Administrative procedures used

The freshman student involved in the hijab incident Nov. 14 said she believes administration did not take her concerns seriously.

“I think they didn’t take it seriously at first when we were there. I don’t think they really believed that this happened,” the freshman said. “So they were like ‘oh it was an accident,’ making up excuses for him, but when they did find out that this happened, there were two eyewitnesses who saw him do what he did, then they were slow. They should have acted faster.”

Ibrahim Hooper, National Communications Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, specifically criticized the decision to use mediation in an altercation between a bully and victim.

“If there’s a perpetrator and a victim, you don’t mediate,” Hooper said. “You have consequences for the perpetrator.”

Thompson declined to comment on the use of mediation in the hijab incident.

According to Anti-Defamation League Regional Director for Missouri and Southern Illinois Karen Aroesty, the hijab incident should not have been handled using administrative mediation, because it should have been investigated as a case of religious violence.

“I have no problem (with mediation) when in the nature of conflict resolution, you do have a setting where both participants are more or less on a level playing field,” Aroesty said. “But the case like the one (at Park), I have a real problem with mediation in that context. The intentionality or meanness of pulling off a woman’s hijab … requires a different kind of resolution.”

The freshman involved in the incident said she felt the mediation process was one-sided.

“I feel like he won. I don’t feel accomplished,” the freshman said. “No, I don’t hate talking about this, but then it’s uncomfortable for me to keep talking about this, so I just put it behind me.”

The freshman and senior both confirmed grade level coordinator Rob Griffin, who coaches the senior’s football team, was at the mediation.