“A student with Middle Eastern features is asked if he is a “terrorist.” Another is told to go back to Saudi Arabia. A young woman wearing a hijab is told by her principal that prejudice was something she was simply going to have to learn to deal with.

A recent spike in the bullying of students of Middle Eastern descent in suburban Chicago schools needs to be urgently addressed, members of the Council on American Islamic Relations said Thursday.

“It’s every day we are getting calls from different family members, different school districts throughout the suburbs of Chicago,” said Emma Melton, a lawyer with the group, speaking to reporters at the organization’s downtown office. “Usually, they come in gradually throughout the school year. To see this to come in just a one-month period is really alarming to us.””

Read full article on The Chicago Sun-Times.