N.J. girl’s religious rights violated when teacher pulled off her hijab, suit says – NJ.com

The parents of a girl whose teacher was accused of removing a hijab from her head last year have filed suit alleging the girl’s religious rights were violated and she suffered emotional harm.

Joseph and Cassandra Wyatt are suing the South Orange-Maplewood School District and Seth Boyden Elementary School Teacher Tamar Herman alleging violations of New Jersey’s anti-discrimination laws, assault and battery, and negligence, according to court documents.

The 7-year-old was a student in Herman’s second-grade class on Oct. 6, 2021, when the teacher “approached her, grabbed her hijab, pulling it back, touching her face and hair and exposing (the girl’s) uncovered head to the class,” states the lawsuit, filed March 4 in Superior Court of Essex County.

The Wyatts state in the lawsuit they are Muslim, and have observed the religious head covering since she was 9 months old.

She “had worn the hijab every day since the beginning of the school year,” the suit states. “In fact, at no time during her attendance at the Seth Boyden Elementary School had she been without her hijab.”

Herman’s attorneys and a spokesperson for the South Orange-Maplewood School District did not immediately respond Tuesday to requests for comment on the lawsuit.

Last year, an attorney for Herman told NJ Advance Media the teacher did not pull the hijab off the student and did not immediately recognize the garment as an hijab.

The suit alleges Herman told the child “she could not wear that (hijab) in school” and that her “natural hair was ‘beautiful.’” The child reacted to the pulling by grabbing her religious head covering and yelling, “That’s my hijab,” the lawsuit states.

“Herman had no legal justification for grabbing the hijab and her intentional act of grabbing the hijab constituted harmful and offensive contact with (the child),” the lawsuit states.

“The actions of (Herman), including intimidation, humiliation and physical force, which were purposely and intentionally perpetrated upon a minor child were so outrageous and extreme as to constitute an intentional infliction of emotional distress,” the suit states.

The incident caused an uproar in the Essex County community, with hundreds of people signing a Change.org petition calling for Herman’s firing. The incident was reported to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office for a bias-crime investigation, but Herman was not charged.

Cassandra Wyatt withdrew her daughter and other children from Seth Boyden school in January due to “concerns over the children’s safety and well-being,” according to the lawsuit.

When Wyatt attempted to enroll the children in another school in the district, the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education retaliating against the family by not allowing them to transfer, according to the lawsuit.

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Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.