Video Shows Alleged East Brunswick Fight When Girl Pulled Hijab

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — A video was released showing part of what school officials say was a fight between two female East Brunswick High School students on Wednesday, during which one of the students pulled the headscarf off the other student, who is a Muslim.

The student also made some kind of comment that referenced the girl's Muslim religion and later taunted her on Instagram, saying "Your raghead a** got your a** beat."

The video is blurry and short, but it shows an adult intervening and trying to pull the students apart. At least one student who witnessed the fight testified before a packed East Brunswick Board of Education meeting last night, saying he walked by and saw the Muslim girl on the ground, crying for help. That student said he did not see how the fight began. You can watch his testimony below.

Here is an ABC7 video on YouTube of the fight:

About 1,000 people showed up at the board meeting Thursday night, many of them Muslim, but also from all different faiths and ethnicities. The bulk of the crowd wanted to express that they feared a biased, Islamophobic attack occurred at East Brunswick High School, a very diverse school and one of the top ranked public schools in the state.

East Brunswick superintendent Dr. Victor Valeski has been adamant that the incident started out as a fight over a chair. Both girls were given a short suspension for the incident, as part of the schools' "zero-tolerance" policy. That policy says that anyone involved in a fight, no matter who started it or how it began, will be disciplined.

"An assault is when one person is attacked. This was not an assault, it was a fight," said the superintendent on Thursday, when news of this first became public. "One student initiated the fight and I don't want to identify which student it was. Words were exchanged and it escalated. However, things were stated during this fight that are beyond what the district considers acceptable."

Many in the crowd last night said it was unfair that the Muslim girl was suspended, saying she was attacked. As a result, the superintendent said some changes will be made to the school's zero-tolerance policy, but said he could not reveal them until Friday afternoon.

"If it's a fight where two people are engaged physically, they will both be disciplined," Valeski told Patch Friday morning. "This was a fight, but the Board and I definitely heard from the Muslim community last night. We heard a lot about the application of the zero-tolerance policy and the board is taking that under consideration. They took some administrative action last night and made some changes, which I cannot reveal yet."

Both girls are under 18 so they will not be named. Also, contrary to a wild rumor mill, one of the girls, who is a senior, will still be able to walk at graduation this spring.

Because of the comments made that referenced the girl's Muslim faith, the school district was required by law to report this to the East Brunswick police and Middlesex County prosecutor as a possible bias crime. East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen said East Brunswick police investigated and determined it was a bias crime, but not a hate crime.

"Our EBPD immediately investigated the incident and determined that this did, in fact, rise to the level of a bias incident," said Mayor Cohen in a letter posted on the Twp.'s website. "It was determined that while this was a bias incident, it did not rise to the level of a hate crime."

The county prosecutor did their own investigation Thursday and did not charge the teen who pulled the headscarf with a bias or hate crime. She was, however, criminally charged with simple assault, harassment, disorderly conduct and cyber harassment, because of the taunt she made on Instagram. The Muslim girl was not charged with any criminal wrongdoing.

Piscataway resident and local veterinarian Dr. Atif Nazir is one of the hundreds of people who packed the meeting last night. His children attend Piscataway public schools (he also served on the Piscataway Board of Education), but his niece and nephew go to to East Brunswick High School. He and his family are Muslim, he said.

"This may have started out over a chair, but then she went on social media and wrote that, and that spreads a message of hate. That's not right," he told Patch on Friday morning, when asked why he attended the meeting. "Maybe it started with a chair; teenagers can behave like that. But even after the fight to make comments on social media — that will make the Muslim community even more uncomfortable."

Nazir provided this video of an East Brunswick High student testifying about what he witnessed on Wednesday.

"I would just like to state what actually happened, because I was there," said the teen. "As I was passing by early in the morning, I actually heard the girl, she was shouting 'help' and 'stop' and nobody was helping. As I got closer, I witnessed a teacher pulling them apart. I witnessed the Muslim girl on the floor ... I felt like it was unjust for both of them to receive punishment. There was nothing really that she (the Muslim girl) could have done ... I saw her being sat on. I saw her being beaten."

Nazir said the line of concerned residents was so long it spread outside the building and spilled outside Thursday night.

"They board members were a little nervous," he said. "They said in the history of the East Brunswick school board they've never had so many people there."

Even the students who posted this videos to social media are being identified by the school district and they are being disciplined as well, said Valeski. He said all East Brunswick public school students sign a waiver agreeing they will not broadcast video of fights to social media, because it violates student privacy.

Update, Friday 4:11 p.m.: On Friday afternoon, the school district announced that the East Brunswick school board and Dr. Valeski will undertake a comprehensive review of the District’s Zero Tolerance Policy and its future applications.

"The Board and Dr. Valeski share the community’s collective desire to foster an environment
throughout our Township and our schools that promotes unity and inclusion and celebrates East
Brunswick’s extraordinary diversity. As such, the Board has created an Ad Hoc Committee that
will be reaching out to all segments of the East Brunswick community to explore how we – as a
united community – can enhance our unwavering commitment of inclusion and tolerance for all
East Brunswick residents and students," he said in a letter sent home to parents Friday afternoon.