Law enforcement officials in New York City have charged the substitute teacher with a hate crime after he allegedly pulled a hijab from the head of second-grade pupil.
The teacher at the center of the case is Oghenetega Edah, reports the New York Daily News, and his 8-year-old student is Safa Alzockary.
Alzockary, as well as her father was interviewed by New York City television station WPIX after the incident.
“He said ‘I’m to take this off,’ if we were misbehaving,” the girl told WPIX. “My sister said ‘you can’t’. I said ‘you can’t because if you did, I will tell the principal’. And he just started laughing and he took it off.”
The incident occurred last month at Public School 76 in the Bronx. Police say Edah told Alzockary to take off her hijab for being disobedient, but the girl refused to take off her head covering.
Edah then allegedly responded by pulling off the hijab.
New York City Department of Education fired Edah on the spot. “This alleged behavior is unacceptable, and he was immediately removed from the school and terminated effective May 3,” school district spokeswoman told the Daily News.
Prior to the allegations of pulling off the hijab, Edah, 31, had no record of misconduct, but now faces two criminal charges: endangering the welfare of a child and aggravated harassment. The second charge, aggravated harassment, is considered a hate crime. Because of the serious charge, a New York City judge issued an order of protection barring him from being near Alzockary at his arraignment.
But an attorney representing Edah asked the judge to prevent cameras in the courtroom for Edah’s arraignment. “This case is highly charged and places my client in great danger,” the attorney, Virginia Lopreto, told the judge, according to the Daily News.
Last year, the Rochester, New York World School of Inquiry hosted a “World Hijab Day” event which “encouraged girls to wear the Muslim religious head covering”. But WSI Principal Sheela Webster “fielded dozens of calls” from infuriated parents.
The school had set up tables in the cafeteria so girls may try on a hijab. Boys were given carnations to show their support. Eighth grader Kmoo Htoo said, “I wanted to show respect to the culture and I think it’s like really cool to wear.”
But as word spread on social media, a backlash of comments and questions about whether it was appropriate to be encouraging students to don a religious symbol in a public school.
The “Hijab Day” was a suggestion by the US Department of Education. On DOE’s official blog, it was promoted as a way to combat “Islamophobia” by “sharing inspiring examples like ‘Walk a Mile in her Hijab,’ whose goal is to spread awareness about Muslim cultural traditions and to combat anti-Muslim bias”.
