CAIR hopes to open communication after anti-Muslim threats

ORLAND PARK, Ill. (WLS) -- Leena Yousef wants to know her daughter will be safe at Sandburg High School after anti-Muslim graffiti was written in a bathroom.

"I'm just scared. There's a lot of things going on," Yousef said. "He just told me that my kid was safe and I had nothing to worry about. Then I asked what are you doing about it? And they said, 'It's under investigation.'"

The graffiti written in January 2015 threatened violence. About 20-percent of the students at the Orland Park high school are Muslim. The school initiated a soft lockdown, where students can move around but visitors aren't allowed on campus, in February after the organization Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) complained that administrators were not doing enough to address the incident.

"The psychological effect that these things have, even if they're not followed through, and hopefully they aren't, cannot be discounted. It affects young children. It affects mosque goers. It affects mothers and fathers and everyone else in the community," Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR, said.

Consolidated High School District 230 released a statement in which it said Sandburg High School is "working in conjunction with the Orland Park Police Department on an active and ongoing investigation related to offensive graffiti found on bathroom stalls at the school."

The school district said it also works with local leadership in the Muslim community.

"The school is great. I mean I never had any issues," Yousef said. Yousef spoke Friday at a CAIR news conference organized after the Sandburg High School graffiti and two other incidents. In February, a McHenry County mosque received a threatening letter and just today CAIR-Chicago received a threatening phone call.

CAIR said it hopes to build a dialogue to help prevent any possible violence.