Teen stirs controversy with Middle Eastern garb in yearbook photo
DANA POINT, Calif. -- A student said he wore a traditional Middle Eastern headdress known as a keffiyeh in his senior portrait to exercise free speech, but the yearbook staff said the publication wasn't the place for it, CBS Los Angeles reports.
"I wanted to provoke the school system into stereotyping me and censoring me," said Jonathon Kari, who said that he wore the headscarf to make a point.
"And I wanted to open people's eyes to the fact that this is still happening. People are still stereotyping and still putting down on people who they think are inferior to them," he said.
Sara Madani, the editor of the Dana Hills High School yearbook, was surprised.
"If you wear something for religious or cultural purposes, obviously you're more than welcome to wear that in your senior portrait," said Madani. "This student doesn't wear that every day. He never has."
Madani said her student staff of 30 unanimously voted against using Kari's picture in the yearbook, which she describes as a keepsake parents buy to hold precious memories.
"A photo has no words, so whoever sees the photo in a product that parents pay for, they're gonna perceive it however they perceive it, which could be offensively," she said.
"I can see how it can be offensive to people who are ignorant to the fact that it's a universal piece of clothing," said Kari. "I'm not trying to make fun of any particular race or any religion. This is a form of free speech."
Kari's father wrote a letter to the Capistrano Unified School District asking that the yearbook support his son's First Amendment rights.
Madani said she supports free speech but that the high school yearbook isn't the platform for it.
"Start a club, write an article, get a soapbox and stand in the middle of the cafeteria and yell it out for everyone to hear, but to put it in the yearbook, that just is obscure, and it doesn't make any sense," she said.
Madani said the school district supported her decision not to print the photograph.
"For us to allow that would be setting a precedent saying, 'Hey, say whatever you want. The yearbook is your mouthpiece, and we are your mouthpiece to do this.' That's never been the case, and it won't be the case," she said.
Kari said he is Filipino and Caucasian and has no ties to the Middle East.
CBS Los Angeles reached out to the school district for comment but had not heard back at time of publication.