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The DA’s anti-hate task force discussed a Malden charter school’s hijab policy
Mystic Valley Charter School has come under fire repeatedly for alleged racial discrimination.
The Middlesex County district attorney and community leaders met Wednesday to discuss the latest allegation of racial discrimination at Malden’s Mystic Valley Regional Charter School after a student who wore a hijab to school was told she was violating the school’s dress code, The Boston Globe reported.
Despite the school receiving widespread criticism for issuing the student a citation for her headscarf, no representative from the school attended the meeting, the newspaper wrote.
“As soon as I learned about this incident, I knew that our task force had to respond,” Middlesex DA Marian Ryan said at the meeting of her office’s Anti-Hate Anti-Bias Task Force.
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“Sadly, it’s incidents like this at the charter school several weeks ago that remind us that we need to be constantly vigilant against incidents of bias, hate, and ignorance.”
On Aug. 18, the eighth-grade student was written up for a “uniform infraction,” which said that her hijab, which was misspelled as “jihab” on the form, was the reason for the citation.
The Globe reported that the student’s family said she came home in tears that day, which was the first day of school for the K-12 school’s 1,600 students.
Mystic Valley said previously in a statement that its policy is to allow students to wear religious attire “as an expression of their sincerely held beliefs,” but it asks that students provide a letter “expressing this desire from a member of their clergy.”
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The school said that the student did not have a letter, and that the staff member was trying to alert the student that she needed one, but admitted that its “handling of the situation came across as insensitive.”
The Globe also reported that school leaders have said the staff member “accidentally” gave the student a disciplinary form instead of the application to get a religious exemption.
Mystic Valley has since met with Muslim community members and said it is considering making it easier for students to get religious exemptions for clothing, the Globe reported.
At the task force meeting Wednesday, the Globe reported, Malden Mayor Gary Christenson said he has concerns about the school’s policy and that city officials are waiting to see if the charter school changes it.
“I think in the year 2022, especially in our city, there just shouldn’t be a requirement to have to explain why you’re wearing a hijab,” Christenson said.
He added that, so far, the school has not shown “a willingness to modify the policy.”
The Globe reported that no Mystic Valley school leaders attended the meeting, and that administrators referred questions to the school’s lawyer, Howard Cooper.
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“There are discussions happening at the Board about the school’s religious accommodation to the dress code policy,” Cooper said in an email to the Globe.
“It is always the intention of the school to comply with the law, while considering any expressed concerns from the Mystic Valley community. Unfortunately, the matter has become a legal issue, so the school is not going to comment further.”
Mohanad Mossalam of the Malden Islamic Center said at Wednesday’s meeting that Mystic Valley’s decision to discipline the student was “hurtful” and “heartbreaking,” and that the school should reform its policy, the Globe reported.
“My impression is that the board and the people that are running the school have no understanding of any culture except their own. Well-intentioned or not, this is my impression,” Mossalam said. “They do not understand why the school’s policy regarding the hijab is so harmful.”
Lawyers with the Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations are representing the student and her family, the Globe reported.
On Aug. 20, they told the newspaper the the student is wearing her hijab to school.
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On Wednesday, the group’s executive director told the Globe that they had not yet made any “request or demand directed toward the school.”
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“We are exploring all possible claims and doing due diligence in devising our legal strategy on behalf of the student,” she said in an email to the Globe.
This is far from the first time Mystic Valley has received criticism for its treatment of racial and ethnic minorities. Critics of the school have called its culture racist; the highest-profile incident happened in 2017 when the school punished two Black students for wearing braided hair extensions.
The school was widely criticized for the move and eventually changed its policy. But its actions ended up sparking a push to make hair discrimination illegal in Massachusetts.
Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law the bill that was sparked by the incident this past July.
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