A teacher who was the center of viral controversy last year after a student said the instructor removed her hijab in class is suing New Jersey fencing Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad for her involvement in the incident’s spread online.
Last October, one of Tamar Herman’s second-grade students in the South Orange-Maplewood School District told her mother that Herman had pulled her hijab off her head, exposing her hair, the 7-year-old’s family said at the time. The family complained to the school principal.
Herman told her administrators the situation was a misunderstanding. She said the student was wearing a looser hood that went past the student’s eyes. Not realizing it was her hijab, Herman said she attempted to lift the fabric above the student’s eyes. That’s when she realized the student’s hair was not covered underneath and she apologized. Herman said the student usually wore a tighter-fitting hijab that was easily recognizable.
