Posted on 08/29/2009 6:43:07 PM PDT by Iron Munro
Heather Lawrence didn't know the name of the girl with the Muslim head covering, or where she was from.
But as Lawrence walked by a classroom at Springstead High School on Wednesday, the 16-year-old junior did know one thing: The girl wasn't standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Lawrence, an JROTC member who plans to enlist in the Army next summer, says she was aghast.
"That's one of the most disrespectful things you can do," Lawrence recalled Friday. "Even the kids who are anarchists, who hate our government, still have respect to stand."
A few bells later, Lawrence was on her way to English class when she saw the girl wearing a hijab in the hallway. Lawrence confronted her.
She told her she should stand for the pledge. And, according to Lawrence's own account and a school referral on the incident, said, "Take that thing off your head and act like you're proud to be an American."
A teacher overheard the encounter. Now Lawrence is serving a five-day, out-of-school suspension, and her parents are considering legal action.
"You have someone in the States who is able to enjoy our educational and health care systems, yet it's okay for them to be disrespectful, and it's not okay for my daughter to speak her mind," said Mark Lawrence, Heather's father. "That's her First Amendment right. That's her freedom of speech."
Springstead principal Susan Duval said school officials stand behind the punishment. Heather Lawrence violated the district's policy against bullying and harassment, Duval said. She was disciplined not for telling the girl to stand, but for her other comments — comments that Duval called atrocious.
"It makes me ill," she said. "That is not what this school is about. These students should feel safe and secure here. We may have differences of opinion, but no student should have to tolerate harassment."
After the incident, Lawrence was asked by a school staffer why she confronted the girl. "She began to rant that she was enlisting and was going to Iraq and that basically because the girl looks Middle Eastern, that makes her an enemy because all Iraqis are Middle Eastern," according to the referral signed by assistant principal Stephen Crognale.
Lawrence denies she said that or feels that way.
"Terrorists, regardless of who they are, what color they are, are the enemy," she said.
School officials would not disclose the identity of the girl. Duval said she wasn't sure if the girl is new to Springstead or why she didn't stand for the pledge.
Lawrence said the girl did not respond to her and simply walked away. Duval said the girl did not complain to school officials. Efforts by the St. Petersburg Times to find and reach her were unsuccessful Friday.
As she served her first day of suspension, Lawrence admitted Friday that telling the girl to take off her hijab was "a little over the edge." Her father agreed she shouldn't have said it.
"It wasn't meant to be a racial comment, and I wasn't trying to bash her religion," she said. "I didn't expect her to say (the pledge). I just expect her to stand up for it. If she had a problem with what I said, I'd be happy to apologize to her."
Mark Lawrence says the district needs to be taken to task for putting words into his daughter's mouth. He hopes to reverse the suspension and says he's talked to a lawyer friend of the family.
"I didn't raise my daughters to be prejudiced," he said, adding that the family dines often with friends of Iranian descent.
Heather Lawrence has her own unpleasant pledge memory.
She spent six months in Mexico while her father worked a contracting job and was booted out of a private school for not saying the pledge to the Mexican flag. But that was in Spanish — a language she doesn't know — and so she stopped trying to fake it. And, she says, she still stood up.
Flaps over flag pledging have set legal precedent. A 17-year-old junior at Boynton Beach High School refused to stand for the pledge and was removed from class, prompting a lawsuit and a ruling last year by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court struck down a provision of Florida law requiring civilians to stand for the pledge.
Ramzy Kiliç, executive director of the Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he was concerned by Heather Lawrence's apparent cultural insensitivity.
But he also said he was surprised to hear that a Muslim would not stand for the pledge. There is no tenet in the religion that encourages Muslims not to do so. "That's her right," Kiliç said. "I myself believe she should have stood."
Still, Kiliç said he was happy to hear that Lawrence was willing to say she was sorry.
"A public school reflects the demographics of America," he said. "We have to foster that, and one way to do that is for the girl to apologize. That should be the ultimate solution."
The hijab clearly made the girl a target, said Dr. Adel Eldin, a Brooksville cardiologist who practices in Spring Hill.
Eldin, who has been busy in August celebrating the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, said he hopes school officials will seize the incident as a teachable moment about his faith.
"If the principal would like to sponsor an educational night, I would be happy to talk to the kids," he said.
I think we should use government force to force people to show respect. That’s the ticket.
Make them go home.
Patriotism is frowned upon.
Heather Lawrence, would you do me a favor and marry my son? He’s tall, smart and has stunning hair.
Lawrence denies she said that or feels that way.
I don't think she said it either. It sounds like a rant made up by a liberal.
ping
I'd like to kick this guy in the ass with a "teachable moment". It would be one "teachable moment" he'd never forget.
“Even the kids who are anarchists, who hate our government, still have respect to stand.”
It’s so comforting to know that our schools are producing students who are already anarchists by the time they reach 11th grade. /s
If this goes in Heather’s ‘’’PERMANENT RECORD’’’ she probably won’t be allowed to join the Army....
Oh effing carp...’teachable moment”....here we go again...this PC shit is going to get us killed!....
‘teachable moment’ = re-education
to hell with the progressive movement...makes me want to have a movement...
9/11 was a teachable moment about his faith, so was the USS Cole and the Iranian hostage crisis. Those were enough for me.
This is multiculturalism at work. Granted, it was rude for her to make the comment about the head covering, but this is what happens when you have people of incompatible cultures living with one another. It is why I think that cultural compatibility should be a factor in immigration policy.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect immigrants and their children to accept the most basic tenets of our national culture.
Hey, aren’t those “teachable moments” supposed to be accompanied by beer?
Maybe they can set up a few kegs in the high school’s cafeteria.
If the student was not willing to say what must be said, I’ll do it.
ISLAM DELENDA EST - because Muslims are forcing us to play Cowboys & Muslims.
Why? Because Obama's so good at it?
Nice!!!
That would make a great tagline! cowboys and muslims, teehee
Now, regarding the "hijab", there is no religious requirement to wear it.
How this was solved in the local school system: no more pledge of allegiance.
HB 1388 passed waiting to be signed by President to give 20.3 million dollars to Palestinian HAMMAS refugees to resettle them HERE IN THIS COUNTRY!!!! Are we going to allow this???????????
I’m pulling my son out of public school next week.
The girl in the hajib was free to choose to disrespect the flag.....and to accept the social consequences.
Okay I have to ask....is she an American citizen yet? If she is not then she does not have to stand and say the pledge. This issue came up when I was in school and there was a case of some immigrants who were NOT naturalized citizens. Once she is a naturalized citizen she should stand up and say the pledge. If she is not, she should not. The question is....is she?????
Well what else would any good leftist do?
I mean, she is after all part of the SYSTEM!
A real Conservative would have no problem with someone deciding not to pledge allegiance to the flag.
(For the record- I do pledge allegiance to the flag.)
For her there would not be any “social consequences;” only for the non-Islamist were there such. Bit by bit, Islamic rules encroach.
The girl should have at least stood for the Pledge.
I, as a real conservative, have no problem with not pledging allegiance to the flag, but you should still stand! Citizen or not, you should still stand! If you don’t want to sing the National Anthem, FINE! But, you should still STAND! When another country’s anthem came on when I was in that country, guess what, I stood and paid respect!
Anything less is not failing to pledge allegiance, it is disrespectful! And as a real conservative, expect me to tell anyone what I think about them being disrespectful to my country and the men and women who have fought and died for what this country stands!
The other girl is the one that should be suspended. The Flag stands for something very important to our country.
I am the Flag
http://www.usflag.org/iamtheflag.html
Without the race card there would be no political left in this country.
Well said and I agree with you.
Absolutely, and I have a right, just as Heather did, to tell them what they think about being disrespectful.
But, in this school, she is not allowed to have her first amendment rights! So, is THAT okay with you too?
She attends school in this country, a school in which she is welcomed like any other student. This is a public school, I assume, where her schooling if funded with tax payer money.
Out of respect to the country the allows her these freedoms, she should stand for the Pledge.
For the record, I am a naturalized citizen ... just celebrated my 21st anniversary as a United States Citizen, this "shining city on a hill", a country for which I would fight and die.
Refusing or failing to stand for the Pledge or the national anthem, is a blatant show of disrespect.
I agree. It was not required when I was in school in Texas as a kid. There was once when several of us young idiots decided we wouldn’t stand for prayer and the pledge. Nothing was said about it and it didn’t happen again. We didn’t get any recognition from the authorities and that was what we were after.The young lady in the story should just ignore the raghead
Actions have consequences. Disrespect the country and face the consequence, in this case a student.
Having said that ... the student gets tossed for disrespecting the person that disrespected our country. The irony is quite striking.
I agree. We already have more than enough cultural dissension of our own. No sense in inviting more unnecessarily.
Gotta side with the Muslim here.
The problem is that she didn’t show respect for the country she’s living in by standing during the pledge. If you watch the Olympics, it seems to me that everyone stands to show respect for the country whose national anthem is being played. So that is the issue this young woman had with the one wearing that headscarf.
It makes me ill that principal Duval refuses to admit that the Muslim student deliberately disrupted the Pledge by refusing to stand, to the point where she offended Heather enough to compel her to speak out against the offence.
It makes me ill that principal Duval refuses to recognize that Heather deserved support and protection from being offended and harrassed in school by a Muslim political agitator.
It makes me ill that principal Duval refuses to admit that this was a political disruption and harrassment hiding behind religious protection.
It makes me ill that principal Duval refuses to admit that Muslim head coverings for women are mandatory, and punished with violence, and represent harrassment, violence and terrorism against women, up to and including death.
It makes me ill that principal Duval refuses to admit that the representation of violence against women and political disrespect for America would be offensive, disturbing, upsetting, harrassing and highly disruptive to the class in general, and especially denied Heather a feeling of safety and security in particular.
It makes me ill that principal Duval refuses to admit that even if she supported the Muslim girl, she then owes that girl the opportunity of a teaching moment to learn how to respond to people she offends when she deliberately harrasses them by making an anti-American and anti-women protest.
It makes me ill that principal Duval refuses to admit that she is personally protecting the single most hate-filled, murderous organization on the planet towards women, gays, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Americans, and literally anyone who does not submit to the total control of Islam, per their own teachings and actions around the world.
It makes me ill that principal Duval is a principal of students, when she doesn't deserve the authority to clean the toilets in the school.
Conservative since 1963.
Indeed it is.
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