On Sept. 24, State High Principal Laura Tobias sent an email to teachers informing them that the prayer room will be temporarily shut down until further notice, due to misuse of the room by students.
The email was sent by Tobias the day the shutdown was put in place, and informs teachers that students who do request to pray in the prayer room will be receiving an email from Equity Inclusion & Belonging Liaison Aaron Moon notifying them about the change. Due to the shutdown, students will no longer be able to pray in the prayer room for the time being.
As the shutdown was in place, the State High administration team was working with the Office of Equity, which ensures that all students have the support and resources that they need to succeed. Together, they were trying to come up with a solution to the shutdown. Moon wrote in an email, “The prayer room has been implemented for about 3 years and is located in the mental health matters room, on floor C0. The room is used by students who partake in the Muslim faith, and was open to them at the hours of 1-2 pm to align with their ‘Dhuhr’ prayer, which is the second prayer of the day in the muslim religion. The prayer room was not widely known throughout the whole school and was mainly used by 18 students.”
As of Nov. 4, the prayer room will be up and running again thanks to efforts from the administration of the Office of Equity.
“This was never intended as a permanent shutdown, just a hold so that leadership from staff and students could find a better process and streamline so that students’ academic time and culture could align,” Moon said.
An email was sent out by Moon to teachers informing them that on Nov. 4, students will be allowed to use the prayer room again with new expectations for the rules. The prayer room is only open from the time of 1:30 to 1:50 p.m. and can only be used by students who have a signed permission slip from parents. The reason for the slip is to ensure that only students who are meant and allowed to pray in the room are using it. At the designated time, both boy and girl groups (who have permission to use the room) will be attending.
As word of the prayer room shut down has been cycling through State High, students have realized they never knew that the building had a prayer room. It was evident that the prayer room was not known to have existed by many students; however, students who are not a part of the Muslim faith support having this room open for students of the Muslim faith.
Freshman Maya Lukac was not aware that State High had a prayer room, or that it was shut down. “I think if students are gonna use it appropriately, then I feel like that it’s a good thing to have for students who want to use it,” Lukac said.
Other students who do not use the prayer room, but know about the room, are also in support of trying to find a solution for students who use the room. Freshman Annie Starinchak is one of the students who has been aware of the prayer room and is in support of keeping it open.
“It’s a safe space for students with that [muslim] religion to have a place in school to pray,” Starinchak said.
The prayer room is now officially open again and has the support of administration, students who do and don’t use the room, to keep the room open from here on out, so that students do have this resource at their disposal. Students will be expected to use the room appropriately and sufficiently so that the same incidents do not occur again.
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