Is the hateful rhetoric surrounding the anti-Sharia hysteria we’ve been reporting about filtering down into our public schools? A Houston television station reports that a local high school teacher has been put on administrative leave after he allegedly told a Muslim student “I bet you’re grieving” because of the death of Osama bin Laden. The parent of another student talked about the incident:
She said, “The teacher told the student that ‘I bet you’re grieving.’ And she basically looked at him and said what are you talking about? And he said I heard about your uncle’s death and she said wow, because she understood that he was referring about Osama bin Laden being killed and was racially profiling her.”
The remark was made to a classmate, an American-born girl of Muslim faith. It happened at Clear Brook High School in the Clear Creek Independent School District. The mom wanted to speak out about the incident but wanted us to protect her identity, saying she doesn’t want any retaliation against her daughter or the girl who experienced the inappropriate comment.
The mother said, “The student ended up crying over what was said to her by the teacher and the teacher asked her why she was crying and another student said it was because of what you said earlier. And his response was, oh, OK, and just kind of smirked and giggled and walked away.”
The school district is investigating the allegations.
Last month a Texas House committee unanimously passed a bill that supporters said will protect Texas from Sharia law — a mythical threat that Muslim-bashers have been using to promote fear and hate around the country.
Yes, but when will the Texas Legislature pass a bill that will protect us from dragons? What about the DRAGONS?!!
As a retired educator, I find this teacher’s attitude appalling. If the events are as stated, he should be dismissed immediately. There is no place for this type of bigotry in the classroom. This is not an issue of freedom of speech.
Anti-Communism as understood before the Fall of the Wall made iti impossible to consider that somehow China and Russia were a monolith that would react as such to incursions into Laos, This gave Ho Chi Minh the leverage he used to get the Russians and Chinese off against each other, and scare the US from shutting down the Ho Chi Minh trail.
This gave Ho the gift of a line of operation that led to a central position to invade South Viettnam through Laos and Cambodia.
Treating Islam as a single undivided unified and evil force severly hampers dealing with the estemist terrors,t
It should be clearly understood that in the USA “religion” shall not be established, regardless of which religion. The free exercise commandment simply states that the exercise of religion shall not be prohibited, which means totally. In the USA all actions are restricted by the laws of the land, regardless of religion beliefs.
Again, all actions are subject to the laws of the land. The free exercise of religion shall not be prohibited, which means totally forbidden. It is speech, press, peaceable assembly, and petition which shall not be reduced or abridged. The wording of the First Amendment is specific and clearly stated: see Webster’s Dictionary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb7SbUWw9dM .
A teacher castigating a child in a public school about matters not related to the specifics of education or of school discipline would make that teacher subject to discipline in any matter. That the child was singled out on a matter of race and religion is enough of a reason to dismiss the teacher, forthwith.
I need to tell a story of my 5th graders in 2011.
On 9/11 we didn’t tell our elementary kids what was up. Towards the end of the day my 5th graders knew something was up. We were outside at recess and a bunch of parents were coming in to pick up kids. Many others checked on them and decided to leave them at school till the end of the day. One of my kids looked a the sky and at the teachers/parents and asked Ms. Herbert is there a hurricane coming?
9/12 they came to school very upset and angry. They felt we should have told them. One girl chastised the other saying “My Mom told me why the teachers didn’t tell us – there weren’t enough adults to hug all the kids. ” They kept asking if the police would be patrolling near Mosques and where Muslim people lived. I sat them down and explained that just because some people claimed to be doing violence in the name of religion doesn’t mean they are following that religion.
One of my students angerly slapped the desk and said, “We KNOW that. What about the other bad guys?”
I told him “I don’t understand”
“These bad guys pretend to do this for their God, and they tick off the other bigots like the KKK and they go and hurt the good people just because the good people are Muslim”
I sat down and cried. I had been hearing nothing but hate from so many adults and these 10 and 11 yo kids were more clear eyed than any of them.