Who is Tamar Herman? Wiki, Biography, Age, Accused of Forcibly Removing Student’s Hijab

Tamar Herman is a teacher at Seth Boyden Elementary School in Maplewood, NJ, who was accused on social media of forcibly removing a 7-year-old girl’s hijab in front of her class. Olympic athlete Ibtihaj Muhammad identified the teacher in an Instagram post. The school district has not confirmed the identity of the teacher.

Cassandra Wyatt, the mother of Sumayyah Wyatt, a second grader, told ABC 7 New York that the girl no longer wants to wear the headscarf to school.

the The South Orange & Maplewood School District issued a statement Friday October 8, 2021, saying they are investigating the allegations and following their existing policy.

“We remain committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in all of our schools, including providing anti-bias and racism training for all educators in the district on a regular basis,” the statement said in part. “We put the words into action as exemplified by our adoption of an intentional integration plan, the creation of an assistant superintendent position focused on access and equity, and engagement with outside equity experts.”

Cassandra Wyatt said the teacher should apologize and others asked that the teacher be fired

An attorney for the Wyatt family told ABC 7 New York that the girl wears her hijab to school every day, but said that on October 6, 2021, the teacher forcibly took it off.

“In the end, the teacher manages to remove the hijab from her head, followed by a strange statement which is: ‘Your hair is beautiful,'” the lawyer told the news station. “It is incredibly disturbing. It is very, very symbolic of contempt for their religion and certainly something that has affected my clients in general. ”

Cassandra Wyatt told the news outlet that she wants the teacher to face the consequences.

“I had to know it was a hijab,” she told ABC 7. “You have to pay for that. I would love for him to apologize to my daughter, and then my daughter would feel better. ”

Organizations and the public are calling for the teacher to be fired. The New Jersey office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations wrote on Twitter to “request immediate dismissal” of the teacher.

CAIR NJ’s Twitter thread read:

Muslim students already deal with bullying from their peers, it is unthinkable for a teacher to increase their distress. Islamophobia in our public schools must be addressed in New Jersey. Classrooms are a place for students to feel safe and welcome, without fear of practicing their faith. Forcibly removing the religious veil from a Muslim girl is not only exceptionally disrespectful behavior, but also a humiliating and traumatic experience. We call for the immediate dismissal of the Maplewood teacher who took a young Muslim student’s handkerchief. Anything less is an insult to the students and parents of Maplewood, NJ.

 Muhammad, an Olympic fencer, drew public attention to the allegations with an Instagram post

Muhammad posted about the allegations on Instagram October 7, 2021, naming the teacher as Tamar Herman and describing the teacher’s alleged actions as abuse.

Muhammad wrote:

Yesterday, Tamar Herman, a teacher at Seth Boyden Elementary School in Maplewood, NJ, forcibly removed a second-grade student’s hijab. The young student resisted, trying to hold her hijab, but the teacher removed her hijab, exposing her hair to the class. Herman told the student that her hair was beautiful and that she no longer had to wear a hijab to school. Imagine being a child and stripped of your clothes in front of your classmates. Imagine the humiliation and trauma this experience has caused you. This is abuse. Schools should be a haven so that all of our children feel safe, welcome, and protected, regardless of their faith. We cannot move toward a post-racial America until we eliminate the racism and bigotry that still exist in all layers of our society. By protecting Muslim girls who wear hijabs, we are protecting the rights of all of us to choose the way we dress.

the the school district issued a statement saying they found out about the allegations through social media. The statement said the school district “takes discrimination issues extremely seriously.” However, they said that social media is not the place to draw research conclusions.

“Social media is not a reliable forum for due process and the staff members involved have the right to due process before any action is taken,” the statement said. “We must comply with our legal obligations to maintain the confidentiality of matters relating to staff and students. We will use the District’s existing due process mechanisms to ensure fair and just results based on the results of our investigation. Any decisions or results related to this will be reserved for after the completion of the investigation. ”

Wyatt said his daughter had seen her hijab as her protection

Wyatt told WABC-TV that the alleged incident has sparked difficult conversations with her second-grade daughter. Sumayyah Wyatt told her mother that she no longer wanted to cover her head, Cassandra Wyatt told the news outlet.

“I have to present a different world to her than the one I’ve been trying to protect her from,” Wyatt told the news station.

Wyatt said in the interview that he had taught his daughter that head covering is her protection.

“Now he asked me, ‘Well, if this is my protection, my teacher took this out of my head.’ So how can you explain to your child? ” she said.

 Herman is a friend of Muhammad, said his ex-husband, who came to his defense.

The teacher’s ex-husband, Leonard Herman, came to her defense in a interview with NBC News.

“Not true, I know my ex-wife. I know she would never do something like that, ”Herman told NBC News.

Herman said his ex-wife is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and said she and Muhammad are friends who work out together at the gym.

“I don’t know why he’s doing this,” he said of Muhammad in the NBC News interview.

Herman was put on leave, his attorney said, and believes his client will be cleared of wrongdoing

Ronald Ricci, Herman’s attorney, told NBC News that he is confident that his client will be cleared of any wrongdoing once a full investigation is carried out.

“The versions shown on social media are 100 percent false,” Ricci told NBC News. “We are confident that, after a full and fair investigation, it will be discovered that Ms. Herman did not commit any crime.”

Ricci told NBC News that Herman was put on leave.

“It is a normal course of action for any teacher in New Jersey who holds, with any kind of allegation, that the proper route is administrative leave with pay,” Ricci told NBC News.