Colchester is a town of some 15,000 people in central Connecticut. It has one public high school, Bacon Academy, which has an enrollment of 900+ students in grades 9 through 12. In many respects, it is a typical American school, its corridors and classrooms brightly teeming with adolescent energy. But all is not bright, or right, at Bacon Academy—indeed, at a great many of this nation’s schools. A darkness lurks amid the madding crowd.

From the Hartford Courant:

Behind Burqa, Student Gets An Education In Bigotry

COLCHESTER — Caitlin Dean was raised not to discriminate against others because of their race or religion. But as a white suburban teen of Italian and Irish descent, she often wondered what it would be like to be the target of such abuse.

She found out “behind the burqa.”

The 15-year-old freshman volunteered with a few other students to wear traditional Muslim clothing to school for an entire day in February after a Middle Eastern Studies teacher at Bacon Academy announced that she was looking for students to promote her class by wearing the garb. Caitlin covered her slender frame and short brown hair with a periwinkle burqa, which concealed her face.

The hateful and abusive comments she endured that day horrified teachers, the teen and many of her classmates. The remarks underscored a persistent animosity toward American Muslims that is driven largely by the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But they also opened up an important dialogue that could help teenagers in Colchester and across the state view the Muslim culture differently.

“Hey, we rape your women!” one upperclassman said as he passed Caitlin in the hallway.

“I hope all of your people die,” another sniped.

“You’re probably going to kill us all” and “Why do they let people like this in the country?” were other remarks she heard on Feb. 1. [full text]