MAPLEWOOD, N.J. (PIX11) — Zaynab Wyatt says her daughter Sumayyah is now traumatized after her second-grade teacher allegedly snatched her hijab off the girl’s head in the middle of class.
It happened at Seth Boyden Elementary School in Maplewood, New Jersey on Wednesday.
The 7-year-old hasn’t returned to the school since the alleged incident occurred. Now Wyatt wants the teacher — identified as Tamar Herman, who has been with the district for nearly 25 years — fired.
“She walked up to her and said, ‘You can’t wear this in here,’ and Sumayyah was like ‘No, that’s my hijab, that’s my hijab,’” Wyatt recounted to NewsNation affiliate WPIX, describing the incident now under investigation by the school district.
“I think that she should be reprimanded, I think that she should be fired, and I think that she should feel disgusted because it was disgusting what she did,” she said.
This week, the incident went viral after Olympic medal-winning fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad posted about it on social media, causing an uproar.
The Council of American Islamic relations said it violates not only religious liberty but human decency.
“Muslim women wear the headscarf out of modesty,” explained Salaedin Maksut of CAIR-NJ. “So to remove that is not only disrespectful but could also be humiliating for the one who wears the headscarf.”
While Wyatt maintains that the South Orange Maplewood school district has yet to reach out to her about the situation, a district spokesperson issued a statement to WPIX saying in part:
“Social Media is not a reliable forum for due process and the staff member(s) involved are entitled to due process before any action is taken. We must abide by our legal obligations to keep personnel and student matters confidential.”
An attorney for the teacher also released a statement saying the claims made are 100% not accurate. But according to an attorney for the Wyatt family, the school district has been plagued with a series of similar incidents of discrimination in recent years that have not been addressed.
“Even in a community like Maplewood, which has a Mayberry type of story behind it, there are some things that are very strange lurking behind the scenes,” Robert Tarver, Jr., the Wyatt family attorney, said.
The Wyatt family, along with their attorney, will be holding a press conference early next week to talk about the incident as well as other cases of discrimination that has taken place in the district.
WPIX reported that the Maplewood Police Department has opened an investigation into the incident.
