Girl Kicked Out Of School For Wearing Muslim Scarf (Kicked out of Catholic School)

Newsnet5, Yahoo news ^

[boxerblues]

Girl Kicked Out Of School For Wearing Muslim Scarf Thu Aug 28, 6:33 PM ET

A local teen was about to enter her senior year at South Euclid's Regina Catholic High School but she got kicked out because of her Muslim headscarf.

NewsChannel5's Joe Pagonakis reported that Amal Jamal, 17, was told that wearing the headpiece to class is in direct violation of the uniform dress code.

The school dress code specifically states that students are not allowed to wear hats, head wraps or bandannas. School officials said they would not make an exception for the teen.

So far, the student and the school have not been able to reach a compromise.

Amal's family has made no official comment on the situation, but has hired an attorney.

Many people think the school should re-examine the situation.

A similar incident occurred recently at Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills, Ohio. There was a big debate over whether a boy could wear a turban to class, but the school ended up allowing him to do so.

Regina officials have not yet release an official response.

Because Regina is a private school, it can lawfully enforce any dress code it wants to, NewsChannel5 reported.

[GovernmentShrinker]

There's a bit of irony here, in that not so long ago most Catholic school teachers were nuns -- who all wore head coverings very similar to what this girl is being kicked out for. But it's a private school, and the rules are the rules, and demanding the right to practice ANY aspect of the Muslim religion at a Catholic school is preposterous. And I can just imagine how well a private Muslim school in the U.S. would tolerate girls attending in the skimpy trampy garb which is so fashionable now.

[Hugin]

A Savage fan I see.

Occasionally Mike nails it.

[TheDon]

"Because Regina is a private school, it can lawfully enforce any dress code it wants to, NewsChannel5 reported."

There should not be any government run schools. There should be a separation of school and state.

[joesnuffy]

Yeah this is a bogus charge
She should have just as much right to wear a Muslim scarf in Catholic School as a Catholic has to wear a cross or carry a Rosary in a Muslim controled country or school....

[John123]

The outcome is guaranteed.

Ah! I wouldn't call this a sure thing these days when you have liberal judges legislating on the bench.

[mabelkitty]

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/106207423574610.xml

"The girl in question, who has a 3.2 GPA and was a member of Students Against Drunk Driving, said she began wearing the hajib everywhere in June, as her faith deepened. Her older sister, Ekram, who graduated from Regina this spring, began wearing the hajib about a week earlier. She now covers her head to attend classes at Cleveland State University."

There you go.

[metesky]

I would have to say when the schools got rid of corporal punishment by nuns or vice-principals in public schools, things went down the crapper real quick.

I started public school in the Boston system in the late '40s, at the time hailed as the best public system in the country.

At recesses and lunch, the vice principal would pull two or three culprits, who he had been keeping an eye on, from the line and thrash their hands with a rattan, which is an 12" to 18" peice of flexible bamboo.

After a few years we moved to the burbs and the kids there had never heard of coporal punishment, except for the extreme where a teacher flipped and grabbed an @hole by the ear.

The burbs were easier to learn in.

[mabelkitty]

I did, however, post about the homeless guy running for Painesville City Council, and how the incumbent is trying to get his residency (a van down by the river) requirements nulled.

LOCAL INTEREST: Did you read that Chuck Galeti is a real party animal and going to do hard time after his drug and booze wreck last night?

[Bikers4Bush]

I was reading about that today. Did you see his pic in the PD? What a nutjob.

[Lady Heron]

These parents wanted their kid to get the most normal education possible.

Then follow the rules and shut up, or go to public school.

[mabelkitty]

No way! Here's my question: Why didn't he have the "orange" license plates for habitual drinkers, and why wasn't he in prison for those previous DUIs (or were they REALLY DWIs).

[boxerblues]

More on this... Regina High bars girl wearing Muslim scarf 08/28/03 Karen R. Long Plain Dealer Reporter

Amal Jamal is not welcome at Regina High School anymore.

The returning senior learned Monday as she stood in line to buy textbooks that she now violates her Catholic school dress code by wearing a Muslim headscarf, or hajib. Surrounded by classmates, Amal put down her books, fought back tears and left.

"I was in shock; I didn't understand," Amal said. "All along, they gave me a room to pray in. why?? Will the school lose this case as they have already set a precident by allowing her a room to pray in They asked me questions about Islam. They always accepted me for who I was. Now they have decided it is against school policy to wear my hajib."

Amal, a soft-spoken 17-year-old, sat in her Euclid living room yesterday, too stunned to consider what she might do next as her 270 schoolmates attended a second day of classes on the South Euclid campus. Amal said she was stung that no administrator, teacher or student had called her or tried to help.

"I feel very bad about this situation. I've agonized over it," said Sister Maureen Burke, Regina's principal for 12 years. "Amal is a wonderful young woman. The family is very fine. . . . But the uniform issue is very important to who we are as a Catholic school."

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations in Washington, DC, said he knew of no other American private school dismissing a Muslim girl in this way. "It's just ridiculous," he said. "You have a religious school denying a student the right to her religious belief."

Yesterday Hooper called Burke in an effort to intervene. Burke explained that a private school had a right to enforce its particular rules. In contrast, no American public school can prohibit a girl from wearing a religious headscarf, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

But uniforms are often at the core of Catholic school culture, and enforcement can be a contentious matter, especially among adolescents. The Regina handbook includes a sentence reading, "No hats, no bandannas or head wraps are permitted."

Burke elaborated: "It's a broad-based policy. It's certainly not just about do-rags or turbans or African headdresses. The purpose of the uniform is to bring everybody together, not to be distracted by self-expression."

Burke said she consulted with faculty advisers Monday night. The teachers agreed, she said, that there should be no tinkering with the dress code to accommodate Amal.

The girl in question, who has a 3.2 GPA and was a member of Students Against Drunk Driving, said she began wearing the hajib everywhere in June, as her faith deepened. Her older sister, Ekram, who graduated from Regina this spring, began wearing the hajib about a week earlier. She now covers her head to attend classes at Cleveland State University.

Amal said there was no going back on her decision. "Now I can't take it off at all in public, in front of men," she said. "I have male teachers, so I must be allowed to wear it full time."

Samira Jamal, Amal's mother, said she considers herself a proud enforcer of school uniform regulations, making sure her daughters' plaid skirts never drifted above the knee. She said she helped Amal select a flattering white hajib to coordinate with the Regina blouse and cardigan. She said the family has al ways been early with tuition payments, which amount to about $6,000 per year.

"We know the Catholics themselves are very accepting of other religions," said Samira Jamal, who immigrated with her parents from a village in Palestine. "We wanted a girls' school and a good college prep program. The lack of discrimination had a lot to do with our decision [to pick Regina]."

Samira Jamal and her husband Ahmad have six children and own a Cleveland wholesale business. "We believe in our daughters' education," Ahmad said. "We wanted them to be proud and get their degree from Regina."

Samira Jamal said she gladly addressed religion classes and participated in Regina's "Erase the Hate" week after the attacks of September 11. She said when asked last year why her daughters wore no scarf, she explained to students that it is up to a Muslim girl to decide when she is ready.

In an interesting parallel, Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills wrestled over whether to allow a Sikh student to wear his turban, a requirement of all male Sikhs. After consulting the Sikh community, the Catholic school decided to bend the dress code and let the seventh-grader report to class this week in his turban.

"I think it went well," said the principal, Brother Robert Lavelle. "I found it to be an education for myself in understanding the Sikh community."

For her part, Amal said she may have picked up a hard lesson. "Be aware of the world," she said. "People don't always practice what they preach."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: klong@plaind.com, 216-999-5012 © 2003 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.

[Bikers4Bush]

You have to see the picture of his mug shot. You won't believe it.

I think that those plates are a cuyahoga county thing and the judge can decide whether or not to force someone to use them. From what I've been told there are no specifci requirements on when or whether they are used.

It's possible that all of his other convictions weren't in cuyahoga county.

[only1percent]

The lawyers may have something here. Religious institutions are free to discriminate, until and unless they decide to become public accomodations open to all. Then they have to permit people religious freedom, within quite broad parameters. I suspect that the girl and her head scarf can win.

Catholic schools have made just that choice -- to become public accomodations to anyone who'll pay tuition and not assault the teachers. They explicitly welcome students of all religious persuasions, or none, to attend. "Catholic values" and a highly-watered down religious instruction program (which merely requires polite attention, and not adherence by any means) are the only sectarian aspect of education.

(This is very different from your typical (protestant) "Christian" school, or Islamic schools for that matter, where adherence to the sponsoring faith and participation in the rituals and observances is taken for granted.)

[Hacksaw]

The ACLU would force "separation of church and state" in any private school that accepts vouchers.

That is the fear I have. I would rather have a tax credit or deduction for parents who private school (as they pay public school taxes yet do not consume the public school resources).

[ClearBlueSky]

There it is-plainly said. The Catholics- and every other religion- are expected to tolerate Islam. Accomodate Islam. Islam tolerates and accomodates NOTHING.

[AndyJackson]

Amal's family has made no official comment on the situation, but has hired an attorney.

In years to come people are going to figure out that this is the lasting legacy of the boomers - to hire attornies and sue anytime someone gets between you and what you want.

[boxerblues]

This statement from the second article blew me away. the school does not stand a chance at this point "I was in shock; I didn't understand," Amal said. "All along, they gave me a room to pray in.

She is worried about her male teachers now seeing her without the scarf, what has changed since last school year when they saw her

[MEGoody]

It's a Catholic high school for crying out loud, not a public school. If she wants to wear her head wrap, she can go to school elsewhere.

[mabelkitty]

And tax you to death so they get everything they want.