The father of an eighth-grade Muslim student was left furious after a teacher asked his daughter whether she was carrying a bomb in her backpack. The teenager attends Shiloh Middle School in Gwinnett County, Georgia.
Abdirizak Aden (a native of Somalia) said last month that his 13-year-old daughter, who wears a hijab to school, was stopped in the hallway and interrogated by a teacher who insisted on knowing what was being carried in the backpack. When the teenager kept quiet and refused to respond, the teacher accused her of having a bomb in her backpack. Reportedly, the teacher knew that her joke had gone too far, especially because of the ‘things happening in the world right now’.
“It was very disrespectful,” the student said. “I came there to learn… At the end of the day I will still get my A or B and leave her class.”
Aden said that his daughter was very angry when she texted to inform him about the incident. When he went to her school to inquire about what had happened, authorities told him that the teacher had conducted herself in an inappropriate manner by mistake.
“My daughter wanted to know why she was asking her that,” he said. “I was upset… I was going to take my daughter out (of that school). We are from Africa, we are Muslims, we live in America… I didn’t teach my children to hate people or to think they are better than other people. I don’t want nobody to treat them like that.”
Sloan Roach, spokesperson for Gwinnett County Public Schools, confirmed that the incident did in fact take place.
“The remark was not appropriate, but based on their conversation and investigation, school officials don’t believe it was made with ill intent,” Roach said.
Roach also clarified that the teacher happens to be on regular payroll as she is not a substitute. Apparently, the teacher was trying to get her students to put away their respective backpacks quickly, and that is when she made the controversial remark. School principal Eli Welch III immediately ordered an investigation and spoke to both the father as well as the teacher in question. Roach confirmed that Welch already apologized to those concerned and would take necessary action against the teacher as well.
Aden said that both he and his daughter have forgiven the teacher. He hoped however such a case would not repeat itself in the future while saying that teachers should be offered more sensitivity training.
“The incident shows the level of Islamophobia impacting people’s relationships with one another,” said Yusof Burke, board president of the Georgia Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “Obviously a teacher and a student should have a unique kind of relationship… It’s very disturbing to see.”
Photo Credits: Daily Sabah
