A U.S. military veteran father says he has been effectively banned from his daughter's school in Maryland after he raised objections and got into an argument with faculty over a mandatory homework assignment about the religion of Islam.
Kevin Wood, a Marine Corps veteran who fought and lost friends in Iraq, claims school officials at La Plata High School slapped him with a no trespassing order on Tuesday after he had a disagreement with the school's vice-principal over giving his daughter an alternative assignment, Fox News Dallas-Fort Worth reported.
"He was threatening to cause a disruption or possible disruption at the school," stated Katie O'Malley-Simpson, spokesperson for Charles County Public Schools, adding that Wood had crossed the line by threatening the vice principal.
However, Wood denied making any threats and claimed to have back-up witnesses who could support his version of the incident. "I have witnesses that have said I did not threaten anybody in any way shape or form."
But he was a little more descriptive as to what he told a school official about the assignment in a recent interview with SoMD News.
"I told her straight up, 'you could take that Muslim-loving piece of paper and shove it up your white [expletive],'" Wood said. "If [students] can't practice Christianity in school, they should not be allowed to practice Islam in school."
Assigned in history class to 11th grade students, the three-page assignment asked students to give an explanation of Islam's Five Pillars, Muhammad, and Mecca.
"I don't agree with it," Wood told Fox News in a phone interview. "You can't study God or Christianity in school. You've got atheist suing schools for saying 'God' in the pledge and not being able to say prayers before football games, but we can force-feed our kids Islam."
"I don't force my religious views on them, so don't force your religious views on me," Kevin added.
However, school officials have stated that the assignment would come under the subject matter of world history rather than religion. "We're not teaching religion," said O'Malley-Simpson. "We're teaching world history."
"We cannot discuss our Ten Commandments in school, but they can discuss Islam's Five Pillars?" Wood's wife, Melissa, argued, adding that "Islam should not get priority over Judaism or Christianity."
But for Melissa, the hardest lesson of all has been hearing her husband described as something she says she knows he is not, according to TheBlaze.
"A lot of people do not understand where my husband is coming from," said Melissa Wood, adding that her husband was the most patriotic person she had met.
Meanwhile, "learning about a major world religion as part of a world history class doesn't necessarily seem objectionable," according to IJ Review. "However, the worksheets assigned to Wood's daughter seem to delve gratuitously into aspects of Islam that have little to do with history and are perhaps better left for discussion outside of the classroom."
"The bigger issue, and one the school has yet to address, is the appropriateness of children being taught materials objectionable to their parents," it further added.
While the family is attempting to resolve the matter, Wood said his daughter will take an "F" for the assignment if she is not given the opportunity to complete a different assignment, Fox News reported.
