17 July 2018

Manager who kicked Muslim kids out of a Delaware pool says she wasn't being racist and 'strands from their cotton clothing and headscarves could have clogged the drains'

A Delaware pool manager who asked Muslim children to leave a pool because of their clothing says her action was not discriminatory.

Glenda Pinkett, a seasonal city employee in the city of Wilmington, says she was following 'well-known guidance' that cotton clogs pool filters, even though there may not be an explicit no-cotton policy.

Tahsiyn Ismaa'eel runs a summer Arabic enrichment program and brought Muslim campers wearing cotton shirts, shorts and headscarves to the pool and they were asked to get out of the water.

It was one of four incidents in which the kids were told not to wear the clothing, which is part of their religious observance, at the pool.

'We were harassed on four separate occasions,' she said. 'She tapped several of them, like four little girls, tapped them and told them to get out of the pool.' [Daily Mail] Read more