Students want out of Muslim culture class
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
MADISON — Some students at Madison Area Memorial High School are objecting to studying the Arab and Muslim culture and religion while the United States is at war with Iraq.
Madison Area High School's Richard Poulin holds a student petition to have an alternative to a course on Aran and Muslim religion and culture. click to enlarge
About three dozen students have signed a petition that calls for seniors to be given the option to take alternative assignments in the senior English class project, according to 18-year-old senior Richard Poulin, who circulated the petition.
"There are students who don't feel comfortable with this right now with the events that are taking place in Iraq," Poulin said. "I and others have family and friends over there right now fighting."
Poulin says his cousin, Ryan Holt, is in the 3rd Marine Brigade headed toward Baghdad and a friend, Craig Ladd, is in the army in Iraq.
"I'm angry right now that, with everything going on, they are going to force students to learn about this if they don't agree with it at this time. I know they are not all bad people, but I'm upset with things like Muslims throwing candy in the street on Sept. 11, 2001, celebrating because 3,000 Americans had just died."
Poulin said religion issues also factored into his decision to circulate the petition.
"I'm a Christian," Poulin said. "How come we can't sit down and study why we worship what we do, but we can sit down and study what another country does?"
Poulin and anyone else who refuses to take the class will get a zero and forfeit points toward graduation this spring, he said. Most are not willing to take that chance, Poulin said.
Carrie J. Foss, a 17-year-old senior, said she signed the petition because she has a cousin who is fighting in the war.
"I'm mad, angry and sad," Foss said. "I don't want to study about them now. Maybe later when it's all cooled down, but not right now."
School Administrative District 59 Superintendent Anthony Krapf said the school board and teachers must follow educational guidelines.
"It's up to us to follow the adopted curriculum," Krapf said. "As a public school we must prepare students to go out into different types of culture — because our job is to help the students, these young adults, to fit in and understand other cultures."
Krapf said he does not know all the details of the petition yet, but said there are some situations, such as in health class when teachers talk about human sexuality, in which students are allowed to opt out.
"I guess we would need to talk about this," Krapf said.
Poulin, who has a high grade-point average, a steady job outside school, and has been accepted at Beal College to study criminal justice, said he is willing to "take on an equal work load and reading material" to study another culture.
Krapf said the study of the Arab and Muslim culture and religion has been a class at the high school since the new curriculum was adopted several years ago.
"It is rotated from class to class," Krapf said. "This class has not had it, other senior classes had."
Poulin said one teacher tore up his first petition because he typed it in a computer laboratory at school. He said he does not know who to give the new, completed petition to because he fears no one will accept it.
"I wouldn't say I'm taking a chance, it's more like a moral stand," Poulin said.
Krapf, meanwhile, worries that students do not see the bottom line.
"I know (students) are trying to express themselves, but they are not looking to the future," Krapf said. "We have to be careful they make decisions that don't close doors for them. During high school, it's important to keep as many doors open as possible."
Darla L. Pickett — 474-9534, Ext. 343
dpickett@centralmaine.com