Wylie East High investigates unapproved group handing out Qurans and hijabs on campus
A Wylie ISD high school is under scrutiny after a video circulated online showing a student claiming a group was on campus handing out Qurans and hijabs to students.
The incident happened on Monday during the lunch period at Wylie East High School.
District officials said they became aware of the situation Monday night when the video began circulating. They said the group was not approved in advance and acknowledged that school protocols were not followed.
Student video sparks controversy
The video shows the Wylie East High School Republican student club president describing what he said was a group handing out religious materials to students.
"Today, there was an organization called Why Islam? That had a huge table booth in our in front of our school today, and they were giving out hijabs to girls throughout the high school, and they were giving out Qurans, and they also had pamphlets about sharia law, and other Islamic things, and they were giving out these bags," he said in the recording.
Students describe what they saw
Student Kennedy Wiliams said she saw the table on Monday and witnessed some of the activity. She said the people handing out materials looked like students.
"It felt very OK," Wiliams told CBS News Texas. "It felt like any other club we have, like we have a Christian club, we have a republican club, and they all do the same thing, so I didn't find anything wrong with it."
District acknowledges oversight failure
On Tuesday, the district sent a letter to parents and staff saying an outside organization invited by a student club had distributed the materials. The district said outside groups are not allowed to distribute materials on campus without prior approval. In this case, officials said permission was not granted, and the group was not authorized to interact with students outside the club.
In the letter, the district wrote, "Mistakes were made, and we take full responsibility. We are actively addressing the lapses and reviewing our internal procedures and staff oversight related to student clubs and guest approvals to ensure incidents like this do not happen again. At the same time, we firmly reject any suggestion that this was part of a coordinated effort to promote a religious or political agenda."
Students question reaction to incident
"It seemed like also it was only people of the religion that were going up to the table," Wiliams said. "I find it really weird that they are kind of pissed about it since we're forced to have the ten commandments in every single classroom, which each to their own, but I know parents of my friends, are like there's nothing wrong with it, it's just a religion, and they weren't forcing it on anyone too, they were just handing it out to whoever wanted to."
District officials confirmed that Wylie East High School does have the Ten Commandments displayed inside classrooms. Officials said the matter remains under investigation and declined an interview on Tuesday.
