By Patti Zarling
Green Bay Press-Gazette
Four Muslim students at Keller Elementary School in Green Bay slip out of class or recess about noon each day to pray in a tiny alcove. For five to 10 minutes, the group of girls is not distracted by passing students.
"We do it because our parents want us to," fourth-grader Ayan Artan said. "It's important."
The girls are members of a growing Somali population in Green Bay. And as that population grows, schools try to accommodate the strict prayer schedule followed by many students who practice Islam, educators say.
A few residents have approached the Green Bay school district with concerns about the prayer time, worrying it takes away from learning and uses school resources to accommodate religion.
But educators say they're required by law to give students a time and a place to pray or complete other religious practices. They note that the district accommodates Muslim students as well as Christians who choose to pray before meals or read the Bible during study hall.
"The issue of students praying in school has come up a number of times this year, in part because we have an increasing number of students who practice the Islam faith, many of whom are Somali students," said Barbara Dorff, student services director. "It is our responsibility to find a private place for these students to pray and to allow them to pray."
She said districts that receive federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act funding must certify that schools have no elementary or secondary policies that prevent participation in prayer, which is protected by the U.S. Constitution.
The Green Bay area has seen an influx of Somalis as families leave the war-torn African country to settle in the U.S., often to be with extended family.
About 170 of the district's more than 20,000 students this school year are Somali, said Julie Seefeldt, director of English Language Learner programs. The district reported 90 Somalis were enrolled in November 2010, compared with 49 in September 2010 and just 18 in June of that year.
Those who practice in strict accordance with the Islam faith pray five times a day at specific times. Children from these traditional Muslim families may begin this practice in elementary school, usually at 7 years old.
Typically, only one of the daily prayer times, which change every month according to a calendar, falls within the school day - about midday.
The district allows building officials to decide how to accommodate students who pray, Dorff said.
"High schools, for example, are very crowded, but we figure the schools know best which areas they have available, and the students, which area they'd like to use," she said.
The district accommodates students of all faiths, Dorff said.
Jewish students, for example, can take school off for the holidays Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kipper.
Christian students are allowed to pray around the flagpole before school. They also can attend Fields of Faith, an annual event in which hundreds of students across the country gather in the evening to talk about their Christian faith.
Students at West, East and Preble high schools lead Bible study groups, according to Green Bay district spokeswoman Amanda Brooker, and Southwest and Preble students host Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapters.
Students are allowed to say grace before lunch, pray before a test or read the Bible during study hall, Dorff said.
"Every year we've had requests from parents who don't want their kids reading certain books they might find objectionable, often for religious or moral reasons, and we respect that," Dorff said. "At the same time, these groups or activities have to be student initiated and led. It wouldn't be lawful for us to initiate. We couldn't do that.
"We were founded on religious freedom. To me, it's all about the United States of America and constitutional rights and freedoms. We live in this country - I think we should be proud."
It's been about a year since Keller Elementary School began to accommodate the prayer schedule for Muslim students. It enrolls 34 Somali students out of 189 total students, principal Kim Spychalla said.
"This is something relatively new for us," she said. "We are learning. It's not something that has really affected other students. It's just accepted that that's what they do."
Not all Muslim families adhere to the strict prayer schedule, and only a handful of those students at Keller School leave class to pray, said Hamida Ismael, a paraprofessional for the district who is Somali. Those who do bring a note from home.
Spychalla noted many Muslim boys choose to play football when Muslim girls come in to pray.
"Girls are more bold than boys at that age," Ismael said. "Boys are kind of intimidated. They are more shy. They just want to blend in with other kids."
Artan says they can pray anywhere, but the girls chose the glassed-in alcove as a quieter place tucked away from most student traffic. The four girls - two pairs of sisters - stand in a line to pray, recently tuning out the noise of preschoolers heading down a flight of nearby stairs.
At West High School, a small group of Muslim students leave class and use an unoccupied classroom to pray.
"They miss a minute or two of instruction; the loss is minimal," principal Mark Flaten said. "They don't miss any classes, and we have rooms that aren't utilized at that time.
"We accommodate them, but I don't think it's any different than how we accommodate other students, like someone on crutches, in certain circumstances. It's the right thing for us to do, and I hope any school would do it."
The Milwaukee district, the largest in Wisconsin, also has a growing population of Somali and Arab students, spokeswoman Roseann St. Aubin said. Some schools have concentrations of certain ethnicities, and those who practice Islam will meet for prayers, she said.
Over the years, the Green Bay district has made room for waves of new students, Dorff said.
Twenty to 30 years ago, the district saw a growing number of Hmong students as that refugee population left Laos for the U.S. In recent years, the district has seen a growing Hispanic population.
It has hired bilingual teachers and staff to accommodate those ethnicities. Minorities make up about 40 percent of the district's student count, according to the state Department of Public Instruction.
"It's a good thing for us to enroll diverse students," Dorff said. "But it can be a learning curve."
Source: www.twincities.com
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