Arab headgear causes stir in Gateway
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Two seniors at Gateway High School in Monroeville said they'll meet with administrators today after they were told they could no longer wear their traditional Arab head scarves because it was "disruptive" to class.
Mohammad Al-Abbasi, 18, and Ahmad Al-Sadi, 17, said they have worn the red-and-white scarves -- called kaffiyehs -- around their necks for years as a sign of their Middle Eastern heritage and identity.
But administrators yesterday told them to take the kaffiyehs off or leave school. Both chose the latter.
"It's my culture, my ancestors wore it, you know?" Mr. Al-Abbasi said last night in a phone interview. "It's my roots. It's not political. It doesn't have any message."
The students said they were called into Principal William Short's office yesterday morning after, they believe, students and parents complained to school officials that the kaffiyehs are symbols of hate and terrorism, Mr. Al-Abbasi said.
It also comes about a week after Mr. Al-Abbasi wore a T-shirt to school airbrushed with an anti-Israeli sentiment. He said he took the shirt off when administrators told him the message was "threatening."
"I understood, and I shouldn't have worn that to school," he said.
Unlike the shirt, he said, the kaffiyehs aren't political or religious.
Mr. Short and other school administrators could not be reached for comment last night.
Gateway school board President David Magill said last night he did not have enough information on the incident to comment.
The school's dress code makes no mention of the head scarves. It does, however, bar "clothing that depicts, advertises, promotes," among other things, "ethnically/racially inappropriate behavior" or violence, according to the student handbook posted on the district's Web site.
"Any headgear worn due to religious beliefs is acceptable," the handbook says.
Though kaffiyehs can be worn around the head, the students said theirs were worn around the neck.
Mr. Al-Sadi said he plans to wear his kaffiyeh to today's meeting.
"I'm not taking it off," he said. "It's my identity."
First Published February 18, 2009 12:00 am
