A New Jersey mother is suing her son’s school district after alleging that he was forced to watch pro-Muslim videos and not taught about other religions on an equal basis.
Libby Hilsenrath filed the lawsuit on behalf of her 7th-grade son, a 12-year-old identified as C.H. in court papers. He attends Chatham Middle School. Hilsenrath, represented by the conservative Christian nonprofit Thomas More Law Center, is claiming her son’s constitutional rights were violated when she discovered one of his geography assignments was to watch an “Intro to Islam” video.
According to the lawsuit, the video “seeks to convert viewers to Islam and is filled with the religious teachings of Islam, presented not as beliefs, but as facts.”
School officials defended the curriculum, which includes learning about world religions, pointing out that such objective lessons are part of the social studies curriculum.
“Central to our mission as educators is to help students develop understandings of themselves, others and the world around them – something achievable only through deliberate work with material and topics previously unfamiliar to students,” Superintendent Michael LaSusa previously said in a statement. (Hilsenrath v. School District of the Chathams)
