Olya Schenky, 
perhaps Wayland’s first-ever Muslim student, left earlier this week to return to the Ukraine, her homeland.
I have been told Olya was a model student, an academic achiever, and an incredibly polite and well-mannered young lady. But in these troubled times, I resisted the temptation to do a perky, positive feature story, despite the fact she may be one of the most unique students ever in these parts.
You didn’t have to be particularly observant to come to the understanding there was a Muslim student in our midst over the past academic year. I noticed it because of a group photo in January of business students who excelled in a district competition. She was one of them, but what gave her away was her custom of wearing a head scarf. She showed up occasionally in other group photos, but I continued to be reluctant to do a story about her.
The reason was that I believed if I called attention to her presence here it could cause her trouble, even though I understand her American parents, Timothy and Connie VanHouten, are cops. I still wondered if some local xenophobe could inflict some kind of emotional damage.
Muslims these days are particularly unpopular among certain Americans. The situation has become so toxic that many oppose allowing refugees from Syria seeking asylum in the United States. It’s become so toxic that some actually believe all Muslims are terrorists.
I have my issues with Muslims mostly because of the way they treat women. But I still believe in that do-gooder liberal notion of living in peaceful co-existence with other human beings.
I finally ended my news blackout when Wayland Schools public relations specialist Laurie Zywiczynski sent a picture and brief information about Olya making a presentation to a class explaining her faith because so often it is misunderstood.
Almost immediately there was one response asking how the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) could permit a Muslim to promote a religion in school while Christians could not. Obviously, this person, like too many others, misunderstands the meaning of separation of church and state.
Freedom of religion is not prohibited in our schools. God is not forbidden, despite what you may have heard. Prayer has not been banned. A student or any employee can pray over a meal or before a test, no one can stop him or her.
The trouble arises when someone leads everyone else in prayer, thereby telling them what to pray. The real problem is proselytizing, or attempting conversion.
Olya most certainly wasn’t trying to convert anyone to her faith. She was attempting to provide information, to promote understanding, to reduce the antagonism that we have become famous for.
I can already hear cries of “Remember September 11!” Yet on that fateful day if we would have taken a step back, done some critical thinking instead of knee-jerking for revenge, perhaps we could have avoided the worst foreign policy disaster in our nation’s history — Iraq.
We invaded a country and its people though they hadn’t done anything to us. In my mind, the architects of that decision should face a Nuremberg-style trial for war crime against humanity.
And as Olya proved to us here, she’s a terrific example of humanity.
PHOTO: Olya Schenky shows her diploma with Wayland High School Principal Tom Cutler.
