Issue of Muslim-student Bullying On Snapchat Raised in NJ

A Colonia High School student took a picture of Saira Ali last June during lunch in the cafeteria, captioned the photo, “Isis,” with a heart-faced emoticon and posted it to social media, according to NJ.com.

Saira Ali, a high school senior at the time, was wearing a headscarf in the photograph and socializing with friends.

After the incident occurred, Ali posted the image to Facebook, including the statement, “I’m disgusted. Violated.” She also made a complaint to the Woodbridge Board of Education, NJ.com reported.

After a four-month investigation, Ali received a letter from officials stating the district found no evidence supporting a claim of harassment, intimidation or bullying.

Ali posted the letter to social media, where the story went viral. This prompted the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations to urge state public school officials to address the issue of Muslim-student bullying, NJ.com reported.

“This and other cases of bullies targeting Muslim students points to the need for a statewide review of policies and procedures relating to bullying,” CAIR-NJ Executive Director James Sues said in a statement.

In the Facebook post Ali posted last spring following the incident, she wrote, “You might think there’s no hate crime where you live and before ya’know it some ignorant kid from your school makes a video of you at lunch, closes up on your face, calls you ISIS, & then sets it as his Snapchat story for everyone to see as if he’s not insulting billions of people. Please excuse me while I teach this kid a lesson.”

In a statement on Tuesday, school board attorney Jonathan Busch said the Woodbridge Board of Education “takes subject matters like this very seriously,” and another source said the matter was investigated extensively, NJ.com reported.

Read the rest of the story at NJ.com.