Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

On January 2, 2002, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Granada Islamic School in Santa Clara, CA is a place stuents learn about Islam and get a good education. "Lately, it's also become the place where they explain to visitors from the press and the neighboring community just what it's like to be both Muslim and American... Students said they didn't feel different until after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when school closed for four days. Families, worried about being blamed, kept women and children indoors... At an assembly after school reopened, students struggled to understand why some innocent people died and others were targets of hatred... Islamic studies teachers devised projects so students could write about what happened... Mosque members started the school in 1988 as a place to educate their children in the traditions and teachings of Islam. Many saw it as a safe alternative to regular public and private schools where kids might be exposed to drugs, alcohol and other influences prohibited by their religion... With Silicon Valley drawing high-tech workers from myriad Muslim cultures, the school has 380 students in kindergarten through eighth grades. More than 2,000 people from the South Bay -- home to an estimated 50,000 of the Bay Area's 200,000 Muslims -- worship at the mosque," which is next door to the school.