Religion policy questioned

Meeting sought with Wake board

RALEIGH -- Nineteen professors from Triangle universities have signed a letter asking the Wake County Board of Education to meet with them to discuss an incident at Enloe High School in which a teacher brought in a guest speaker who denounced Islam.

The professors, most of whom are Muslim, also urged Superintendent Del Burns to adopt a policy based on U.S. Department of Education guidelines that require teachers to be neutral when teaching about religion.

The joint letter refers to a Feb. 15 incident in which Enloe social studies teacher Robert Escamilla invited a Christian evangelist to his classrooms. That evangelist, Kamil Solomon, urged students to shun Muslims and handed out pamphlets titled, "Do Not Marry a Muslim Man, Part I," and "Jesus Not Muhammad, Part I."

The incident sparked outrage among some students and parents. Escamilla was suspended with pay last week as the Wake school system investigates. School system lawyers have been interviewing children who attended Solomon's visit.

"We are keenly interested to learn of the measures taken by the Wake County Public School System to prevent such an incident from ever happening again," the letter states. "And it is for this reason that we seek a meeting with the Board, which we hope shall take place in the near future."

Schools spokesman Michael Evans said Burns received the letter through e-mail. "He's responded to the e-mail with a phone call, but he's yet to talk to them," Evans said Friday.

The professors who signed the letter are from UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, N.C. State and Shaw universities.

Salah Bedair, a professor of electrical engineering at N.C. State, initiated the letter and said the purpose was not to go after the teacher but to make sure the school system had a policy to address how religion will be taught in the classroom.

"We are asking them to come up with a policy that would be respected and adhered to," Bedair said.