In a Hate Crime, Hijabi wearing Sixth Grader attacked by Schoolmates

New York - A Muslim girl student was attacked at her New York middle school by three schoolmates who referred to the girl as a terrorist and tried ripping off her religious headscarf, The Arab American News reported.

The sixth grade girl from the Bronx was playing during recess when three boys allegedly went after her. The boys, who are in the same grade as the girl, allegedly put her in a headlock and punched her as they attempted to take off her  headscarf. While beating up the girl, the boys allegedly called her ISIS.

Officers responded to a 911 call about the attack which was reported as a bias incident in which three students attacked one other student, but a police report was never taken.

The boys were expected to appear at a disciplinary hearing for their alleged actions shortly after the incident, but it was postponed in order to allow the boys’ families to hire legal representation, the school source said.

“Unfortunately young Muslims have been experiencing this for quite some time,” Corey Saylor, spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said.

“Since August of last year… we’ve seen a cycle of Islamophobia that’s had a much more violent tinge to it than we’ve seen in many, many years,” said Saylor, who serves as CAIR’s director of the department to monitor and combat Islamophobia.

The mass shooting that saw 14 people killed and 21 wounded when a husband and wife opened fire at a holiday party in San Bernardino on Saturday has left Muslim-American communities in fear of backlash.

The principal of P.S. 89, known as the Williams Bridge School, declined to comment on the incident.

“We are committed to promoting safe and supportive environments and a community of inclusion in all DOE schools,” a source at the department of education said.