Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Penn School Criticized For Portraying Arabs as Terrorists


Fri 17 May 2019 | 07:15 AM
Yassmine Elsayed

A safety drill exercised by a Pennsylvania school district has spurred controversy after it had a teacher posing as a shooter and donning what appeared to be a Middle Eastern headdress.

A video of the drill that circulated on social media, appears to show the actor wearing a kaffiyeh (head scarf). The Penn-Trafford School District said Wednesday that organizers didn't intend to portray the shooter as Arab or Muslim at the January training.

The district says that volunteers were provided costumes by a consultant group and that there was no intent to represent any particular culture or religion.

The Islamic Center of Pittsburgh says "to stereotype the shooter is appalling given the data on active shooters and the recent shootings at the Tree of Life and Christ Church."

The video was for internal teacher training only, but footage was posted on social media this week.