When Fatmata Mansaray and Hajah Bah cross the stage Saturday for their high school graduation, they plan to do so proudly wearing headscarves of black and gold tucked beneath their graduation caps. Those are the Freedom High colors.
But last month their hijabs drew sharp questions from administrators at the Northern Virginia school — in what the two observant Muslims described as an embarrassing level of scrutiny. School officials threatened them with discipline, the students said, demanding that they remove the scarves and pressing them to get permission slips from their parents to prove they were Muslim. The young women, both 18, said the principal suggested the scarves might simply be a cover for an unfinished hairdo.
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