Jon Kari wrapped a keffiyeh – a cotton scarf commonly worn in the Middle East – over his head and around his neck and lined up with dozens of other South Orange County high school seniors for his yearbook portrait.
The Dana Hills High student wasn’t surprised that he got odd looks from people in line. The 18-year-old, who is Filipino and white, said he was out to make a statement about sterotyping by wearing the scarf.
“It was to make people realize that stereotyping and racism are still present,” Kari said. “Our teachers make us think it’s gone, but it’s not.”
Now, four months later, he is defending his actions – and alleging censorship and religious discrimination – after Sara Madani, the Dana Hills yearbook student editor-in-chief, decided not to publish the photo and officials at the high school and Capistrano Unified School District expressed support for her decision.
Madani, who is of Middle Eastern descent, said she told Kari the scarf could be perceived as offensive.
“To me it looks like a cultural head wrap that Middle East women wear,” Madani said. “It’s peculiar. He’s not Middle Eastern. He’s not a woman and he’s not Muslim.
“If he was wearing it for religious or cultural purposes as an everyday outfit, he’d be welcome to wear it in the yearbook,” she added.
Madani said she didn’t make the decision on her own – she took an anonymous vote among her 30-person yearbook staff. No one thought it should be in the yearbook, she said.
School officials have told Kari he can have another photo taken for the yearbook without the scarf.
Kari and his father, Doug Kari, have sent complaints to Timothy Sampson, the yearbook adviser, the Dana Hills principal and district officials. On Friday they sent another complaint, asking the board to hold a hearing to “reverse the unlawful behavior.”
Kari challenges Madani’s assertion that he shouldn’t be able to wear the scarf in the photo because he is not Muslim.
“I picked the keffiyeh because it’s used all around the world,” he said. “Because of that you can’t stereotype. If it’s universal, why are you stereotyping me to be an Arab?”
Kari said the photo issue is about more than his rights – it’s personal. He felt the sting of discrimination and labeling as a young boy growing up in Dana Point and being frequently identified as Hispanic, he said.
He said he felt different because people made him feel different.
“My parents reassured me I wasn’t different,” he said. “By high school I had a lot of friends who were from different ethnicities. I realized then I’m just a guy and there’s no difference between me and my white friends.”
Kari also said he was frustrated that the district gave no reason why he shouldn’t wear the scarf in the photo – only that they were protecting Madani’s right to decide what is published in the yearbook.
Sampson said Friday he had no comment. Calls to the superintendent’s office at the district were not returned.
Adam Goldstein, an attorney who represents the Student Press Law Center in Washington, D.C., agrees with Madani and the district. He said California education code gives a student editor the right to make content decisions.
“The editor has every right to make the call in this case,” said Goldstein, who has talked to Madani and district officials about the situation.
Madani, 17, said she became aware of the photo in November when it came over with other prints from the photo studio and Sampson contacted her about it. That’s when she and Sampson called Kari in to chat. She asked him why he had the scarf on his head.
“First he was silent,” she said. “Then he said, ‘This is my First Amendment right.’”
She said she and her staff looked through every yearbook since the school opened in 1971 and found no photos of a senior wearing anything on their head, she said.
In a recent interview at her home in Laguna Niguel, Madani showed past yearbooks. The books – highlighting students for academics, sports and theater – are to be memoirs of the senior year, she said.
“It’s not a place for political expression,” she said. “Regardless of his reason, a photo has no words. To say because I’m Middle Eastern, I would be offended... Regardless of who I am, I stand up for all kinds of people.”
Kari said the opinion among students at Dana Hills is divided.
“Most people who don’t know me thought I was being offensive,” he said. “People who know my intent, know I was right to do it. They think it was brave of me to point out flaws in our culture.”