith leader urge district to reconsider date

“While I believe the district took some steps to better understand the situation, I also believe that we can, and must, do better,” Kotyza-Witthuhn said Tuesday. “A growing segment of our student population and our community should not have to jump through hoops simply for their religious holidays to be recognized and respected. 

“I hope the district will reconsider the decision and change the date so that none of our graduating seniors are made to choose between celebrating their educational achievement and their deeply held religious beliefs.”

Imam Asad Zaman, executive director of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, expressed deep concerns in a letter to EPHS Principal Anderson on Jan. 27. Zaman said the decision presents an unavoidable conflict for many Muslim students and their families and creates “an atmosphere of exclusion.”

He added, “Given the deep emotional and spiritual importance of Eid al-Adha, it is profoundly disheartening that students may miss this sacred occasion because of a scheduling conflict they had no control over.”

Zaman said the situation may violate Minnesota’s anti-discrimination laws. “According to state law, public schools are required to accommodate students’ religious practices, and this scheduling decision could be seen as unequal treatment, especially given the significant number of Muslim families in the district.”

He urged Anderson to reconsider holding graduation on June 7 “to avoid further disadvantaging Muslim students and to foster an environment of inclusion and respect for all religious beliefs.”

School district: ‘We intentionally collaborated‘

As Monday’s board meeting neared its end about 10 p.m., Swanson addressed the issue, though most attendees had departed hours earlier. He said the district was trying to do the right thing and would explore its options.

“I will tell you that from the get-go, there’s been intention of care and doing this right,” he said. “And I know it doesn’t feel like that right now to some people, and we’re working through that. But I can tell you that there was great intentionality of trying to work with our cultural bridges and hear and understand to get it right.”

He added, “There’s a lot of difficulties and challenges when you’re trying to find a venue and a place to host almost 8,000 people and try to meet all the competing needs of everyone. So we’re going to continue to work through that here as we go to figure out what the best options are.”

Said Dirk Tedmon, executive director of marketing and communications, “We empathize with the concerns raised by members of our Muslim community. With that in mind, we intentionally collaborated with our cultural liaisons and local imams to help determine the graduation date and time.”

Gathering feedback from the community about priorities and preferences for graduation has been an ongoing effort, he said. “And we’ll continue working with students and families to identify what additional accommodations will contribute to a meaningful and inclusive celebration,” Tedmon added.

In terms of being able to change the ceremony date and time, Tedmon confirmed the district has a signed contract with U.S. Bank Stadium. He said this was done to guarantee a date and venue as early as possible, which had been noted as a priority in community feedback. The district would risk losing its deposit of $18,500 if the current date is canceled.

He said while there is potential to explore shifting the time, which might allow the district to retain its deposit, there might not be alternate dates available at that venue. This, he said, could put the district in a challenging situation since “there are limited venues in the Twin Cities that have the capacity to meet all of our needs.”