New Jersey school district apologizes for offending Muslim group with question about ISIS terror group in quiz
A New Jersey school district apologized for offending a Muslim activist group this week after a middle school teacher featured a class quiz question naming the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, as a terror group.
The Wayne Township Public Schools superintendent’s office sent out a statement to the district expressing regret over an “inappropriate” question that was asked during a quiz at Schuyler-Colfax Middle School earlier this week.
“The question was offensive and contrary to our values of respect, inclusivity, and cultural sensitivity,” the office said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
The superintendent’s letter addressed a recent complaint made by the activist group “Teaching While Muslim” (TWM) on social media.
The group, which describes itself on its website as a network of Muslim educators that confronts “discrimination, implicit bias, and institutional racism” against Muslims in public schools, shared an Instagram post condemning a quiz question that one teacher posed to his seventh-grade students about the Islamic State.
The group shared a screenshot of the question, which read, “It is a terrorist organization that commits acts of violence, destroys cultural artifacts, and encourages loss of life in order to achieve its goal of global rule under strict Islamic Sharia law.”
Students were prompted to choose the group from the multiple choices below, which included, “The Shining Path,” “al Qaeda,” “Islamic State,” and the “Palestinian Liberation Organization.”
The image featured the “Islamic State” bubble filled in, as it was the correct answer. TWM condemned the question in the post’s caption, stating, “We have seen anti-Muslim & anti-Palestinian sentiments, teachers, and content in our schools over and over again. But we must not allow it to continue. Call and email everyone that you can.”
“This is not okay on a million levels. Go. And yes. This is real,” the post added. It also included a screenshot of the school principal’s alleged apology for the question, as pointed out by conservative journalist Andy Ngo on X.
A recent Congressional research document defined the Islamic State as “a transnational Sunni Islamist insurgent and terrorist group. At its 2015 height, the group controlled large areas of Iraq and Syria from which it launched attacks in the region and beyond.”
The document continued, noting that “The 2024 Annual Threat Assessment (ATA) of the U.S. Intelligence Community assessed that ‘ISIS will remain a centralized global organization even as it has been forced to rely on regional branches … [and will attempt] to conduct and inspire global attacks against the West and Western interests.’”
When asked to confirm details of TWM’s account against Schuyler-Colfax Middle School, the superintendent’s office provided its statement apologizing for the incident.
It read, “First, I sincerely apologize on behalf of the school district. Such incidents are unacceptable and do not reflect the standards we uphold for our educational community. We understand the deep concern and disappointment this has caused among students, parents, and the broader community. It is also important to recognize that one question does not define our entire school community.”
The statement went on to say an “investigation” had been launched into the matter and found that “the test question was derived, in part, from software used as a resource for this class.”
“It is crucial to emphasize that our schools are committed to fostering safe and respectful environments for all students, regardless of background, belief, race, or religion. We have a process in place for reviewing curriculum materials and have already initiated a review of this software,” it added, also mentioning that the school continues to “provide cultural sensitivity training to all teachers and staff.”
