A high school teacher in Georgia found a note on Friday in her classroom telling her that her headscarf is no longer allowed, and instead should be used to hang herself.
“Why don’t you tie it around your neck & hang yourself with it…,” the note reads, signed “America!”
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Mairah Teli, 24, posted a photo of the note on Facebook saying she believes it’s a result of Donald Trump winning the U.S. election.
A spokesperson for Gwinnett County Public Schools told Global News that they are aware of the note and are doing everything they can to identify who wrote it.
“We don’t tolerate hate speech towards our teachers so our school started an investigation,” Sloan Roach said.
“They are doing everything they can to know who wrote it and left it for her. We are just trying to get to the bottom of it.”
Teli told local news agencies she was shocked and disturbed by the note but addressed it directly with her students at Dacula high school.
“We are living in a time when there is a lot of disagreement, a lot of conflict,” she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’s important to teach them how to disagree (respectfully).”
She told her students she is happy to speak about her hijab if they have any questions.
Since posting the note on Facebook, Teli says she has received some hateful comments but mostly messages of support.
“I am overwhelmed and deeply touched by all of the outcry and support that I have received in the past 24 hours. I can’t even begin to articulate how touched I am to be receiving messages from all over the country with your support,” she posted on Nov. 12.
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Stories of alleged hate crimes have surfaced on social media in the wake of the U.S. presidential election.
Since then, Trump said on CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday that he is a “very sober” person and said if some of his supporters are harassing others, they should “stop it.”
Teli wrote on Facebook that she posted the photo of the note to raise awareness of the reality of America’s current societal state.
“Spreading hate isn’t going to ‘make America great again,'” she wrote.
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