Religious intolerance in Illinois

The US Department of Justice has wrung a $75,000 settlement out of the school district of Berkeley, Illinois, which also has to provide sensitivity training to all its personnel as a result of denying a request from a Muslim teacher. As the delightful Dorothy Rabinowitz parses the offense:

The school teacher in question, Safoorah Khan, a middle school math lab instructor, had worked at the school for barely a year when she applied for some 19 days unpaid leave so that she could make a pilgrimage to Mecca. The school district denied the request: She was the only math lab instructor the school had, her absence would come just at the period before exams, and furthermore, the leave she wanted was outside the bounds set for all teachers under their union contract.

Thank goodness the Obama administration is on top of the case! -- Dan Ford