New Jersey teacher sues Olympic medalist one year after viral Instagram post

A teacher who was at the center of a viral controversy last year after a student said the instructor removed her hijab in class is suing New Jersey fencing Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad for her involvement in the incident’s spread online.

Last October, one of Tamar Herman’s second-grade students in the South Orange-Maplewood School District told her mother that Herman had pulled her hijab off her head, exposing her hair, the 7-year-old’s family said at the time. The family complained to the school principal.

Herman told her administrators the situation was a misunderstanding. She said the student was wearing a looser hood that went past the student’s eyes. Not realizing it was her hijab, Herman said, she attempted to lift the fabric above the student’s eyes. That’s when she realized the student’s hair was not covered underneath and she apologized. Herman said the student usually wore a tighter-fitting hijab that was easily recognizable.

She remains on administrative leave. Her attorneys say her employment status is “in limbo.”

Herman says a series of Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook posts upended her career and personal life, forced her to move out of her home, and to enlist security to protect her from threats.

Herman’s name, the girl’s claims, and any and all opinions surrounding the issue quickly splashed across the internet. Herman’s attorney called it a “firestorm of controversy.” News crews and police cars lined the school’s perimeter. For weeks, Maplewood School District officials said they received thousands of emails and phone calls.

Now, she’s suing the posters, who include Muhammad, the first female Muslim American athlete to medal at the Olympics, and others.

At the center of the conversation surrounding the classroom incident were Instagram posts made by Muhammad, who fences wearing a hijab and is also from Maplewood.

Muhammad wrote in a post about the incident to her more than 380,000 followers that Herman “forcibly removed” the student’s hijab, something Herman has repeatedly denied. The post, which was live up until Tuesday evening, has since been deleted.

“This is abuse,” Muhammad continued. “School should be a haven to all of our kids to feel safe, welcome and protected – no matter their faith. We cannot move toward a post-racial America until we weed out the racism and bigotry that still exist in all layers of our society. By protecting Muslim girls who wear hijab, we are protecting the rights of all of us to have a choice in the way we dress.”

Other public figures, including New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, posted comments about the incident. Murphy said he was “deeply disturbed” by the accusations.

New Jersey’s chapter of CAIR — a nonprofit Islamic civil liberties group — called for Herman’s “immediate firing.”

In a lawsuit filed Oct. 6 against Muhammad, CAIR New Jersey, and CAIR NJ deputy executive director Selaedin Maksut, Herman’s lawyers say that the viral social media posts “ostracized” her and ruined her career. Murphy’s tweet is cited in the lawsuit, but he is not named as a defendant.

“Herman had her reputation impugned, she was targeted with threats to her physical safety, was mercilessly bullied and ridiculed, was shamed in local and national news articles, and humiliated in front of her community,” the lawsuit says.

Herman is Jewish and white. The 7-year-old student was Black. That context provided additional fodder for heated online discourse.

As noted by the New York Times’ initial coverage of the incident, some online comments pointed out overlaps between Jewish and Islamic religious practices. Others “lashed out angrily.”

It comes at a time when antisemitism and Islamophobia are both impacting the lives of millions of Americans.

“[Herman was] subjected to antisemitic vitriol and hatred by readers and viewers of the [social media posts],” her attorneys said. “She suffered and continues to suffer from emotional and mental harm.”

According to the lawsuit, Herman was forced to move out of her home permanently. Before that, she had to ask for police protection.

The suit says Muhammad, CAIR New Jersey, and Maksut’s social media posts were defamatory and fueled by “a combination of greed and a fierce desire to burnish their brands as fighters against Islamophobia.”

“We cannot yet comment on this filing, which our legal counsel must review,” Maksut told The Inquirer. “However, we continue to strongly stand by this student, who had the clear constitutional right to cover her hair for religious reasons without physical interference or humiliation.”

This is at least the third lawsuit to result from the incident. The girl’s family sued the school district and Herman over the altercation. Earlier this month, Herman sued the school district for placing her on administrative leave. The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office announced in January it would not file criminal charges.

Herman’s latest lawsuit is being funded by the Lawfare Project, a Jewish civil rights advocacy nonprofit.

“This lawsuit seeks both to exonerate Ms. Herman from the defendants’ malicious and antisemitic accusations, and to send the clear message that defamatory statements that turn people’s lives upside down have consequences,” Benjamin Ryberg, the Lawfare Project’s chief operating officer, said.

A representative for Muhammad did not respond for comment.