My job won’t let me out of an event for shabbat.

I’m a middle school teacher at a 6-12 school. The high school graduation is in a couple weeks and ALL teachers, not just high school, are expected to be there.

I was fine with this until I realized it was going to overlap with the start of shabbat. I talked to my principal this week and told her I would need to leave quietly around 1.5 hours into the event. I would really only miss the last 30 minutes. She told me that I would be required to stay the entire event and could potentially be reprimanded for leaving early or not coming.

This isn’t the first issue I’ve had with antisemitism at my school. It took my admin team 3 weeks to handle a student saying something wildly antisemitic in my classroom. I sent an email to my principal asking her to confirm our conversation and that I would be required to stay for the whole graduation despite asking for a religious exemption. She has not responded.

I just feel lost. What do I do? I work in the south and there isn’t a large jewish community near me. I’m also not the only jewish teacher in my school, so I’m constantly being asked why I need off for things the other jewish teacher doesn’t observe.