Midday Roundup: Virginia schools closed over Islamic 'indoctrination' flap

Contentious lesson. Community outrage over an Arabic language assignment led a Virginia school district to cancel classes today in an abundance of caution. During a world geography lesson in Staunton, Va., earlier this month, high school teacher Cheryl LaPorte asked students to copy an Arabic statement called the shahada that, when translated, means, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” LaPorte said she meant the lesson to demonstrate the intricacy of Arabic writing, and she never asked students to say the statement aloud or make a confession of faith. Some parents said the lesson amounted to Islamic indoctrination. They expressed their outrage at a town forum earlier this week. The school district has been inundated with calls and email from around the country, and the local sheriff’s office is helping to screen the communication. Administrators said they have received no specific threats against schools but are concerned about the “tone and content of those communications,” which led to the decision to cancel school today.

Locked out. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is disciplining Bernie Sanders’ campaign after a staffer accessed an off-limits area of the DNC voter database. The campaigns of both Clinton and Sanders have access to the database, but a firewall separates their activities. The firewall went down briefly Wednesday, though, and the Sanders campaign took a look at how Clinton is using the data. The staffer who accessed the data—and has since been fired—said he only wanted to see how much Sanders’ information was compromised during the glitch. The DNC has suspended access to the database by the Sanders campaign as a result of the breach.

On the mend. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, awaiting sentencing in a hush-money case, suffered a stroke and was admitted to a hospital the first week of November, his attorney said Thursday. Hastert also has been treated for sepsis, a potentially life-threatening complication of infection, and had two back surgeries while in the hospital, attorney Tom Green’s statement said. “We are very hopeful that Mr. Hastert will be released from the hospital in the early part of the new year,” Green said.

Personal address. Defense Secretary Ash Carter admits he used a personal email address for the first few months he was in office. Carter told CBS he used his iPhone to send what he describes as “administrative messages” to his immediate staff and that no classified information was involved. “Even that, I shouldn’t have been doing, and when I realized that I stopped,” he said. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he finds it difficult to believe Carter showed the same poor judgment as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in using a personal email address for official business. He’s requested copies of Carter’s emails to confirm that no sensitive information was compromised.

Cleared for sainthood. Pope Francis has approved a second miracle attributed to Mother Teresa, clearing the way for her to be canonized as a Catholic saint. In 2008, a Brazilian man healed miraculously from a viral brain infection. He was in a coma and dying, but he awoke as his wife and her pastor prayed for Mother Teresa’s intercession in a nearby church. The man has since resumed working and is in good health. And despite tests showing he had become sterile, he has had two children since.