Annapolis High School is located in the south-end of Dearborn Heights.

DEARBORN HEIGHTS — The mother of an Arab student at Annapolis High School is speaking out against the school district following months of alleged bullying and racial slurs from other students that escalated into an altercation at a powderpuff football game on Friday, November 7. 

Amaya Almawri, the 14-year-old freshman, was suspended for five days after she slapped a male student for attempting to grope her on the field after she finished playing her powderpuff game. 

Before the altercation, several students had allegedly been making racial remarks from the bleachers, shouting slurs that included “don’t throw the bomb!” when she would hold the ball in her hand. 

According to Naghem Bazzi, Amaya’s mother, her daughter had been bullied and harassed by other female students at the school since her daughter enrolled there at the beginning of the school year. 

Bazzi, a single mom, had moved into the neighborhood near Annapolis High School this year. Previously, Amaya had been enrolled at a local charter school in Dearborn, where they had lived before moving to Dearborn Heights. 

At Amaya’s request, Bazzi finally moved her daughter into public education. But as soon as Amaya began attending Annapolis High School, located in the south-end of Dearborn Heights, an area with very few Arab American residents, bullying and racial slurs from fellow students allegedly began to surface.

“For a while they were saying stuff like ‘you are going to blow up the school,’” Bazzi said of her daughter’s experience. “At first she ignored it and laughed it off, but then more girls began insulting her. It got to the point where she was scared to eat lunch in the cafeteria.”

Last month, Amaya informed the assistant principal, Cheryl Howard, of the bullying that was occurring on a daily basis. But after the girls were warned by administration to stop harassing her, the bullying only intensified. 

Amaya was being called a “snitch” by other students for informing the assistant principal about the bullying.

Students continued to confront her in hallways and in classrooms, making statements such as “Don’t blow up the classroom” and “Do you have a bomb in your backpack?”

The intimidation reached a point where Amaya had to eat lunch with a teacher every day in the cafeteria. She was usually an honor roll student, but her grades began suffering as a result of her anxiety.

“It’s to the point now where she can’t concentrate at all,” Bazzi said. “She’s failing her tests and eating lunch with the teachers every single day. I’m a single mom and I’m trying to raise my daughter. I feel for her and I don’t want her to go to this school if she can’t even eat lunch in the lunchroom.”

Bazzi said her daughter has no desire to go back to Annapolis following the altercation last week. Amaya received a five-day suspension, while the male who attempted to grope her was only suspended for two days. 

According to Bazzi, the female students who had been harassing her daughter for weeks have still not received any disciplinary measures from the administration.

“Why is my daughter the only one being disciplined?” she asked. “The girls who harassed her have lied to the principal repeatedly. If my daughter was a problem to them, why have they never complained about her? We just moved into this neighborhood and the last thing we wanted to do was start trouble.”

This week, Bazzi said she contacted the Dearborn Heights District 7 Administration regarding the continuous bullying against her daughter, but the administration took minimal measures in assisting her. 

Bazzi told the school board she was looking to move her daughter to a different high school and they suggested she contact the administration at Dearborn High; a high school in the west end of Dearborn— a city and school district north of where they currently reside. 

Bazzi believes the Annapolis Administration has done little to implement an anti-bullying culture at the high school. She also believes students at the school district lack “diversity awareness.” She urged the administration to hold programs to inform students of cultural sensitivities. 

“A lot of students there haven’t been around Muslims,” she said. “They need to hold something to educate them about who we really are. All they know is what they hear and see on TV, and that’s problematic as there are many Muslim residents in this city.”

Bazzi is not sending her daughter back to Annapolis following her suspension.  She’s also reached out to the Arab-American Civil Rights League (ACRL) for assistance. 

She said that organization told her they often receive complaints of Arab American students being mistreated at both Dearborn Heights District 7 and the Crestwood School district, the two school districts in the city of Dearborn Heights. 

“We need to raise awareness of this issue,” Bazzi said.  “It makes me wonder if there are other Muslim girls who attend Annapolis that are also being targeted by students but may be too scared to speak out.” 

Calls to the administration at Annapolis High School were not returned at press time.