A school district in Virginia stayed shut over a weekend last month after education officials expressed security concerns sparked by parents’ outrage over an Arabic calligraphy lesson. Eric Bond, President of Augusta County School Board, said that the decision to cancel classes was made because of an abundance of caution and after the district consulted local law enforcement. While he clarified that there was no specific threat to students, he did not elaborate on the exact nature of the school district’s safety concerns.

“The communications have significantly increased in volume, 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,” read the statement put out by the district.

The incident causing the furor that eventually led to the sweeping school closures took place early last month during a world geography class at Riverheads High School, where a teacher handed out an assignment to her ninth-graders. The assignment required the students to practice calligraphy by copying a piece of Arabic text, commonly known as shahada, which happens to be a statement of faith for practicing Muslims. On December 11, Cheryl LaPorte’s students were shown copies of the Koran, invited to try on headscarves to understand the Islamic concept of dressing modestly and assigned a calligraphy lesson that required them to copy the abovementioned Islamic creed. Theoretically, recitation of the shahada in public qualifies as the first formal step in converting to Islam but school officials clarified that the students had not been asked to read the statement aloud or translate it.

Yet, Kimberly Herndon was enraged when her son returned home with the assignment sheet from LaPorte’s classroom.

“When I saw the language, the Arabic language, immediately I had a bad feeling come over me,” said the mother of six.

Herndon, a devout Christian, accused LaPorte of carefully indoctrinating unsuspicious students into the Islamic faith. She stressed her son would not attend another class with the same teacher unless the school ensured that such an incident would not happen again, warning also that she would take the case to the United States Supreme Court if she must.

“She [LaPorte] gave up the Lord's time,” Herndon said while speaking to the media. “She gave it up and gave it to Mohammed.”

The following week, Herndon organized a meeting for other parents in Augusta County who felt similarly about the controversial calligraphy lesson. That meeting was attended by as many as 100 parents. Debbie Ballew, a former teacher of English, said had she asked her students to copy a passage from the Bible, she would have lost her job. Many of those who attended the meeting demanded that LaPorte be terminated from her post at Riverheads High School.

“I will not have my children sit under a woman who indoctrinates them with the Islam religion when I am a Christian, and I'm going to stand behind Christ,” said Herndon.

In the wake of the incident, Bond tried to explain that the lesson was meant to only introduce students to different world religions in an interactive manner, not to convert them to any other faith.

“Neither these lessons, nor any other lesson 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,” he said.

Clarifying that LaPorte’s lesson was consistent with the Standards of Learning in Virginia, Bond said he was shocked when the assignment led to the school district receiving voluminous emails and phone calls, before picking up momentum on social media and eventually making national headlines. According to Bond, as part of the school curriculum, when students are educated about a particular geographic region, they are also taught about its dominant religion and written language. He also ensured that when the students are taught about China and Africa, they would be handed out similar assignments.

“The students were presented with the statement to demonstrate the complex artistry of the written language used in the Middle East, and were asked to attempt to copy it in order to give the students an idea of the artistic complexity of the calligraphy,” he said.

Augusta County School Board decided to call off all extracurricular activities over the weekend as well, thus commencing the students’ official winter break three days earlier. Before shutting, Bond also said that in the future, a non-religious sample of Arabic calligraphy would be used to teach students world geography with regards to Islam. The schools reopened on January 4.

Photo Credits: Free Islamic Calligraphy