Chesterfield County schools determined additional professional development is warranted following a division investigation into the treatment of two Muslim students.
The school system would not provide details about how “specific employees will be addressed,” but in a letter the family provided to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Human Resources Executive Director Francine Bouldin wrote to the students’ mother that the Bellwood Elementary School staff will receive training in culturally diverse populations.
“Maintaining safe, supportive and nurturing learning environments remains a priority for all Chesterfield County schools. Through the school division’s Equity Committee, we plan to continue to identify strategies to implement cultural competency initiatives that will better assist employees in serving a diverse community of learners. Leaders from across the county attended an equity training last week, and these efforts will continue throughout the year,” School Board Chairman Javaid Siddiqi said in a statement.
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The equity committee meetings are not public, and a committee report is expected in the fall.
Amy Warner said her stepdaughter and daughter, who are both 11 years old, felt pressured in February to remove their headscarves during social studies class at Bellwood Elementary. Warner and her daughters are Muslim. The nationwide Council on American-Islamic Relations sent a letter to the school system after that incident.
In addition to being pressured to remove their headscarves, Warner said one of her daughters was instructed in late May to run multiple times by a physical education teacher while fasting for Ramadan. Warner said the teacher made the entire class run a couple more times as punishment for her daughter’s slow pace.
Warner said she informed the principal before Ramadan that her daughters would be fasting and that her daughter also told the PE teacher she was fasting.
“I too am deeply bothered by what you are describing — on many levels,” Bellwood Principal Jennifer Rudd wrote to Warner after the May incident in an email obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Rudd wrote that she left the PE teacher a message at home to call her that night and that she planned on updating Warner the next day.
After Warner said she didn’t receive a response, she contacted the ACLU. The ACLU penned a letter to school officials June 22 saying the allegation regarding the PE incident, if true, violates the First and 14th amendments, Chesterfield’s policies and state law. The school division then launched an investigation.
“All Virginia school divisions have an affirmative obligation to accommodate religious free exercise for their students. We hope that the employee professional development training on cultural diversity arising out of this investigation is thorough and proves helpful to staff in the future,” said Leslie Chambers Mehta, legal director of the ACLU of Virginia.
“We are taking this matter very seriously,” Siddiqi said in July, adding that the school division will review existing policies and assess the need for professional development.
Warner said the treatment of her daughters has led her to enroll one of them in private school next year. Her stepdaughter has moved in with her biological mother. She said her daughters never had this kind of experience in Florida, where they lived until last year.
“At least when I’m fasting, they will understand,” Warner said her daughter told her regarding her new school.
Warner said Tuesday that she agreed Bellwood needs staffwide training, but she still felt training wasn’t enough for the PE teacher.
School district spokesman Shawn Smith declined to discuss details of the incidents. Warner’s name was misspelled in the letter she received from the school division.
Attempts to reach the school staff members by phone and email were unsuccessful.