Toxic Classrooms

It's getting worse and worse, but say nothing. Because we would not want a Muslim backlash. That's what's important. Barbara Kay in the National Post (hat tip Armaros)

My attention has been drawn to the disturbing phenomenon of overt Jew hatred in high schools, especially those with high populations of students from countries where Jew hatred is officially sanctioned in the law of their countries of origin.

As a case in point I offer one particularly disturbing story, because I believe it points to wider issues of concern for the educational system and for our society. It involves a Jewish teacher in an Ontario French high school whose name I cannot reveal because she fears physical retaliation.

"Miriam" had taught in French language schools in the 1970s and 1980s in schools with large Lebanese Christian populations without incurring any anti-Semitism. In her current career she works amicably with Muslims. A child of Holocaust survivors, Miriam is demonstrably neither racist nor anti-Muslim.

In 2001 Miriam started teaching at a school largely populated by children of refugees, mainly from Djibouti and Eritrea, countries where there are no Jews but where hatred of Jews is deeply entrenched in the culture.

During the academic year of 2002-2003 Miriam started to encounter anti-Semitic taunts from students, such as "Does someone see a Jew here, someone smell a Jew? It stinks here." When she reported this and similar insults to the principal, the principal did not follow up. Indeed, the principal seemed more concerned about the students' sensibilities than hers.

The principal instructed teachers not to offend their Muslim students; they were not to look students in the eye, they were not to gesture with the forefinger to bid them approach and they were not to interfere with male students who were physically aggressive to male teachers.

During the invasion of Iraq, moments of silence were held in the classroom. Cultural presentations involved only Muslim culture and no Canadian content. Students were allowed to leave assembly during the playing of the national anthem.

The crisis of this story occurred when Miriam admonished a student for wearing a Walkman in class. The student screamed at her: "I don't have to listen to you; you are not a person, you are nothing, you do not exist as a person." When Miriam demanded he accompany her to the principal's office, the student followed her down the hall yelling, "Don't speak to me, don't look at me, you are not human, you are a Jew."

Although the student was ultimately suspended for 10 days, his parents expressed puzzlement about the punishment since, they patiently explained, the teacher was after all Jewish. They complained about the severity of the punishment to the school board.

There were no sensitivity courses laid on for the students or the parents. When, over her objections, the offending student and another guilty of the same offence were returned to Miriam's class, she decided she could no longer work under such circumstances. She contacted the Hate Crime Unit of the local police and reported everything.

The School board treated Miriam as the source of the problem and asked her to retire. A top litigator told Miriam she had an excellent case for a lawsuit but fearing for her family's safety under the glare of publicity, she decided not to sue.

Lest you assume Miriam was paranoid or Islamophobic or that this was an isolated case of a few bad apples: In 2004, the year Miriam left, a full 60 out of 75 francophone teachers asked for a transfer, not because of anti-Semitism but because of anti-Westernism, a growing discomfort in other areas for which anti-Semitism is the proverbial canary in the mine. French-Canadian children had already stopped enrolling and as I understand it, the school is now virtually all-Muslim, including the teachers and principal.

Comments

[Dudeman1962]

The failure to recognize the "soft" invasion, by immigration from muslim cultures, for the danger to western civilization it poses, is one of the primary losses of security we have. If the people do not wake up and resist this influence soon, the entire world will be an Islamic hatefest within 20-40 yrs. The culture of this religion is totally intolerant and destructive. We have seen them dend their children to kill us with suicidal attacks, watched as they punish their women for things we regard as rightful behavior, then dismiss these acts as cultural differences. They are far beyond cultural differences, they are abusive and totalitarian in nature. Islam is not a religion so much as a political code, like communism or republicanism or socialist democracy. The brutality is more akin to communism or fascism. Sharia is not harmless custom, it is intolerant hate. Be warned they are here producing "natural born citizens" in our lands that have no desire to adopt or tolerate our culture. This is important because they are reproducing far faster than we and will become the predominant population during this century, in most if not all western nations, believe it.

[Mystical Time Traveler]

She was and is a bit stupid and naive. When she discovered that the administration wasn't going to help her, she should have done the next best thing: Fail those student who were anti-Semitic. At least lower their grades. I know many teachers who have done this for various reasons and it works very well. One must learn to brown nose very early in life.

[Noelegy]

Terrifying to contemplate the consequences if a Jew had treated a Muslim in a similar manner.

[Madison Jefferson]

This is the same as that huge story that was widely published all around the US by the media...
"Kick a jew day."
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/134628

Oh wait, it wasn't really covered, huh?
Dr. G