Teacher resigns after allegedly calling Muslim middle schooler a terrorist

A Pennsylvania teacher has been forced to resign for allegedly calling a young Palestinian-American student a “terrorist” in front of other pupils.The 12-year-old pupil said he merely asked to change seats at an after-school class at Dauphin Middle Schools on Jan.16 when the unidentified female teacher told him: “I do not negotiate with terrorists.”It left the seventh-grader feeling like “the whole world around him was spinning,” his father, Adam Rahman, told WHP on Monday.“He was belittled, marginalized,” the dad said.

“That person loosely said it and discriminated against a child very easily in front of others.”The district announced the teacher’s resignation at a board meeting Monday, soon after a coalition led by the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) vowed to call for an “expedited” investigation.However, the boy’s family remained angry that the teacher was allowed to resign without apologizing or being otherwise punished.“She embarrassed him, she betrayed him and she hurt him,” the accuser’s brother told WHP.“She made him lose trust in his teachers.

And this is a child.Think of the impact that this could have on him.

She offered him no apology.Nothing.

Is this any way for someone to treat a child?”Others told Monday’s board meeting that the district should’ve taken stronger disciplinary actions toward the teacher instead of just allowing her to resign.“Simply putting that teacher on leave and allowing them to resign is not enough,” said one speaker.“This is why I’m pushing for the enactment of Palestinian or Muslim or Arab history into our education systems,” another added.The district said it would not be commenting further on the situation or its plans for moving forward.In a statement read during Monday’s meeting, school board president Michael Jacobs said the district has a “zero-tolerance” policy for hateful speech.

“The district, this board, and this a...