Fairfax High School Students Stage Walkout In Support Of Alleged Assault Victim

FAIRFAX, VA — Hundreds of students at Fairfax High School staged a walkout Thursday morning to protest an incident at the school earlier in the week, where a student allegedly was called racial slurs and had her hijab removed by another student.

At 8:10 a.m. Thursday, about 350 students at the high school walked out in protest of what happened on Tuesday afternoon between two students, according to the school. In response to the walkout, Fairfax County Public Schools and City of Fairfax Schools said they "support the rights of students to peacefully protest.”

Fairfax High School staff and administrators, along with the high school's school resource officer, worked to ensure students were gathering in a safe location and away from public streets, Fairfax High School said in an email sent to parents Thursday afternoon.

The school said it is conducting an investigation into the incident. "No further details can be shared at this stage as administrators work to establish the facts," City of Fairfax Schools said in a statement.

A Fairfax High School student told WTOP that a male student pushed a female student to the ground, took off her hijab and beat her up.

"FCPS condemns all acts of intolerance and violence in our community, most importantly in our schools," the school said in the email to parents. "In partnership with our office of safety and security and local police, we investigate all incidents thoroughly."

Earlier this fall, Fairfax High School faced another controversy when a student's mother urged the school to remove two books — Maia Kobabe's "Gender Queer" and Jonathan Evison's "Lawn Boy" — from its library. The mother said she wanted to keep pornographic materials out of school libraries.

The two books were removed from all Fairfax County school libraries but were later returned after a review found the challenges to the books to be without merit.

In response to the incident Tuesday afternoon, an online petition was launched that said the female student was called racial slurs and that the incident involved "an immense amount of Islamophobia."

"As you sign this petition we plan to show whoever we can that and the school needs to take accountability for this disgusting incident," the petition reads. "We plan on doing whatever we can to get justice and make our schools feel safe again."

The petition, which had passed 4,000 signatures by mid-afternoon Thursday, said an ambulance was called to Fairfax High School Tuesday afternoon.

According to the petition, the student who used the racial slurs was allowed to return to school "with no consequences."

"This is not right, this should have never happened, and the school is covering this up," the petition reads.

School administrators met with a group of Fairfax High School students Thursday morning to hear their concerns about the incident.

"It is our responsibility to ensure that all people are treated with dignity and humanity in our schools as well as foster an open, respectful, and inclusive learning environment for all students," Fairfax High School said in its email to parents. "We have much work to do and will continue to strive to promote a school community where all students feel respected, safe, and included."

The school also told parents that students who chose to participate in the protest would have been marked absent from the classes they missed. "If you receive a call regarding an absence, please speak with your student to ensure they were on campus and participating in the protest," the school said.

Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, said in a statement Thursday that “it is the responsibility of administrators and educators to ensure the safety of all students."

"By allowing the suspected assailant to return to school — where he reportedly threatened more students — they have failed in that duty," Hooper said. "This incident must be investigated as a possible hate crime by law enforcement, and the alleged assailant must be suspended while the investigation takes place.”

Fairfax City Police said its criminal division is in the early stages of an investigation, WTOP reported Thursday.