Caitlin Dean is a freshman student at Bacon Academy in CT. Recently:
The 15-year-old freshman volunteered with a few other students to wear traditional Muslim clothing to school for an entire day in February after a Middle Eastern Studies teacher at Bacon Academy announced that she was looking for students to promote her class by wearing the garb. Caitlin covered her slender frame and short brown hair with a periwinkle burqa, which concealed her face.
During that day she encountered the following comments:
"Hey, we rape your women!" one upperclassman said as he passed Caitlin in the hallway.
"I hope all of your people die," another sniped.
"You're probably going to kill us all" and "Why do they let people like this in the country?" were other remarks she heard on Feb. 1.
more after the fold
This diary is based on this article: Behind Burqa, Student Gets An Education In Bigotry
Caitlin wrote down 50 comments and names she was called. She did not respond because "I am a freshman. I like to avoid making waves."
But when she saw a friend and a teacher who knew that Caitlin was the person under the burqa, she broke down in a classroom.
"I started crying," Caitlin said. "There is way too much prejudice."
If she could withstand 50 negative comments before breaking down, especially since she's not used to them, I consider her to be a strong person.
What did the school do?
None of the students were singled out for discipline because no formal complaints were made.
"It's unacceptable," Superintendent Karen Loiselle said. "It's imperative students who are victims of those comments report them immediately and it will be taken very seriously. In this case, it has opened an important conversation."
She was successful in her goal of increasing attendence of the Middle Eastern Studies class. It had only 12 students, next year it will have 48.
The school already has a Gay-Straight Alliance group, a save Darfur group and a diversity committee, so I think this school can overcome the intolerance issues that this has revealed in its student body.
She was not the only student to dress in traditional muslim costume.
Chris Anderson, a senior at Bacon who also wore some of the traditional Muslim clothing to school and also was the target of ethnic slurs, said educators are not trying hard enough to expose students to other cultures. He criticized school leaders for replacing world studies in middle school with more American history.
"The prejudice displayed at Bacon Academy is proof enough that education about world cultures cannot be ignored," he said. "The misunderstood are feared and hated."
A comment from the teacher that started this:
"My fear of this hatred of Islam is that it will become synonymous with patriotism," Parkinson said. "We are a nation of immigrants. Some of the most disturbing comments were, `This is America. Go home.'"
Stories like causes me to wonder when this poem will be removed from the Statue of Liberty...
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles.
From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
""Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!"" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
thank you for reading
jeff