Borelli, Malliotakis & Matteo Blast de Blasio & the DOE for Arbitrarily Changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day in the School Calendar

(STATEN ISLAND, NY) - New York City Council Members Joe Borelli (R), Steve Matteo (R) and Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11) are demanding the NYC Department of Education restore the name "Columbus Day" to the holiday which will be observed by the New York City Department of Education (DOE) on October 11, 2021. The name and date were changed without any public announcement or fanfare for the 2021-2022 school calendar for parents on the DOE website.

Columbus Day has been celebrated in the United States since 1972, marking the 300th anniversary of Columbus' sailing. The holiday, which venerates celebrated Genovese explorer Christopher Columbus, has been observed by Italian-Americans since 1892 when President Benjamin Harrison declared the day a holiday following the lynching of 11 Italian immigrants in the City of New Orleans. Nearly 1 million Italian Americans reside in New York City and 5th Avenue is home to the largest Columbus Day parade in the country. Borelli, Malliotakis and Matteo believe Indigenous Peoples' Day can be celebrated without a change to Columbus Day.

"We were under the impression that the DOE's culture of insulting parents went out the door with Chancellor Carranza," said Councilman Borelli. "Moreover, it came as a shock to parents who watched in horror how the DOE failed to fulfill their basic mandate to educate their children this year, that the current administration spent their incredibly limited time strategizing how to change the names of holidays. Surely the bean counter tasked with "Indigenous Peoples' Day" file would have been better used finding the laptop purchases the agency failed to materialize or repairing a squeaky chair. There is nothing wrong with celebrating Indigenous Peoples' Day, but doing so at the expense of a day that celebrates Italian American culture and history is downright insulting. Doing it under the radar only adds to the cowardice now regularly on display by the woke left. I hope to see all of our mayoral wannabees weighing in on this issue and explain to our neighbors why they shouldn't be insulted by this rhetoric."

"It is unconscionable that we are learning about the decision to no longer observe Columbus Day in our schools from staff and parents instead of the Mayor himself who made this decision without any input from the public," said Congresswoman Malliotakis. "This is just another blatant attempt by City Hall to rewrite history while dishonoring so many of our citizens who are proud Italian Americans and cancel Christopher Columbus, who embodies the immigrant experience and discovery. I stand with my colleagues in calling for the reversal of this divisive decision. The Mayor should be more concerned about fully reopening our schools and the soaring crime rate than renaming holidays."

"Columbus Day has long been a celebration of Italian-American history and culture," said Councilman Matteo. "It is frankly insulting that the DOE has unilaterally decided that Italian-Americans are no longer worthy of recognition. As a city, let's have a conversation about the best way to honor and recognize Indigenous People, but doing it this way the DOE is only creating more division amongst New Yorkers."