Veteran teacher is STILL on unpaid leave 16 months after removing hijab from student
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A veteran teacher is still banned from working 16 months after she was accused of deliberately pushing a hijab off a second grader’s head in class, sparking months of ugly confrontations.
Tamar Herman remains on paid leave from Seth Boyden Elementary School in Maplewood, following the October 2021 incident with eight-year-old Sumayyah Wyatt.
Herman claims that he thought Sumayyah was wearing a hoodie, which he wanted to take off in class.
But Sumayyah’s parents, Cassandra and Joseph, said the action was intentional and accused the teacher of being Islamophobic.
Tamar Herman, who worked at Seth Boyden Elementary School in Maplewood, New Jersey, was placed on administrative leave and had to move and seek protection after receiving threats on her life following the October 2021 incident.
Joseph launched into a vile and anti-Semitic tirade against Herman, who is Jewish, when the Washington Post.
Accusing Herman of deliberately removing her veil, she said: “They (the Jews) believe they are chosen by God.
They come with the money. They monopolize a lot of things for money.
The Jews, the Semitics, run Hollywood. Lots of things run. They are all Jewish names.
‘There has always been a conflict with the Muslims and the Jews… That is why they are fighting in Palestine. He also claimed that the teacher “never apologized.”
Herman says that Cassandra Wyatt showed up on her doorstep in early 2022, saying that Sumayyah missed her and that the incident had been blown out of proportion.
He has now filed two lawsuits; one against your employer for failing to provide you with due process.
Despite the time that has elapsed, there have been no efforts to launch an investigation to lift.
Another lawsuit was filed against Selaedin Maskut of the New Jersey chapter of the Muslim rights group CAIR.
Also listed in that second lawsuit is Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, a local Muslim woman who betrayed Herman after the incident, publicly shaming her online.
Surprisingly, Herman and Muhammad had previously been friends, and Herman cited the hijab-wearing sportswoman as an inspiration to his students.
Herman says that both Maskut and Muhammad smeared her as a racist.
Muslim Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad shared the claims publicly on social media. She is pictured at a fencing event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.
Sumayyah Wyatt, 8, is the second grader at the center of the hijab controversy.
CAIR intervened calling for Herman’s immediate dismissal. Muhammad also started a Change.org petition that garnered nearly 1,000 signatures to bring attention to the matter.
“Herman told the student that her hair was beautiful and that she no longer had to wear a hijab to school,” Muhammad wrote to his thousands of followers on Facebook and Instagram.
“Imagine being a kid and taking off your clothes in front of your classmates,” he said. ‘Imagine the humiliation and trauma this experience has caused you.’
The 2016 Olympic medalist, who graduated from the South Orange-Maplewood, New Jersey, school district, is also a children’s book author and has written books celebrating the hijab.
Herman and Muhammed were once friends. Both women worked out at the same gym, and Muhammed even spoke in Herman’s class one year.
Herman said she felt betrayed and hurt and confronted Muhammad about the posts asking why he didn’t reach out to her first.
He then asked him to remove them as he considered Muhammed to be influential and claimed that his “misinformation has changed my life overnight”.
“I considered you a friend,” Herman wrote, according to The Washington Post. “Not only is it 100% false, it was very painful to read.”
Muhammad quipped: ‘So Sumayyah is a liar?’
Herman responded that “anyone making these accusations would be a liar and that he doubted Sumayyah would actually say that.”
But Muhammad never responded to Herman and has since filed a lawsuit. alleging that Muhammed’s smear campaign ruined his teaching career and led to threats on his life.
Herman’s attorney, Samantha Harris, said that “misinformation shared on social media has caused Ms. Herman tremendous harm.”
She continued ‘after more than 30 years of devoting her heart and soul to children of all backgrounds, [Herman] now he has had to ask for police protection due to the threats he is receiving after the spread of false information on social networks.’
Sumayyah Wyatt’s mother, Cassandra Wyatt, told ABC7 that the teacher needed to ‘pay’ for the incident.
Seth Boyden Elementary school teacher Tamar Herman has been accused of removing a second grader’s hijab, and her lawyer says the ‘false narrative’ resulted in threats.
Sumayyah Wyatt’s mother, Cassandra Wyatt, said ABC7 when the incident first occurred that the teacher needed to ‘pay’ for the incident.
“I had to know that it was a hijab,” she said. ‘She has to pay for that. I would love for her to apologize to my daughter, and then my daughter would feel better.”
“I have to go introduce her to a different world than the one I’ve been trying to protect her from,” Cassandra Wyatt said.
She added that she had told her daughter that her hijab is her protection.
‘Now she asked me: ‘Well, if this is my protection, my teacher took this out of my head.’ So how can you explain it to your child? she said.
The family’s lawyer called the incident “incredibly disturbing”.
“It’s very, very, a symbol of contempt for their religion and certainly something that has affected my clients in general.”
When Cassandra found out that Herman was Jewish, she posted her reaction on Facebook and noted her religion on a note. facebook live post that read, in part, “that’s why I think she did it now I’m furious,” The Washington Post reported.
When asked about the comments, Wyatt, whose family is black, claimed that Herman should have been more sensitive about head coverings since Jews wear them too.
But then he added: ‘I think she’s racist. I think she is anti-Muslim.
She later amended her comments to say she wasn’t sure if Herman was a racist or anti-Muslim, the news outlet said.
Months after the incident, Cassandra went to Herman’s house unexpectedly telling him that her daughter adored her as a teacher and revealed how the matter had gotten out of hand.
The girl’s mother would not confirm or deny whether she went to Herman’s home, the news outlet reported.
Sumayyah Wyatt’s father said he initially wanted his children to attend a private school, but later decided on Seth Boyden Elementary School at his wife’s urging.
Her two sons, Sumayyah and her other daughter, now attend a private school.
Since the allegations, Herman said she had to move and now lives in fear that someone might hurt her.
He is experiencing ‘devastating headaches’ and is having trouble sleeping,’ according to one of his lawsuits.
“She’s been damaged,” he says.
Herman has filed two lawsuits, both of which are pending.
The first lawsuit alleges that the district violated her due process rights by placing her on administrative leave without a hearing and discriminating against her based on her religion, among other charges.
The second lawsuit, a defamation lawsuit, was also filed against Muslim Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad and Selaedin Maksut of CAIR New Jersey.
The 2016 Olympic medalist graduated from the South Orange-Maplewood, NJ, school district and is also a published author who has written one of two children’s books celebrating the hijab.
Herman said “the past year + has been a nightmare,” in an emailed response to questions.
‘Over the past 20 years, I have given my heart and soul to all of my students. In the blink of an eye, my reputation as a dedicated and caring teacher was destroyed.’
She added: “A false accusation was posted online and my life was turned upside down overnight.”
One of Herman’s friends and allies said at a school board meeting during a January 2022 school board meeting and just after the prosecutor announced there would be no charges.
She described Herman as “a kind person who could never have done what he is accused of.”
He also called for the district to address anti-Semitism related to the case.