NEW YORK – Two Muslim teens at a New York School may be expelled for fighting back against bullies who targeted them because of their religion.
Adam and Jameel Siam said they have suffered anti-Muslim harassment for at least two years at Williamsville East High School, but they said administrators have done nothing to address their complaints.
“I was bullied for Osama bin Laden, I’ve been called a terrorist,” said Jameel, a junior. “We’ve been called terrorists, go back home and make bombs in your basement or you’re going to come back and shoot up the school — and it’s just like, people kept pushing our buttons.”
The two students have attended schools in the district since preschool, but claim the bullying only intensified a few months ago.
“You don’t know if someone is going to come up behind you or come right up to you and say something,” said Adam, a sophomore. “You always have to watch where you are, what you’re doing, who’s around you. You always gotta have a watch out.”
They’ve been hounded on social media and harassed in the hallways at school.
Over the weekend, vandals broke windows and doors at the family’s home by throwing rocks and eggs.
The boys have filed at least two reports with Amherst police— once after a fight in December and then again after their home was vandalized.
Their mother said she has repeatedly asked school officials to help stop the bullying, but she said her complaints have been ignored.
“This has been festering for years now,” Rehab Siam said. “They’ve never looked into the whole serious issue.”
Now the boys face an expulsion hearing after fighting with their tormenters.
“When I go into school, all I hear are these racial comments,” Jameel said. “It just keeps pushing my buttons where I don’t focus on my studies anymore, I focus on my safety.”
The disciplinary hearing had been scheduled for Monday but was pushed back, and the school superintendent declined to comment specifically on the matter.
“I can’t live a normal life now, especially how they came to my house,” Jameel said. “It’s not only at school that I need to be afraid, it’s that I have to be afraid everywhere I am now.”
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