When Cheryl LaPorte handed out a textbook assignment in her World Geography class at Riverheads High School, she could not have predicted what happened next.
During a lesson on world religions, students were instructed to copy the shahada, serving as a classic example of calligraphy. The assignment read:
Here is the shahada, the Islamic statement of faith, written in Arabic. In the space below, try copying it by hand. This should give you an idea of the artistic complexity of calligraphy.
The basic Arabic phrase translated to: “There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is the messenger of Allah.”
Once students set foot in their homes with the assignment, the uproar began. Parents were up in arms with claims that the homework was an attempt to convert their children to Islam, calling and emailing the school, demanding the termination of Cheryl LaPorte.
The Augusta County School System reacted with the removal of the shahada from world religion instruction, stating that, “A different, non-religious sample of Arabic calligraphy will be used in the future.”
“Neither of these lessons, nor any other lessons in the world geography course, are an attempt at indoctrination to Islam or any other religion or a request for students to renounce their own faith or profess any belief,” Augusta County Schools official Eric Bond stated.
However, some parents were adamant.
“I will not have my children sit under a woman who indoctrinates them with Islam religion when I am a Christian,” said Kimberly Herndon, who kept her ninth-grade son home from school.
While officials scrambled to assure the safety of students to their concerned parents, more calls and emails continued to flood in locally and from the outside area, with the “tone and content” of these calls and emails becoming uglier, creating cause for concern.
“While there has been no specific threat to harm to students, schools and school offices will be closed Friday, December 18, 2015,” Augusta County Schools said. The county has decided that all schools will remained closed for all activities over the weekend as well.
