The father of a La Plata High School student has been barred from the school grounds after officials said he threatened to disrupt the school environment.

Kevin Wood was issued a no-trespass order last week after a telephone call with La Plata High Vice Principal Shannon Morris on Thursday. Wood called to air complaints regarding his daughter’s world history assignment that asked students to examine elements of the Islamic religion.

Morris and La Plata High Principal Evelyn Arnold reported to the Charles County Public Schools central office that Wood in his phone call had threatened to upset the school environment in some way Monday, according to school spokeswoman Katie O’Malley-Simpson. O’Malley-Simpson declined to elaborate on what threats Wood had made.

If the trespass order is ignored, police could be called and have the violator removed. “We don’t take that lightly,” said O’Malley-Simpson. “We have a lot of students, and safety comes first. We don’t allow disruptions at the schools, especially if we’re forewarned of them.”

Wood, a former corporal with the U.S. Marine Corps, where he was enlisted for eight years, said in an interview Monday afternoon outside of the school system’s central office that he did not wish for his daughter, a junior at La Plata, to learn the Islamic religion, a faith he does “not believe in,” he said.

Wood and his wife, Melissa Wood, said they reached out to the school last week and asked that their daughter be removed from her world history course for the duration that the class covered Islam. The Woods said they spoke by a telephone to a woman, who they identified as “Ms. Pearl,” who listened to their request and said she would investigate the possibility of an alternative assignment. A directory on the La Plata High School website lists Shanif Pearl as an administrative assistant.

It was Morris who returned their phone call, the Woods said. Morris informed them that the teacher could not offer an alternative assignment, and any assignment the Woods’ daughter missed would receive a failing grade. “I told her straight up ‘you could take that Muslim-loving piece of paper and shove it up your white [expletive],” Kevin Wood said in an interview. “If [students] can’t practice Christianity in school, they should not be allowed to practice Islam in school.”

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OKLAHOMA CITY – Hundreds of local Muslims were in for a surprise when they left their congregational prayer service Friday afternoon at their mosque in Oklahoma City.

A large group of Christians and those of the Jewish faith from as far away as Guthrie and Shawnee gathered and greeted those Muslims as they walked out of the mosque. Students and faculty at Oklahoma City University (OCU) organized the event.

Janet Boone works in the OCU Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office. “We were getting so tired of all the negative and all the hateful things that were being said to and about our Muslim friends,” she said.

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