Muslim Teacher Sues School

[agchristie]

A case of 'race discrimination' or not?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3806551/Muslim-teacher-suing-school-race-discrimination-sacked-objecting-video-9-11-shown-11-year-olds.html

[Khandro]

I refer you back to my post of 09:13. The screening of the video was in direct relationship to a subject being taught in English Literature and is part of the GCSE Syllabus, the pupils were 11 - 12-year-olds, quite old enough not to be sheltered from the truth.
The subject has been covered in schools across the country and no other teacher it appears has made objections.

[andy-hughes]

TWR - //What would she have said if the class was shown Sex education Lessons? it was the news, children saw it then, it was in the papers, on the 9th of the 11 it was again reported, "ACE" Card again? I expect one objection to my post. //

Who knows? Hypothesising about other potential scenarios to object to is really a waste of time.

The valid point is - showing this film does no good to anyone who sees it - especially young impressionable children.

It is enough to verbally convey the basic details of the horrible incident - showing live film footage is distressing, and does not increase the understanding for children of that age.

Was I the 'one objection' - or are you still waiting?

[Metaphysicalus]

It was insensitive to show that video to the children and I don't know what the purpose of it was. God knows children have enough negative stuff to deal with in every day life without schools piling it on top of them. When they are older they will have ample opportunity to see what happened on that horrible day. If that was the reason she objected to it then it was right and proper. In my opinion objecting to something is not a sackable offence. As another poster said we don't know the whole story and therefore must hold judgement on it.

[TWR]

There's time yet, still waiting.

[andy-hughes]

Khandro - //The screening of the video was in direct relationship to a subject being taught in English Literature and is part of the GCSE Syllabus, the pupils were 11 - 12-year-olds, quite old enough not to be sheltered from the truth. //

I disagree that the children are old enough to witness this film.

I would also argue that showing it to them does not equate with 'not shielding them from the truth'.

There are myriad horrible things that happen in the world, and it often does no-one any good whatever to see them in live film footage.

In educational terms, you can teach children about war without showing film of soldiers being blown to pieces.

[Khandro]

andy-hughes; //I disagree that the children are old enough to witness this film.//
For yours truly it wasn't a film, at the age of three and onwards I sat many nights in an air-raid shelter with bombs falling around us. It didn't make me, or anyone else feel, as she says, the need to "commit suicide".

[andy-hughes]

Khandro - //andy-hughes; //I disagree that the children are old enough to witness this film.//
For yours truly it wasn't a film, at the age of three and onwards I sat many nights in an air-raid shelter with bombs falling around us. It didn't make me, or anyone else feel, as she says, the need to "commit suicide". //

That is yours - and your generation's experience.

You cannot transplant that into today and expect that people will feel the same way about it.

And you are not offering like for like here. If you had stood outside and seen people being blown to pieces by bombs, then your comparison would be accurate.

You didn't see such horrific sights, and neither should children now.

[naomi24]

Khandro, /Naomi....Could it be that she thought the 9-11 video depicted an atrocity carried out by extremists in the name of her own religion.
Shown those images most children would ask "Why did they do that?" and she would have to answer//

I think it quite likely that she objected to the video being shown because the atrocity was committed in the name of her religion. Additionally, having read her overly-dramatic 'blog' I also think it quite likely that, since she'd only been at the school for a week, she's a bit of a trouble-maker. Just a suspicion, but when I read this and the subsequent links it reminded me of that new convert to Islam who, having lived most of her life with her face uncovered, created a fuss when asked to remove her veil in court.

[agchristie]

Thanks to Divebuddy's digging deeper it does provide additional clues into the pysche of the assistant.

I suppose her qualifications and CV are quite impressive though one is not likely to glean certain information from an interview or indeed checking references.

If she is capable of coming across in the way that she has blogged, it would come as little surprise if she overreacted at voicing her concerns at school.

The availability of unsuitable material is easily accessible these days on Youtube,etc and I wonder how many of the pupils had actually not seen the footage. As commented, the syllabus required that the topic be discussed though there is a question mark over whether the necessary permissions were sought to view the material.

As to any child questioning why the terrorist acts occurred,etc you would have expected both the teacher and assistant were fully prepared to answer the most difficult of queries and so should have done their own homework.

There is probably more than meets the eye to what we know and I am sure that this matter will be revisited at some point.