LA PLATA, Maryland, October 31, 2014 – In Maryland this week, a former Marine and father of a La Plata High School student was banned from school grounds after a dispute arose between the man and the school concerning the teaching of Islam in his daughter’s World History class.
Kevin Wood, a former corporal with the U.S. Marine Corps who served in Iraq, noticed on Wednesday evening that his daughter’s homework assignment was on Islam. The assignment included a three page essay on the five pillars of Islam, Mecca and Mohammad.
Wood objected to the religion of Islam being taught to his daughter, a junior at the La Plata High School, and approached the school to request a different assignment be issued in the original assignment’s place.
Wood stated, ““I don’t agree with it. You can’t study God or Christianity in school. You’ve got atheists suing schools for saying ‘God’ in the pledge and not being able to say prayers before football games, but we can force-feed our kids Islam.”
The school denied the father’s request however, and later issued a ban barring Wood from the school’s property entirely claiming he threatened to cause a “possible disruption“.
However, Melissa Wood, the mother of the student said that her husband never made any threats and that the situation has been blown “entirely out of proportion,” in an interview.
A spokesperson for the school, Katie O’Malley-Simpson stated, “We’re not teaching religion, we’re teaching world history,” in defense of the school’s decision to not issue a different assignment to the student.
The homework assignment reportedly contained questions such as, “How did Muslim conquerors treat those they conquered?” A copy of the homework acquired by MyFoxDC.com showed the correct answer for this question was, “With tolerance, kindness and respect.”