Sometimes it is absolutely vital to call a spade a spade. There is no good reason to protect the honour or devise a defence for a teacher that incites her class to stand for a minute silence for a known terrorist. It doesn’t matter how troubled this teacher may have been, there was no excuse for this incredibly irresponsible act:
A French teacher was suspended on Friday for allegedly urging her class to observe a minute’s silence for serial killer Mohamed Merah, the day after he was shot dead by police.
Education Minister Luc Chatel had called for the teacher to be suspended after her class reported she called Merah a “victim” and said his links to Al-Qaeda were invented by the media and “Sarko”, referring to President Nicolas Sarkozy.
“An immediate suspension has been decided along with a ban on entering the school,” the local education authority’s Florence Robine told journalists, adding that the suspension did not imply any guilt.
She “clearly said that Mohamed Merah was a victim, that the link with Al-Qaeda had been invented by the media and ‘Sarko’,” said the letter, a copy of which was published by the Paris Normandie newspaper.
“This is not the political act of an extremist but the act of a colleague who has health concerns, who is fragile and who is receiving psychological treatment,” the local head of the SGEN-CFDT union, Pascal Bossuyt, told AFP.
“She said something unfortunate in a particular context and she immediately regretted what she said,” he added.
Police shot Merah dead on Thursday at his flat in southwest France where he was holed up after going on a jihadist-inspired killing spree. His victims included three young Jewish children and three paratroopers.
It is a shame that “fragile” teachers with “health concerns” are often allowed to practice until they do something inappropriate. This was more than the act of a teacher requiring “psychological treatment.”
This was the act of a teacher who is completely unfit for teaching.
Tags: a minute's silence, Al-Qaeda, Education, Florence Robine, jihad, life, Luc Chatel, Mohamed Merah, News, Parentng, Pascal Bossuyt, President Nicolas Sarkozy, professional conduct, serial killer, Teacher
Topical Teaching 
March 25, 2012 at 7:39 am |
The minute’s silence should have occurred before this unfortunate teacher opened her mouth. Children do not deserve to be troubled by such issues. But, seriously, is this teacher suffering mental illness? If so, there is no doubt she needs treatment and the sympathy of her colleagues and the community. Unfortunately I have heard teachers express similar sentiments about terrorists, thankfully not in front of a class of impressionable children. My attitude is that if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword. I learned that from the Prince of Peace. I have absolutely no sympathy for people who think they can solve their problems by resorting to violence, and violence against the most vulnerable members of society, children, is the act of a coward, not a lunatic.
March 25, 2012 at 11:58 pm |
Or perhaps a cowardly lunatic.