Thousands of Philadelphia students observe Ramadan. Here’s how their schools are making space for them.

Prayers were beginning at 1:11 p.m., so the students had to hurry.

As students arrived in the lobby of Paul Robeson High School just after 1 p.m., teacher Elana Evans checked names off a list on her clipboard. Then she and a city police officer supervised as the 24 teenagers walked up 42nd Street, across Walnut Street, and into Masjid Al-Jamia.

It’s a well-practiced routine: Every school day during the monthlong Muslim holiday of Ramadan, a group of Robeson students — with their parents’ permission and adult escorts — leave class to walk to a nearby West Philadelphia mosque for midday prayers.

About 1% of the city’s 1.5 million residents are Muslim; the number of Philadelphia School District students who observe Ramadan is not clear. But in many schools, it’s a sizable group.

To mark the holy month, observant Muslims pray five times a day and fast from sunup to sundown.

Accommodations vary from school to school.

Coming to Robeson, where students have been allowed to leave school briefly to walk to the masjid for four years, was a revelation to Khaseem Durham, an 11th grader who had never attended a school where administrators actively supported his ability to practice his faith.

“At my middle school, they didn’t let us pray — we had to fight to get a room to pray,” Durham said.

“I like that they respect it at this school,” Lailaa Jordan, a 10th grader, said of the Robeson staff’s approach to the observance of Ramadan.

Concentrating on classes can be tough when you’re fasting, Jordan said, and having a supportive climate is very helpful. At another school, a classmate once taunted her in the cafeteria, rubbing it in Jordan’s face that she couldn’t eat.

“During Ramadan, we’re supposed to be calm,” she said. “Not everybody understands it.”

But there are pluses, especially at a school that makes accommodations for practices important to her, Jordan said — coming to school helps fill the long hours without food. And she and classmate Dior Tolliver said they feel ready to buckle down to their schoolwork when they return to Robeson after the midday service, which typically lasts about 30 minutes.

Not every Muslim student at Robeson has received parental permission to walk to the masjid. Those who stay behind pray in the school auditorium, with a Muslim staff member leading prayers.

Evans is not Muslim herself, but felt strongly that it was important to create space for her students who were. After walking students to the masjid, she waits outside for them, and even fasts herself in solidarity.

“A lot of times there’s so much negative news and hostility towards Muslims,” she said. “For me, I say, ‘No, we are all one.’”

At Boys Latin of Philadelphia, a charter school in West Philadelphia, principal Robert Parker relaxes the school’s normally strict dress code during Ramadan. Students are able to wear head coverings or other garb along with their blazers and uniforms. There are fasting rooms and places to pray.

“Our job as educators is to focus on developing the whole student,” Parker said. “When we think about the whole student, it’s about their mental, physical, and spiritual selves, too. Anything that we can do to help support this during this holy month of Ramadan, we want to support our students.”

At Benjamin Franklin High School, spaces for wudu, or cleansing before prayer, have been designated, and students have dedicated rooms to pray: boys in the auditorium, girls in the sixth-floor multipurpose room. Muslim parents had asked for separate spaces, assistant principal Jennifer Hale said.

Ramadan-observing students had space to pray before Hale arrived at Ben Franklin two years ago, but she has created new systems for the practice and designated students to lead the prayers if adult community members are not available.

Like Evans, Hale believes that dedicating space and time to supporting her students is a worthwhile endeavor. She is not Muslim either, but sits at the back of the girls’ prayer room daily.

“Anything that’s positive to me is something that’s well worth investing in. There’s so many negative things that happen during a school day. If they’re not walking the halls, fighting, on Instagram, let’s go for it. You get a lot more buy-in for students when you show up for them,” Hale said.

Some parents have questioned why a public school is supporting students’ religious practice. (The school also makes to-go meals available for those observing Ramadan to eat for their iftar, or fast-breaking meal, after sundown; all Philadelphia public school students are entitled to free breakfast and lunch.)

“We do recognize all faiths,” Hale said. “If there’s a student who wanted to do something in our space, we would absolutely make room for it.”

Students are expected to make up any work they missed, Hale said.

Rukaaya Sha’arawi, the Ben Franklin 11th grader who leads girls’ prayer, relishes the community she has found at school. (Sometimes, students from Science Leadership Academy, which shares a building with Ben Franklin, also join the midday prayers.)

“It feels great being next to our Muslim brothers and sisters,” Sha’arawi said.

Taqira Thornton-Trice, another Ben Franklin junior, agreed.

“I just converted in April of last year, and seeing my sisters help me with Arabic or with the Quran, it’s nice to know that I have people to do that at school,” Thornton-Trice said.

Sha’arawi said being around dozens of peers eating lunch doesn’t bother her, but during lunch, she prefers to go into an empty classroom. Now, some of her Muslim friends join her.

“I’ll maybe read the Quran with other people,” Sha’arawi said. “We all get blessings and benefit together.”

Ramadan ends this year on March 29.