Most Popular Videos Featured On KDKA.com
Feb 18, 2009 1:55 pm US/Eastern
Gateway Students Allowed To Wear Cultural Scarves
MONROEVILLE (KDKA/AP) ―
-
-
Mohammad Al-Abbasi says his scarf is cultural, not political.
KDKA
Two students say their constitutional rights were violated when they were told they could not wear traditional Arab scarves to school.
Today, they showed up at the school office to appeal their case and got a reprieve.
It wasn't your typical parent-teacher meeting at Gateway High School.
This one involved Muslims parents and students, school officials and members of the Jewish Community and lots of heavy dialogue.
"It's a situation that sort of escalated and a small thing got out of control and we want to try to bring peace to both sides on this," said Gateway School District Director of Communications Cara Zanella.
Zanella says a few weeks ago some Muslim students were wearing t-shirts that read "R.I.P. Israel" and some Jewish students expressed concerns, writing up a petition and informing the principal.
The Muslim students also were wearing cultural scarves to school and that didn't go over well with some of their Jewish students.
"The scarves the students were wearing for their Muslim faith. The principal contacted them and asked them until we got the situation resolved if they could please remove the scarves," said Zanella.
Now according to Muslim student Mohammad Al-Abbasi, who was at the meeting, the tension between both sides started sooner than the T-shirt situation.
"This kid Scott Scheinberg, he wrote an article basically saying we aligned ourselves with terrorist – which isn't true. I took that to the principals office and got mad and tensions starting escalating and they asked us to remove our scarves," said Al-Abbasi.
Al-Abbasi says he was angered and explained his side and what the scarves actually meant at today's meeting.
"It signifies Arab culture and not necessarily anything political," said Al-Abbasi.
School officials heard all sides of the story at the meeting and will continue allowing Muslims students like Al-Abbasi to wear their scarves.
"We have a lot of diversity in Gateway and we are extremely proud of that. But we want all students to feel safe here no matter what their backgrounds are. We are working very hard to communicate with the parents and the community groups involved so that they understand we are trying to get a resolution," said Zanella.
We tried to reach out to members from the Jewish Community to do an interview but no one was available.
School officials will hold future peer meetings for both sides if any other situations should arise.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Latest 5-Day Forecast
Click to enlarge
Father Arrested In North Versailles Infant's Death 48 mins ago
New Storm May Drop 4-8 Inches Of Snow 1 hr 4 mins ago 
Stumble It!
Comments