WASHINGTON (AP) -- At a school in Connecticut, a second-grader threatens a
turban-wearing Sikh classmate, telling him, "You better watch out --
you're going to get beat up." She later explains to the principal,
"He looks just like the guys they said did it on TV."
A note found at a California high school says the World Trade Center attacks
will be avenged in a massacre of Muslims, with the names of five students
listed beneath. They are sent home for their safety.
In the days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,
Arab-American and Islamic groups have reported hundreds of cases of harassment,
intimidation and violence, including a few at schools. While no violence
against Arab and Muslim students has been reported, schools across the country
are struggling to assure parents they'll protect children while teaching
classmates about tolerance.
The incidents have prompted Education Secretary Rod Paige to send a rare
"dear colleague" letter to educators, urging that classroom
discussions and assemblies honoring victims not inadvertently "foster the
targeting of Arab-American students for harassment or blame."
Following the Sept. 11 attacks, which claimed more than 5,000 lives, reports of
hate crimes and harassment against Arab-Americans have flooded advocates'
offices. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee this week said it had
compiled a list of more than 200 incidents. The Council of American-Islamic
Relations reported more than 400, including yelling, spitting, extensive
vandalism and assaults.
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee spokesman Hussein Ibish said fear
of reprisal has scared many parents into temporarily keeping their children
home from both public and private schools.
Muslim private schools across the country canceled classes for a few days last
week. In other schools, such as the Muslim Educational Trust School in
Portland, Ore., parents were asked to walk the grounds during school hours,
keeping an eye out for retaliation.
"It's a tough time for the whole community at large," said Wajdi
Said, the trust's executive director. "We've really felt a sadness and a
sorrow."
In a Palmdale, Calif., public high school, several students stayed home after
they were named in a list saying the World Trade Center attacks would be avenged
with a Tuesday "massacre," according to one of those on the list.
"I was just shocked and scared," said Abdul Bachmid, 15, who saw the
list outside the school Monday and reported it to school officials. He and
brother Hanif, 18, were two of three Muslim students named.
"Our religion, they don't allow killing like that," Hanif said of the
attacks. "They consider it a huge sin."
Their mother, Aisha Attamimi, called the list "sickening."
"Even now, I cannot believe it," she said. "I think this is the
most peaceful country in the world."
The family hails from Indonesia and has lived in the United States for 11
years. Until this week, Attamimi said, they had never experienced
discrimination or harassment.
Police are investigating the incident. Principal Michael Vierra said he sent
notices to students and staff discouraging them from laying the blame for the
attacks on any ethnic group.
Nan Horstman, principal of Delta Center Elementary School in Grand Ledge,
Mich., said conversations taking place in classrooms this week sound similar to
those about bullying, which got widespread attention after school shootings
last spring.
Horstman said she goes out of her way to discipline students caught harassing
schoolmates over religion or ethnicity.
"I put on a big show," she said. "I pound the desk and let them
know in no uncertain terms that, as long as they're here, they will not behave
in that way."
Still, she said, one Saudi family kept their children home last week.
Ibish said mistreatment of Arab-American students isn't surprising, given what
he called unrelenting negative stereotyping in American television and movies.
Most Americans deserve credit for rising above stereotypes, he said, but added
that the aftermath of the attacks won't be easy.
"It's going to be tough for our community," Ibish said. "We know
that, in spite of the support we're receiving."