A speaker is invited to a Grant County school on the anniversary of September 11th. But the appearance was abruptly canceled after parents found out the guest was a Muslim. <\/p>\n
Administrators say backlash from parents made them cancel the event at Sheridan Middle School.<\/p>\n
“I thought it was cool that we were going to be able to have somebody come talk to us from a different point of view,” said Cassie Nance.<\/p>\n
13-year-old Cassie Nance and her eighth grade social studies class was supposed to have a special guest Wednesday.<\/p>\n
“They thought that it was cool too,” said Cassie about her classmates reaction to the guest speaker. “They were excited to have somebody come.”<\/p>\n
Cassie’s teacher invited her neighbor, a Muslim, to come and teach the class that not all Muslims condone violence and many were just as appalled by the terrorist acts on 9\/11.<\/p>\n
“He wanted to make sure that there was always two sides to every story and I thought it was a good idea,” said Mikki Reagan, Cassie’s grandmother.<\/p>\n
But what some thought was a good idea, offended and appalled others. The talk was suddenly canceled Wednesday.<\/p>\n
“She said that she was told that he couldn’t come and that’s all that she could say,” said Cassie.<\/p>\n
But one parent says it’s not just that a Muslim was invited to speak on the anniversary of 9\/11, it’s that she didn’t know about it until today.<\/p>\n
“It turns my stomach for one thing that I didn’t know ahead of time,” said a parent who was against the guest speaker giving the lecture. She chose to remain anonymous. “It’s sacred, today is very important to a lot of us. The school should have left it at our discretion, as parents, to let us know if we wanted our kids subjected to that or not.”<\/p>\n
But Reagan says lack of wanting to understand is the problem.<\/p>\n
“We all need to be understanding of each other. That’s what we’re supposed to be,” said Reagan.<\/p>\n
Her granddaughter agrees.<\/p>\n
“It’s not right to treat him differently than everybody else,” said Cassie.<\/p>\n
The school is saying that they do plan on rescheduling this lecture for a later date. No word on when that is.<\/p>\n