Islamophobia is alive and well in Virginia, apparently:
A Virginia school district closed its schools on Friday amid an angry backlash from parents over an assignment that asked high school students to copy Arabic calligraphy as part of a lesson on world religions.
Students in a geography class at Riverheads High School in Staunton, Va., had been asked to try their hands at copying a passage known as the shehada, or declaration of faith in Islam, which translates to, “There is no God but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.”
The work sheet distributed to students said the assignment was meant to show them the “artistic complexity of calligraphy,” according to images of the page broadcast on local TV stations. But some parents accused the teacher of trying to convert their children to Islam, inciting an angry outcry in the largely rural district nestled in the Shenandoah Valley.
The complaints were further fueled by reports in some local media outlets that female students had been asked to try on a hijab, or Islamic head scarf, and pose for pictures as part of the classroom lesson.
The Augusta County School District did not directly address the content of the lesson in a statement posted online on Thursday night, but said it would close all of its schools on Friday and cancel extracurricular activities through the weekend after “receiving voluminous phone calls and electronic mail locally and from outside the area” over the assignment.
Speaking to CBS, Randall Fisher, the Augusta County Sheriff, described the messages sent to the school district in response to the assignment as “profane” and “hateful.”
The district said that the number of phone calls and emails “significantly increased in volume” on Thursday as media coverage of the controversy increased. After consulting with Sheriff Fisher, the school board decided to cancel class across the entire district “based on concerns regarding the tone and content of those communications,” it said.
The outcry in Augusta County comes against the backdrop of a steady drumbeat of anti-Muslim rhetoric by politicians and a nationwide wave of hate crimes targeting Muslims, including physical assaults and acts of vandalism and arson at mosques and Muslim-owned businesses, in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif.
The school district said on Thursday that the deluge of messages it received contained “no specific threat of harm to students, schools and school offices.” It said it decided to cancel class and extracurricular activities out of an abundance of caution.
As part of those precautionary measures, the sheriff’s office said on Thursday that it would increase the number of patrols near school facilities in response to the messages.
Eric Bond, the superintendent of Augusta County School District, Max W. Lowe, the principal of Riverheads High School, and Cheryl LaPorte, identified in local media as the teacher who assigned the calligraphy exercise, did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
Despite the outcry, the district said it would continue to educate students about the world’s religious diversity as required by state education guidelines but that “a different, nonreligious sample of Arabic calligraphy will be used in the future.”
“As we have emphasized, no lesson was designed to promote a religious viewpoint or change any student’s religious belief,” it said.
Some parents do not believe that to be true, however. Kimberly Herndon, a parent who has been an outspoken critic of the geography assignment, claimed on Facebook that the students “were instructed to denounce our Lord by copying this creed of Islam.”
“This evil has been cloaked in the form of multiculturalism,” she wrote, adding in a separate post that the students had been asked to write words that were “an abomination to their faith.”
“This creed is connected to jihad in that it is the chant that is shouted while beheading those of Christian faith,” Ms. Herndon wrote.
Laurel Truxell, a student in the class, told an NBC affiliate in Charlottesville, Va., that in addition to the calligraphy exercise students were also asked to try on a hijab, or Islamic head scarf, and pose for pictures.
She refused to put on the hijab at first but “the teacher pushed and pushed and pushed so I did it,” she said. Her parents called the school to object after Laurel was told a picture of her wearing the head scarf would be submitted to the yearbook, she said.
“I just felt uncomfortable learning about it in a world geography class,” she told the television network. “You shouldn’t teach religion in school unless you’re in a religious class.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/19/u...istrict.html&eventName=Watching-article-click
A Virginia school district closed its schools on Friday amid an angry backlash from parents over an assignment that asked high school students to copy Arabic calligraphy as part of a lesson on world religions.
Students in a geography class at Riverheads High School in Staunton, Va., had been asked to try their hands at copying a passage known as the shehada, or declaration of faith in Islam, which translates to, “There is no God but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.”
The work sheet distributed to students said the assignment was meant to show them the “artistic complexity of calligraphy,” according to images of the page broadcast on local TV stations. But some parents accused the teacher of trying to convert their children to Islam, inciting an angry outcry in the largely rural district nestled in the Shenandoah Valley.
The complaints were further fueled by reports in some local media outlets that female students had been asked to try on a hijab, or Islamic head scarf, and pose for pictures as part of the classroom lesson.
The Augusta County School District did not directly address the content of the lesson in a statement posted online on Thursday night, but said it would close all of its schools on Friday and cancel extracurricular activities through the weekend after “receiving voluminous phone calls and electronic mail locally and from outside the area” over the assignment.
Speaking to CBS, Randall Fisher, the Augusta County Sheriff, described the messages sent to the school district in response to the assignment as “profane” and “hateful.”
The district said that the number of phone calls and emails “significantly increased in volume” on Thursday as media coverage of the controversy increased. After consulting with Sheriff Fisher, the school board decided to cancel class across the entire district “based on concerns regarding the tone and content of those communications,” it said.
The outcry in Augusta County comes against the backdrop of a steady drumbeat of anti-Muslim rhetoric by politicians and a nationwide wave of hate crimes targeting Muslims, including physical assaults and acts of vandalism and arson at mosques and Muslim-owned businesses, in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif.
The school district said on Thursday that the deluge of messages it received contained “no specific threat of harm to students, schools and school offices.” It said it decided to cancel class and extracurricular activities out of an abundance of caution.
As part of those precautionary measures, the sheriff’s office said on Thursday that it would increase the number of patrols near school facilities in response to the messages.
Eric Bond, the superintendent of Augusta County School District, Max W. Lowe, the principal of Riverheads High School, and Cheryl LaPorte, identified in local media as the teacher who assigned the calligraphy exercise, did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
Despite the outcry, the district said it would continue to educate students about the world’s religious diversity as required by state education guidelines but that “a different, nonreligious sample of Arabic calligraphy will be used in the future.”
“As we have emphasized, no lesson was designed to promote a religious viewpoint or change any student’s religious belief,” it said.
Some parents do not believe that to be true, however. Kimberly Herndon, a parent who has been an outspoken critic of the geography assignment, claimed on Facebook that the students “were instructed to denounce our Lord by copying this creed of Islam.”
“This evil has been cloaked in the form of multiculturalism,” she wrote, adding in a separate post that the students had been asked to write words that were “an abomination to their faith.”
“This creed is connected to jihad in that it is the chant that is shouted while beheading those of Christian faith,” Ms. Herndon wrote.
Laurel Truxell, a student in the class, told an NBC affiliate in Charlottesville, Va., that in addition to the calligraphy exercise students were also asked to try on a hijab, or Islamic head scarf, and pose for pictures.
She refused to put on the hijab at first but “the teacher pushed and pushed and pushed so I did it,” she said. Her parents called the school to object after Laurel was told a picture of her wearing the head scarf would be submitted to the yearbook, she said.
“I just felt uncomfortable learning about it in a world geography class,” she told the television network. “You shouldn’t teach religion in school unless you’re in a religious class.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/19/u...istrict.html&eventName=Watching-article-click
