Nadine Osman
Muslim leaders in Chicago have called on law enforcement authorities to investigate an alleged attack on a Muslim student at Glenside Middle School in Illinois on January 25.
The alleged attack, which was videoed from various camera angles and shared on social media, appears to depict a male student grabbing a female student, who wears a hijab, by her head and violently holding her in a headlock and swaying her, before shoving her to the ground.
The incident reportedly occurred in full view of a crowd of students, several of whom had their phone cameras out to record the incident. The shots cut out as the girl sat on the floor of the hallway in shock and fear.
CAIR-Chicago is also calling on the school and the district to effectively address the larger culture of bullying, which admittedly is not limited to this school and district but is a general and intractable phenomenon.
“Bullying involves more than the perpetrator. Bystanders who watch and accept, or even reward this behaviour, makes it possible for the bully to carry out their attack. In this case, we see bystander students reinforcing the terrible ambush, filming it, and even gloating about it on social media. This larger culture must be addressed,” CAIR-Chicago’s Operations Manager and former CPS school teacher, Maggie Slavin said.
She added: “While CAIR-Chicago wishes to thank the principal, superintendent, and the Glendale Heights police department for their assurance in handling this incident with the urgency it deserves, we call on them to ensure that the investigation is carried out swiftly and with appropriate transparency to assuage the understandable angst in the affected community and to regain lost trust.”
