Yancey Ko
After reading this article, I see that this situation is involved with authority and authoritarianism. Authority is shown when the school district forces the school board to cancel all classes and start winter break early. It is difficult for the school board to disagree because the school district has more power. Authoritarianism is shown when the students of the world geography class have to obey the teacher. It is shown when Laurel Truxell, a student of the class, is pressured to wear a head scarf. In my opinion, there is less individual freedom for high school students. They always have to comply with the teachers because they care about their grades.
I do agree that there is authority and authoritarian involved in this situation, being that the teacher is the authoritarian figure and the school district is the authority figure. However, there is also another authoritarian figure, and that is the parents. After realizing that their children had to copy an Islamic passage in their world geography class, they complained to the school and to the school district, and exerted their power. The parents can be seen as authoritarian figures because they being oppressive in that they are trying to fire the teacher for making her students copy an Islamic passage.