1. Read this scenario: Mrs. Smith is a 10th grade English teacher in a local area high…

1.   Read this scenario:
Mrs. Smith is a 10th grade English teacher in a local area high school. She also serves as homeroom teacher to 10th grade students. About four months after September 11th, she is alarmed when a tenth-grade African American female (who is a straight A student) shows up in class with her faced covered in a black scarf with only her eyes showing. She asks the student to remove her face covering, but the student replies that she cannot. The teacher again asks the student, but again the student replies that she is unable to remove the face covering. At this point, the teacher is very upset and sends the girl to the Principal’s office. Also at this point, the girl is crying and very upset. When the Principal asks her to remove the face covering, the girl just explains that she is not allowed to remove it. The Principal suspends the girl for a week and calls her parents.
Her parents arrive at the high school very dismayed. They explain to the Principal that the night before their daughter had decided to become part of their Muslim faith and adopt the covering (Please note several other religions have a similar practice of young people wearing a clothing item to signify they have decided to adopt the faith of their parents). They explain to the Principal that this a normal religious practice. The Principal states that the school should have been informed prior to her attendance, so they would have been prepared. The Principal goes on to say that the parents should have let the school know ahead of time. The family tries to explain that it just happened and was not a planned event. Despite their requests for understanding, the Principal does not dismiss the suspension.
The parents take their daughter from the school and as you might guess contact a lawyer. By the way, they did not ask for compensation but just asked that their daughter be allowed to make up the work.
In the meantime, the press is alerted, and the case makes national news. The family decides to remove their children from the school and send them to a Muslim school in Dayton. They cite religious intolerance as their basis.
A.   What are the cultural issues in this scenario?
B.   What could have been done differently?
C.    What should have been done differently?