Muslim girl suspended for head scarf

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Muslim girl suspended for head scarf
Saturday, October 11, 2003 Posted: 5:17 AM EDT (0917 GMT)

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OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) – An 11-year-old Oklahoma girl has been suspended from a public school because officials said her Muslim head scarf violates dress code policies.

Board officials met Friday to discuss the fate of suspended sixth-grader Nashala “Tallah” Hern, who was asked to leave school in the eastern Oklahoma town of Muskogee on October 1 because she refused to remove her head scarf, called a “hijab.”

School officials instituted a dress code in 1997 prohibiting the wearing of hats and other head coverings indoors. Officials said they implemented the code to stem gang-related activity. Hern declined to remove her hijab, saying it would violate the way she observes her religion.
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Officials at the school, the Ben Franklin Science Academy, previously summoned Hern to the office on September 11 to inform her she was no longer allowed to wear the scarf. She had worn it since the school year started a few weeks earlier.
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A school attorney said federal education rules adopted in 1998 do not allow for exceptions for religious beliefs.

“As I see it right now, I don’t think we can make a special accommodation for religious wear,” said school attorney D.D. Hayes. “You treat religious items the same as you would as any other item, no better, no worse. Our dress code prohibits headgear, period.”

He added that, under the dress code, a Jewish child would not be allowed to wear a yarmulke, the skullcap traditionally worn by orthodox Jews, to school.

Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Washington D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the Muslim girl is being singled out because of her religious beliefs.

The girl’s father met with school officials Friday in a closed-door hearing to appeal the decision. The school board is expected to have a decision next Wednesday on whether the girl can return to school wearing her head scarf, officials said.

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i have no problem with school’s policy, if its fair towards everyone attending that school but why it took school officials this long to suspend her and why on sep 11 and why not any other day? where they blind not to see her coming in scarf since the day she joined the school?

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Personally I think this is bad. This particular school district is going the way of French, which is to come across as an anti-tolerant board.

In California, there have been several occassions where I have to contact the school district for various religious reasons. At each occassion, the School Suprintendant has gone out of his/her way to accomodate religious occassions, be it picking up our daughter early on Fridays, be it taking a test a day early so my daughter can take the day off for Eid or for wearing an appropriate dress etc. It also has to do with how you approach the subject. I have always been impressed how the School Suprintendant will actually call back and reassure me again and again that they will always make an exception to ensure that the child is able to follow all religious obligations.

I don't know if the Oklahoma school district is making it into such a big issue, because the parents tried to adopt a holier than thou "our way or the highway" approach and tried to browbeat the school administration instead of poilitely explaining their position and getting a special permission.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Faisal: *
Personally I think this is bad. This particular school district is going the way of French, which is to come across as an anti-tolerant board.

In California, there have been several occassions where I have to contact the school district for various religious reasons. At each occassion, the School Suprintendant has gone out of his/her way to accomodate religious occassions, be it picking up our daughter early on Fridays, be it taking a test a day early so my daughter can take the day off for Eid or for wearing an appropriate dress etc. It also has to do with how you approach the subject. I have always been impressed how the School Suprintendant will actually call back and reassure me again and again that they will always make an exception to ensure that the child is able to follow all religious obligations.

I don't know if the Oklahoma school district is making it into such a big issue, because the parents tried to adopt a holier than thou "our way or the highway" approach and tried to browbeat the school administration instead of poilitely explaining their position and getting a special permission.
[/QUOTE]

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"As I see it right now, I don't think we can make a special accommodation for religious wear," said school attorney D.D. Hayes. "You treat religious items the same as you would as any other item, no better, no worse. Our dress code prohibits headgear, period."
**

with this kind of attitude, do you think parents can get a special permission?

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At this point, the school attorney has pushed himself into a corner, so resolution is no longer as easy. Now, its more a matter of "policy policy policy". Dunno if the school guys were unreasonable from the start or are just pissed off at the girl's parents for some reason, and decided to enforce the rules, with no exception for religious sensitivities. Seems heavy-handed, and unlike most American school boards I have seen. I am not sure if we are privy to all the details of the case, or why it got to be so messed up, where a polite phone call to the Principal or the School Superintendant may have averted this whole thing on day one.

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^

Officials at the school, the Ben Franklin Science Academy, previously summoned Hern to the office on September 11 to inform her she was no longer allowed to wear the scarf. She had worn it since the school year started a few weeks earlier.

so apparently before sep 11 she was allowed to wear head-scarf but after sep 11 somehow they changed their stance on this issue. why and how? i don't know but sep 11 does make you think.

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It is not clear which September 11, they are talking about. If it is Sep 11, 2001, then why is this story coming out today. If it is Sep 11, 2003, then its 2 years after the WTC attack... why suddenly start enforcing a rule now, which was not enforced for the past 6 years.

I still think, there are some parts of the story which are not known. Either it is a case of an unreasonable school attorney or it is a case of arrogant parents who are trying to get some publicity via CAIR on this case. At this point, I don't know why wouold this thing become so messy.

ps. All the personal instances I recounted were in 2001, 2002 and 2003, after Sep 11 attacks.

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Well, this is after all Oklahoma, not California. This is to be expected from okie skokie red neck country. Any way, jokes aside, this is pretty serious. What caught my attention was the principal was trying to use a rule imposed to curb gangster activity in this case. Equating a Muslim hijab to gangsters. Well, like I said, it is Oklahoma.

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^
every muslim by default is a terrorist until he / she can prove otherwise. :)

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I'd prefer to think this is a case of some knuckleheads in a particularly idiotic part of town, than some thing wide-spread all over the United States. Only recently I was talking with a friend of mine who is in New York, and he told me a similar story about his daughter and that the school district went out of its way to be helpful to the muslim students around the time of Eid last year. Wallah O Aalim.

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Land of the Free huh ok wateva!

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**"A school attorney said federal education rules adopted in 1998 do not allow for exceptions for religious beliefs.

“As I see it right now, I don’t think we can make a special accommodation for religous wear,” said school attorney D.D. Hayes. “You treat religous items the same as you would as any other item, no better, no worse. Our dress code prohibits headgear, period.”

He added that, under the dress code, a Jewish child would not be allowed to wear a yarmulke, the skullcap traditionally worn by orthodox Jews, to school." **

The vicitimization mode and the accompanying pity party are wearing a little thin. :crying:

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Like i said before land of the free i dont think so :slight_smile:

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^^ you won't get a good rational reply to that because there is no justifying something as silly as this.

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[QUOTE]
Originally posted by Seminole: *
*"A school attorney said federal education rules adopted in 1998 do not allow for exceptions for religious beliefs.

"As I see it right now, I don't think we can make a special accommodation for religous wear," said school attorney D.D. Hayes. "You treat religous items the same as you would as any other item, no better, no worse. Our dress code prohibits headgear, period."

He added that, under the dress code, a Jewish child would not be allowed to wear a yarmulke, the skullcap traditionally worn by orthodox Jews, to school." **

[/QUOTE]

If this is the case, then I dont see muslims being targeted unfairly. The rule applies uniformly across religious lines.

So the main issue isn’t about hajab but if any kind of religious clothing should be allowed or not.

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The question is simple. If it became "law" in 1998. Why is it only being applied 5 years later?

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^^ can we cite previous instances where it could have been applied and wasn't deliberately?

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PA i am not here to defend the law nor counter it. Its a simple question, if it was applied in 1998, i doubt this is the first bloody case in 5 years.

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i dont know..headgear isn't allowed which includes hats, scarves, whatever. Why would they make an exception for her? Freedom of religion, yeh sure, but NO ONE is allowed to wear headgear

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If she's allowed to wear her hijab then students who believe in witchcraft can wear witchhats if it's part of their belief?

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hehhe. Witchhats? ur post should be deleted