Suit By Jewish Nursing Student Seeking Excused Absences On Holidays Is Settled

On Wednesday, just before that start of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, Dallas County (TX) Community College District announced a settlement in a case that had been filed the day before by an Orthodox Jewish student in the school's nursing program who sought accommodation of his religious beliefs.  As reported by the Dallas Observer, the school threatened to drop student Hillel Rodin from the program because he would be missing a mandatory orientation on Thursday (Rosh Hashanah) as well as four additional days of clinical observation scheduled for other Jewish holidays.  In settling the case, the parties agreed that Rodin would make up his clinical requirements on appropriate dates in January 2014.  Originally the school insisted that Rodin seek a dispensation from his rabbi allowing him to attend class on the holidays and make clinical rounds on those days, merely postponing writing his observations and diagnoses until after the holiday ended.