Monday, February 13, 2012
Although students do not all agree with the Northwood High School administration's decision to request a letter from a rabbi in the case of Caleb Tanenbaum, they still see their school as a place of religious tolerance and acceptance.
When school administration told Caleb Tanenbaum's parents that their son needed a letter from a rabbi in order to wear an unconventional kippah to Northwood High School, his father said he felt "singled out in a discriminatory manner." But other Jewish students at Northwood High School have defended the administration's treatment of the school's Jewish population. While eating kosher pizza during a Feb. 8 meeting of the Northwood Jewish Culture Club, about 15 Jewish students discussed what happened at the school and how the community has reacted. Northwood recently changed its headwear policy so that a letter from a spiritual leader will no longer be required. Sarah McNally, who was in Caleb’s class when a security guard told him to …
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Northwood High School
919 University Blvd W, Silver Spring, MD
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Friday, February 10, 2012
Students will no longer be asked to obtain a letter of justification from a spiritual leader in order to wear a religious head covering.
Northwood High School has changed its policy regarding religious headwear. A parent’s word is now sufficient to justify a student’s religious reason to wear a head covering, according to a letter sent home to Northwood parents Feb. 9. The policy change came after a meeting earlier this week between the Northwood principal and the father of a Jewish student who has been at the center of recent debate over religious headwear at Montgomery County Public Schools. When 17-year-old Caleb Tanenbaum started wearing a large, black, knitted hat to Northwood the last week of January, school administration asked him to remove it. After Caleb’s parents, Steven and Lana Tanenbaum, confirmed that it was a traditional Jewish head covering, the …
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Northwood High School
919 University Blvd W, Silver Spring, MD
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Wednesday, February 1, 2012
The principal at Northwood High School told Patch that “students are asked for verification when their religious headwear is not traditional headwear that we are accustomed to seeing.”
UPDATE: Northwood High School has changed its headwear policy. Read the story on Patch. ------------------------------------------------------- The parents of a Jewish student at Northwood High School are upset after the principal asked them to provide a letter from a rabbi justifying the kippah their son wore to school. Last week Steven Tanenbaum’s 17-year-old son, Caleb, began coming to classes wearing a kippah sruga--a Jewish head covering that his mother had knitted for him. When the administration told Caleb to remove the kippah, Caleb refused, saying that he wore it because he is Jewish, according to his father, Steven Tanenbaum. “He said, Call my mother. My mother made this for me,” Tanenbaum told Patch. But even when his parents …
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Northwood High School
919 University Blvd W, Silver Spring, MD
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Cliff Schwartz
8:01 pm on Saturday, February 11, 2012
Frankly, I believe unless the wearing or not wearing a hat affects the safety of the school (e.g. hiding a weapon or drugs) or ability to learn (e.g. a student's large hat prevents another student from viewing the white board), it should not be prohibited. more ›