The sun shines directly overhead, leaving no shadow behind the cars in the parking lot. Shortly after this time, when the sun passes its zenith, the dhuhr (midday) prayer starts during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. On weekdays, this prayer time starts during the school day, requiring a private and safe area for students to pray. However, Kirkwood High School did not had a designated prayer room until recently.

In 2021, bill RSMo 190.995 was passed in Missouri that mandated public schools to provide students and staff access to a lactation room. Dr. Amy Barker, English teacher, said there was previously a clause stating that schools were exempt from requiring access to a lactation room. She said thanks to lobbying from Jamie Schwartz, Spanish teacher at WGHS, legislation passed in 2021 that eventually changed the law.

“Schools in the area had a year to comply with the law and create a lactation space,” Barker said. “I’ve been high in the [teacher’s] union leadership, and I will say the buildings [within] the school district were not necessarily excited to make this change and give a space specifically to women for this purpose. Most teachers are women, and many of them are at a time in their lives when they are having children.”

The law states the room must be private, secure and have access to running water and a refrigerator. Barker said previously, teachers who were lactating would have to pump in their classrooms or in their cars.

“It’s crazy to me that the space was hostile to women,” Barker said. “This is active and structural hostility. We’re a big school, [we] have a lot of spaces and [we] needed to designate one as just a lactation space.”

Barker said Principal Dr. Seth Harrell has been very supportive of the lactation space. She said he made sure there is comfortable furniture and screens for dividers if more than one person needs the space.

“We need to view moms as humans who have needs, especially in the current labor market for teachers,” Barker said. “[We] need to make this job open and welcoming to everyone who has a certification. That means you need to be open and welcoming to moms.”

While lactation rooms are now required, there is currently no law requiring Missouri public schools to have a prayer room. There is a law allowing students to participate in religious practices during non-instructional times, such as lunch or recess. Adam Rowland, English teacher, said he first heard about the lack of a prayer room at KHS from his student, Riedwan Iman, class of ‘24, in his Philosophy class.

“Public schools should not discriminate on the basis of religion,” Rowland said. “ Sometimes it feels like ‘Well, those students might be a minority here, so they should figure it out,’ and I don’t really think that’s fair.”

Rowland said Iman told him that during Ramadan, she would pray in the business hallway in between the elevators and a desk because it was a private area of the school. In Islam, it is forbidden to walk in front of someone while they are praying, as it could disrupt their focus and connection.

“If I went to a place that I thought was going to express religious freedom, and then they did not accommodate me, I would feel less seen,” Rowland said. “I would also feel like if there were only a few of us in the school, I [would be scared to] speak up.”

Rowland said he went to the English Department chair, Dr. Eric Turley, to bring up the lack of a prayer room to the KHS administration. He said Iman allowed him to use her name as an example of a student who needed a room for religious reasons.

“I think that it was an oversight, and it wasn’t really thought about,” Rowland said. “I don’t think it was purposely discriminatory. On the other hand, you should be aware of [religious needs] as a building. To [the administration’s] credit, once we got stuff going, they found the space, and [now] we’re all good. It [just] wasn’t great that it took until 2025.”

Sama Tarroum, sophomore, said she did not know about a prayer room until recently. She said she would rather be able to pray at the proper times than wait to go home.

“We’re in a public school, and there’s so many different types of people with different backgrounds and religions and races,” Tarroum said. “[At] Kirkwood, we have the resources to accommodate everyone’s needs.”

Tarroum also said that it should be up to the schools to help create these spaces for students and staff. There is now both a lactation room and a prayer room available in the library.

“It’s interesting in a profession [where] so many teachers are women, so many administrators are men,” Barker said. “It’s really important that we listen to each other so that everyone’s needs can be met. I think it’s nothing but good for everyone when we have young moms as teachers in the building.”

This story was originally published on The Kirkwood Call on April 21, 2026.