Michigan teacher suspended with pay over reported anti-Arab remark

[Judi Lynn]

Michigan teacher suspended with pay over reported anti-Arab remark
Wednesday January 12, 2005

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) A middle school teacher has been suspended with pay while officials investigate a report he told his students that Bedouin Arabs used the Quran as toilet paper.

The teacher is on the faculty of Woodworth Middle School in Dearborn, a Detroit suburb of 100,000. About 30,000 Dearborn residents are Arab-American.

Bedouins are members of historically nomadic tribes and make up about 10 percent of the population of the Middle East. The Quran is the Muslim holy book.

Parents complained to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
(snip/...)

http://cbsnewyork.com/national/BRF--TeacherSuspended-aa/resources_news_html

[bluestateguy]

1. I don't like the idea of firing teachers because of "remarks"

It leads down a very slippery slope, so this investigation had better fully examine the context in which those comments were made, if they were made at all.

[The Stranger]

9. Bigoted Islamophobia and Xenophobia really do need to be

scrutinized and investigated, and it is important to keep the hatred from the Neocon media from becoming the casual jokes of schoolteachers. It leads to videogame-like killing of innocent people daily in places like Iraq and the imprisoning of people because they are Muslim in places like Guantanamo.

[Thurgood Marshall]

11. More Ammo

This should have been dealt with in-house. This is just going to give more ammo to the Neo-con droid army in attacking "leftist" school systems.

[The Stranger]

15. Let them attack.

Call them out on it. Attack back.

[DrWeird]

16. I can't think of a better reason for firing a teacher...

outside of physically attacking a student, then outright bigotry.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. why would she say such a thing?

Would she say that Catholics are idol worshippers because of the statues of saints, like my goofy fundamentalist cousins ranted during the 1960 elections?

Bet she has never read a word of the Qur'an. Maybe she should, so she'd stop saying such things.

[noonwitch]

10. It's Dearborn-the teacher herself is possibly a syrian or lebanese arab

Dearborn is a suburb with a very large arab population. The remark strikes me as something one group of arabs would say about another, not something a non-arab would say about one group of arabs. It's sort of like when a british person states that the irish are a bunch of drunks. It's still inappropriate.

[PaulaFarrell]

19. The teacher was male, and it's more like saying that

Catholics use the bible for toilet paper. It's pretty offensive. Even if the guy was Arab, I don't think there's any place for that kind of comment in middle school. Not saying he should be fired this time, but certainly reprimanded.

[livvy]

3. Being a teacher myself.....

I feel I have to support this teacher to a certain extent. I DO NOT support the comment made, however there isn't enough information to know in what context it was made. Kids sometimes don't get the whole picture or misunderstand what was said. Sometimes they don't listen very well, and only catch a snippet of what is said. They go home and tell their version of what occurred and a situation can be blown all out of proportion. Again, I DO NOT support any teacher passing on discriminatory or inflammatory information to their students. I strongly support teaching tolerance and an accepting attitude to kids. Heaven knows they don't always get this type of teaching at home.
My point is without additional details on the context, tone of voice, etc. that the teacher was using, it would be hard for me to judge this teacher's actions, or the actions of the school district.
I wonder if any further information about the charge will be forthcoming?

PS I love the picture Judi Lynn. What a hoot!

[Judi Lynn]

4. There should be a decision by the Detroit school superintendent

later in the week. I'll post it if I see it.

The photo was going around D.U. a year or two ago.I believe they said it was taken at an air show. I love it. There are many different sizes available for your posting pleasure in google images!

http://images.google.com/images?q=morans&hl=en&lr=&start=20&sa=N

[livvy]

17. Thanks for the link!

I feel the need to share the pic! I'll be interested to see how this comes out. I'm in Michigan, not too far from Dearborn, so it should be covered in the local papers, too.

[notadmblnd]

8. I don't know how a teacher in Dearborn Mi

would even attempt to make racist comments regarding Arabs. Dearborn has one of the largest Arab populations in the entire US. Unless it was in the context of some historical discussion, the comment was totally inappropriate

[AP]

14. because post 10 is probably an accurate description of this event.

[pop goes the weasel]

12. good point

I remember when I was in high school, my sociology teacher made a big deal about black people loving their children. Well, I was completely shocked, because it had never occurred to me that black people don't love their children. The subtext of what she was saying was that it was a common belief that blacks didn't love their children. I know I couldn't have been the only kid in the class to pick up on the subtext and wondered at the bizarre unintended lesson in bigotry. Maybe this is a case like that. Maybe the teacher was trying to make some other point, but the racist notion, which the teacher may have been holding up to ridicule, is what got the kids' attention.

[sarcasmo]

5. Photo was used at the end of Olbermans show last night

If this is true every teacher I had should have been fired.

[KitSileya]

6. I certainly do not condone such a remark if made seriously, but

I can easily envision scenarios where such a remark was made innocently I'm not all that familiar with Middle Eastern history, but the teacher could have said something along the lines that the Bedouins regarded the Quran as tantamount to toilet paper until the converted to Islam, or something like that, and the student misunderstood. On the other hand, I can also believe that the teacher said it in seriousness, in a dismissive sort of way, in which case it should be punished accordingly.

Until we know more of the situation in which the remark was made, it's difficult to judge.

[saltpoint]

7. What would happen if a southern Middle School teacher in

-- Georgia said in class that itinerant Baptist preachers wipe their asses with pages of the New Testament?

Is it ok to ridicule Islamic peoples if they are a minority but not Christian peoples because they're a majority?

[yinkaafrica]

18. There would be a lynchin'

The double standard lives on.
We see some of it in these very posts.

[Been Fishing]

13. Paid vacation

"A middle school teacher has been suspended with pay ..."

If it is determined that the statement was made with malice, will the teacher be required to repay the salary?

[livvy]

20. Update - Board's Decision

http://www.freep.com/news/locway/teacher14e_20050114.htm

A Dearborn school teacher who said some Arabs use the Islamic holy book as toilet paper has been moved to another school.

The teacher had been under paid suspension since the second week of December as school officials investigated the incident and discussed how to discipline him, said Dearborn Schools Superintendent John Artis. The teacher, whose name was not released, was transferred on Wednesday after his suspension ended. The name of the school was also not disclosed.

The teacher was instructing a middle school class on Dec. 9 when he told his students that bedouins, who are Arab, once used the Koran, the holy book of Islam, as toilet paper.

The teacher's remarks outraged students and their parents, who contacted the district and a local civil rights group to complain. Insulting the Koran or Muhammad, the founder of Islam, is considered a serious offense by Muslims. In the Dearborn school district, the majority of students are of Arab descent and Muslim. more>