SAN DIEGO – The San Diego Unified School District is investigating a substitute teacher's complaint alleging "religious indoctrination" in an Arabic language program, which includes an afternoon recess for prayer as well as single-sex classes serving Muslims.
Speaking in front of the school board yesterday, teacher Mary-Frances Stephens said the program at Carver Elementary, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade campus, violates the law.
Carver has had an Arabic program since September, when it folded a charter school into its campus. The predominantly Somali Muslims in the program are allowed to play or pray during recess.
In setting up the program, school district officials consulted guidelines by the U.S. Education Department that allow prayer during recess. They also noted that the federal government has recently allowed districts latitude to expand single-sex classrooms.
The district has hired an outside lawyer and a retired administrator to investigate Stephens' allegations.
Stephens was assigned March 8 to Carver, where she said she taught a "segregated class" of Muslim girls. She said she was given a lesson plan that included an hour for prayer. She alleged that a teacher's aide led the prayer.
Stephens told the school board, "What I saw is clearly a violation of administrative, legislative and judicial guidelines."
Principal Kimberlee Kidd said Stephens misconstrued the lesson plan. She confirmed that an assistant was assigned to the classroom for an hour. During that time there was a 15-minute recess, Kidd said. The aide, who is Muslim, prayed alongside the students but did not lead the prayer, she said.
The Carver staff is acutely aware of the law and has been careful not to overstep, Kidd said.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, students may pray in school "during recess, the lunch hour, or other non-instruction time." The department also says public school employees may not encourage, direct or discourage prayers or actively participate in them with students. However, teachers may "take part in religious activities where the overall context makes clear that they are not participating in their official capacities."
Carver absorbed more than 100 students from the charter school and also hired its staff. Because the merger happened days before school resumed in September, the Carver staff had little time to plan. As a result, the Arabic program has operated separately from the rest of Carver.
Kidd is working on integrating the two programs to eliminate the feeling of two schools on one campus.