A Ravenwood High School freshman said her Muslim beliefs were put to the test when commanding officers in her Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program told her she couldn’t both wear a headscarf and march in the September homecoming parade.
Demin Zawity, 14, has since quit the JROTC and returned to regular physical education classes, but the Council on American-Islamic Relations sent a letter of complaint to Williamson County Schools Director Mike Looney.
Zawity said she felt like crying when she was told she couldn’t wear the headscarf with her uniform. She’d been wearing it all along, but homecoming marked the first time she was going to wear her JROTC uniform as well. “They were making something that is not such a huge deal into something so dramatic,”she said. “The next day was the parade, and I couldn’t march. If I can’t march, I want it to be because I don’t want to and not because of my religious headwear.”