According to just-released court documents, a settlement has been reached among the parties involved in an incident that occurred in October 2021 in the South Orange-Maplewood School District (SOMA).
Except for one wrinkle: Cassandra Wyatt, the mother of the child at the heart of the incident, is allegedly refusing to sign the settlement documents.
Here’s what we know: Back in 2021 in a second-grade classroom at SOMA’s Seth Boyden Elementary School, teacher Tamar Herman reportedly thought a student’s hood was covering her eyes and pulled the hood back. The student, however, was wearing a hijab, a Muslim head covering, under the hood and Herman apologized. But the whole thing blew up after Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, who attended South Orange-Maplewood schools, posted the accusation on Instagram.
The family of the second-grader, the Wyatts, sued the district and Ms. Herman, even after the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the case, charging “negligence, intentionally causing emotional distress and violating state law against discrimination.” Herman sued Muhammad and the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Rights (which had jumped into the fray) for causing ‘irreparable harm” and SOMA (which had put her on indefinite administrative leave) for “complicity in a parade of outrageous, false, defamatory and antisemitic statements and relentless discriminatory treatment.”
Reportedly the Wyatts had just agreed to accept $295,000 from SOMA and to drop all charges with no admission of guilt and a waive of all claims, past, present, and future.
But, according to sources, Ms. Wyatt has changed her mind and now won’t sign the settlement agreement.
More on this tomorrow.
