Plan to recognize religious needs of Muslim students rejected by HS District 230 board

The High School District 230 board last week rejected a request to accommodate the religious holiday needs of Muslim students the way the district accommodates the needs of Christian students

By Ray Hanania

Free/Orland Park Muslims District 230/Monday February 3, 2025

Little has apparently changed from when the School District 230 board more than 30 years ago sought to force Arab and Muslim families to move out of the district by expelling their children.

Back then, it was easy for High School District 230, which includes Andrew High School, Sandburg High School, and Stagg High School, to target Arab and Muslim students. They were only 10 percent of the school, but they were 90 percent of the expulsions in a plan to force them to move out of the district.

Most of the students were at Stagg High School, while some were at Andrew and others at Sandburg where the real conflict was brewing and where Arab and Muslim students (including my own daughter, who is Christian) were beaten up by anti-Muslim racists.

When I went to complain to the administration and then to the board about my daughter being hurt, Sandburg brushed it off blaming it on my daughter, not on the students who were a part of a “White gang” at the school and who were protected by some teachers. Other Arab and Muslim parents also complained but to no avail.

Sandburg High School hosted a Veteran’s Commemoration in November 2024 and published this program that included 30 names of administrators and board members at Sandburg High School. Only one name was Arab/Muslim, Mohammed Jaber.

When I moved in to my Orland Park home in late 1985, the neighbors refused to talk to me. And when they sold, the family that bought the home came up to me and observed, “Have you seen all those Arabs moving into Orland Park.” Trying to avoid another problem, I politely told the man that I was an “Arab, Palestinian Christian” and my mother was from Bethlehem, “that place where Americans pray to at church on Sundays but forget about during the rest of the week?”

He apologized but we never really got along very well after that.

When parents protested at District 230 school board meetings, the board just ignored their concerns, mainly because the Muslim families, more than 95 percent Palestinian and Jordanian Arabs, represented a small voice in the school district which stretched from Tinley Park in the south to Palos in the north.

I ended up running for the District 230 school board and losing. Miriam Zayed, a teacher, educator, and the daughter of one of the region’s first Imams, ran three times, and lost, too.

Once a student is expelled, the student cannot go to any school in the district. The student would either have to attend an expensive private school or attend a high school in a different district if they family moved there.

Racism against Muslims was rampant at the time. It didn’t just start with the racism of Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau. It involved a battle to stop the building of a mosque in Palos Heights in 2000 and then another fight to block the building of a mosque in Orland Park in 2004. I videotaped the Orland fight in 2004 and used it in a documentary I produced called “Eyes of the Beholder.”

Click here to view Part 1 (no longer available).

Click here to view Part 2 (This documentary segment includes some of the fears that were expressed during the public hearing in 2004. This video was dedicated to my friend Walid Ali who died in 2003)

The video captured the utter racism expressed at the Orland meeting where residents incredulously exclaimed that if the village allows the building of a Mosque “Osama Bin Laden might come here to kill our people!”

It was a very subtle and evil plan dreamed up by some board members and supported by their school attorneys.

And it almost worked. There was one problem, though. Instead of pushing Muslim families out, just the opposite happened. As Muslims became aware of the growing racism, families decided to move into those communities to stop it. And they did. Today High School District 230 is more than 25 percent Arab and Muslim.

CHANGE FINALLY COMES in 2023

It appeared things might improve in April 2023 when educator Mohammed Jaber was elected to be District 230’s first Arab and Muslim trustee. But instead of opening the door to understanding, District 230 Board President Lynn Zeder rammed through an order silencing Jaber, preventing him from expressing opinions on issues outside of public board meetings.

Why would she open the door to Muslims or Arabs? I attended a veteran’s commemoration at Sandburg last November which in the past honored Mayor Pekau. The program listed the names of 30 administrators and Jaber’s was the only Arab and Muslim on the list.

The censorship is unheard of and has never been applied to any non-Arab or non-Muslim member of any other board in the region. Christian and Jewish religious rights are respected. School programs are scheduled around Christmas religious holidays.

And that’s a good thing. But, the same consideration is not given to Muslims. Even though I am a Christian Palestinian, many Americans see me as a Muslim. I often tell people “I am Christian by faith but proudly Muslim by culture.”

Anti-Muslim hate is on the rise in America, a side effect of the growing political polarization in America. Radio stations like WLS AM promote hosts who openly attack Muslims and Arabs on their radio programs. There is no counter-voice.

In February 2024, Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau unleashed his racism and Islamophobia against 70 Arabs and Muslims who attended a board meeting where they asked him to pass a Gaza “ceasefire” resolution -- the way Pekau previously passed a resolution supporting Ukraine.

Pekau responded by telling them to “go to another country.”

And it continued last week in a more sophisticated way when the District 230 School Board rejected Trustee Jaber’s proposal to reschedule student finals testing in May 2026 because it will conflict with a major Muslim holiday.

Many Illinois high schools respect religious holidays for Christians and some Jews. Imagine a school holding student finals during Easter week, including on Good Friday when schools are closed, too.

District 230 not only discriminates against Muslim students, but they also discriminate against Jewish students always scheduling finals and major tests on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, and ignoring requests to reschedule because of the Jewish holidays.

In 2021, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who is Jewish, pushed through two bills ensuring Jewish students can take time off for their major religious holidays (HB 160 and 169).

But not School District 230, which has one of the largest Arab and Muslim student populations in the state.

Racism and Islamophobia are at an all-time high. Many governments are reluctant to acknowledge Muslim rights, despite bragging about their “diversity” in race, national origin, and religion.

During the meeting, Jaber warned that District 230’s lack of action would force Muslim students to make a choice, either take their school finals, or, celebrate their religious holiday with their families.

“I don't know if a lot of us are educated on how important this holiday is. It's like Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah. It is very significant to the Muslim community. We have a large Muslim population at all three high schools. We have three mosques that are within the District 230 boundaries,” Jaber argued as board members rejected the idea.

“We shouldn't have students in the building, taking finals when their families are celebrating …When I see high schools being very flexible, like shutting down activities at night at schools up north because of their student population like Rosh Hashanah, I feel like we're not given that same consideration to our student population here which includes Muslims.”

Jaber argued that all of the religious groups should be treated equally including Muslims and Jews.

Not adjusting the finals testing schedule for next year in 2026, Jaber argued, would disrespect students because of their religion. He noted Zeder has not communicated with the three local mosques or with Arab or Muslim organizations in the district.

Jaber urged the board to “take more time” to consider the issue but Zeder rammed it through and voted 6 to 1 against Jaber’s concerns, citing bureaucratic issues. They argued Muslim students who celebrated their religious holidays could make up the tests on other days. Would they say that to Christians?

Zeder, who sounds more like a Pekau sycophant, incredulously insisted District 230 “doesn’t have enough data” to change the schedule to accommodate the Muslim students’ religious concerns.

Jaber has been a target of the board ever since he proposed adding the Arabic language to the school’s curriculum. Currently, District 230 students can study Spanish, French, Latin and German. Jaber noted that with much international focus on the Arab and Muslim World, learning Arabic would help all students pursue their future careers. It was sent to a committee by Zeder just to be buried.

Zeder displays a lack of sensitivity to all the district’s students and seems more concerned with politics.

Some people might think these issues are about whether or not to bring another language class to three high schools in District 230, or to accommodate Muslims. It’s not. It’s about the ongoing racism that has evolved from outright hatred 30 years ago to a more subtle form of discrimination that apparently the Arab and Muslim American community is very slow to see. It’s also about racism against Jewish students too, who don’t have as many students in District 230 schools.

Zeder’s rubber stamp board meets again at 7 p.m. on Feb. 27 at Victor Andrew High School, 9001 West 171st St., Tinley Park. You should be there if you were really “United.”

NOTES:

If you are interested in learning more about the immigration of Arabs to the Chicagoland area click these video links to view video documentaries on their history produced by Ray Hanania.

Video on the history of Arabs in Chicagoland

Video/audio and Interview on WBEZ Radio on the history of Arabs in Chicagoland

Please send me an email with your thoughts, suggestions and ideas to rghanania@gmail.com.