VA School District Cancels Classes Due to Parent OUTRAGE Over Muslim Calligraphy Lesson

18 Dec, 2015 by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

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I consider this good news. Parents are finally standing up for their rights as Christians instead of meekly submitting to the political correctness foisted on them by the public school system. In Virginia last week there was a blowup after a geography/calligraphy assignment was given at Riverheads High School to ninth-graders where they were instructed to copy the Islamic Shahada in Arabic. That is the first step in the conversion process whether you write it or say it. The children did not know what they were writing, but the teacher surely knew. The girls were also given scarves that represented the Islamic hijab to put on their heads. These symbolize subservience and submission to Islam for women. Qurans were also brought out for the students. No wonder the parents are outraged over this. I would be too.

Controversy erupted after students at a Virginia high school were instructed to write a Muslim statement of faith (above), which reads, ‘There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah,’ as part of a world geography class.

From the Daily Mail:

Education officials in a Virginia county have cancelled classes Friday over security concerns sparked by parents’ outrage in response to an Arabic calligraphy lesson.

Augusta County School Board President Eric Bond announced Thursday that schools would be closed Friday.

In his statement, Bond said the decision to cancel classes was made ‘out of an abundance of caution’ after consulting with law enforcement. He noted that there was no specific threat to students but did not elaborate on the exact nature of the safety concerns.

The incident that sparked the furor resulting in Friday’s sweeping school closures took place a week ago during a world geography class at Riverheads High School, where a teacher gave her ninth-graders an assignment that included practicing calligraphy by copying a piece of Arabic text known as the shahada, which is a Muslim statement of faith.

Recitation of the shahada in public is the first formal step in conversion to Islam. However, according to school officials, the ninth-graders were not asked to translate the statement or read it aloud.

Bond said that the school district received ‘voluminous’ phone calls and emails about the controversial lesson on Islam, which went viral on social media thanks to the efforts of a local parents and made national headlines.

‘The communications have significantly increased in volume [Thursday], and based on concerns regarding the tone and content of those communications, Sheriff [Randall] Fisher and Dr. Bond mutually decided schools and school offices will be closed,’ the statement put out by the district said.

The county also pulled the plug on all extracurricular activities through the weekend.

Augusta County students officially go on their winter break beginning Monday and won’t be back to school until January 4.

According to Bond’s statement, going forward, a ‘non-religious sample of Arabic calligraphy’ will be used to teach students in the world geography class about Islam.

The school district has canceled classes for today out of security concerns after receiving dozens of calls from parents who, let’s just say, are less than thrilled with the assignment. As a way to punish everyone, the district also cancelled all extracurricular activities for this weekend. They won’t be back in session until Jan. 4th. The school has now announced that future Arabic calligraphy will be non-religious in nature. How comforting. There were no direct threats against the teacher or the school. They are trying to make a big deal of how hateful parents are for blowing up like this. One woman, Kimberly Herndon, whose son brought home the lesson was simply infuriated over it. She’s a Christian and says she stands for Christ, not Allah and so does her son. Many called for the termination of the teacher who did all of this. But the school and others are standing behind her, saying that everyone is overreacting. I don’t think so. I think it is long past time that parents took a stand on these occurrences across the nation that are happening more and more pushing Islam. I keep marveling over these Progressives who have tried to eliminate Christianity from all schools, but keep bringing in Islam to feed to the kids. It’s hypocritical and highly offensive. Good for these parents.

Infuriated parent: Kimberly Herndon, whose son is in the world geography class, accused his social studies teacher of indoctrinating students into the Islamic faith.

Herndon, who is a devout Christian, hosted a public forum to discuss the incident and called for the firing of Riverheads teacher Cheryl LaPorte.

Riverheads ninth-grader Laurel Truxell said she did not feel comfortable copying the Arabic text or putting on the scarf meant to mimic the Islamic Hijab.