Students out of school Monday for Presidents Day

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Original Illustration by Claire Meyer

Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president, was 6 feet 4 inches tall.

In honor of Presidents Day, students will not have school Monday, Feb. 17, while teachers will have a staff development day. Students and teachers will return on collaboration bell schedule Tuesday, Feb. 18. The holiday gives Americans a chance to celebrate all presidents of the United States.

According to history.com, the holiday was originally established in recognition of President George Washington. Senator Steven Wallace Dorsey was the first to propose the idea, and President Rutherford B. Hayes signed it into law in 1879. Later, the holiday would become part of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an act which moved several holidays to a Monday in order to provide time off from work. 

At first, the holiday only applied to the District of Columbia, but expanded to the rest of the country in 1885. President’s Day was the first holiday to honor the life of an individual American, but is now popularly seen as a day to honor all presidents, past and present.