MUSKOGEE, Okla. — A Muslim girl banned from school for wearing a religious head covering rejoined her classmates yesterday, and Muskogee school officials took a new look at the district’s dress code.

Eleven-year-old Nashala Hearn will be allowed to wear a head scarf, called a hijab, while a school attorney reviews the Muskogee school district’s policies.

“I think this is a victory for Islam, as well as other religions,” Nashala’s father, Eyvine, said after dropping off his relieved sixth-grader around 11 a.m. “All praise due to Allah.”

School attorney D.D. Hayes said the district decided to compromise by allowing Nashala to return in a covering that shows her face.

“We’re going to look at the legal authority submitted in support of her position and try and determine if there’s any validity to their arguments that there’s a problem with our dress code,” Hayes said.

He said he had been deluged by so many e-mails from outside groups questioning the case he had to change his e-mail address.

One group that threatened legal action, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called the school’s action a temporary solution.

“We’ll have to wait and see what the ultimate decision is on changing the dress-code policy,” said Ibrahim Hooper, the group’s communications director.

“We are also confident that school district administrators will ultimately decide in favor of changing the dress-code policy to accommodate all students’ religious practices, as mandated by the Constitution and Oklahoma law,” he said.

He cited the free-exercise clause of the First Amendment and the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act.

Nashala was suspended Oct. 1 by Benjamin Franklin Science Academy administrators for three days for violating the dress code, which bars hats, caps, bandanas or other headwear. She started wearing the head covering for the first time this year.

After returning from the first suspension still wearing the hijab, she was sent home for five more days.

Hayes said the head scarf that caused concern covered all but the girl’s eyes. A face-revealing head covering she had worn had gone unnoticed.

“Nobody noticed this head covering for the first month of school,” he said.

Other school districts across the country, including Tulsa, have adopted dress-code policies to include religious wear, medical necessity and for special occasions.

Hayes said a decision on whether to recommend policy changes to the school board will probably be made by the first of the year.

“If we conclude that we’re wrong, I’ll recommend we change it,” he said.

The girl’s father said Nashala had not wavered in her decision to wear the hijab, even if it ultimately meant attending another school

He said she was happy, however, to return to class.