MAPLEWOOD, N.J. (Audacy) — An attorney representing a New Jersey teacher accused of pulling off a second-grader’s hijab is claiming the story circulating on social media is inaccurate.
Last week, Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad wrote on social media that a teacher at Seth Boyden Elementary School in Maplewood "forcibly removed" the child's hijab during class Wednesday.
"The young student resisted, by trying to hold onto her hijab, but the teacher pulled the hijab off, exposing her hair to the class," Muhammad wrote Thursday to her nearly 385,000 Instagram followers, adding that the teacher then "told the student that her hair was beautiful and she did not have to wear hijab to school anymore."
The girl’s mother, Cassandra Wyatt, later said that her 7-year-old daughter had not returned to school since the incident and that “she’s very, very sad.”
The teacher’s attorney, Samantha Harris, however, is claiming that the girl was not wearing a hijab the day the alleged incident took place.
“On this particular day, the student was wearing a hood – what appeared to be a hooded sweatshirt with a hood – it was partially covering her eyes,” Harris said.
In accordance with school guidelines banning hoods from being worn in classes, the teacher “started to move the student's hood back a little bit, saw that the student did not have her hijab on underneath and immediately replaced the hood.”
Harris noted that the inaccurate story has generated nationwide attention and has made life incredibly difficult for the teacher.
“The completely inaccurate version of this story that had gone out there on social media through an Olympic fencer and other individuals and organizations has just destroyed the future of [her] life overnight,” she said.
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Harris said the teacher has been subjected to many threats.
“There are people online saying they want to come to her house and rip her clothes off and other horrible threats,” she said.
The attorney added that the educator has been teaching for more than 30 years and has been in the school district for almost two decades.
“She’s taught numerous students who wear hijabs, and she knew that this student – who she had already been teaching for several weeks at this point – wore a hijab,” Harris said.
The attorney feels that when the teacher’s story is heard, the social media storm will come to an end, and the teacher will be understood.
“If and when the facts do come out, I think people will know this is a very different story than what has been repeated online,” Harris said.
Audacy station WCBS 880 reached out to the girl's mother who declined to address the teacher's version of the story.