A seventh-grade English teacher has been placed on administrative leave after allegedly calling a 12-year-old Muslim honour student a “terrorist.”
Waleed Abushaaban, 12, said the incident occurred when the class was watching the movie Bend It Like Beckham after taking the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test.
“I was just laughing at the movie and the teacher said, ‘I wouldn’t be laughing if I was you.’ And I said ‘Why?’ She said, ‘Because we all think you’re a terrorist,’” Abushaaban told KHOU News.
Abushaaban’s family is now asking for the unidentified teacher to be fired and for staff and students at First Colony Middle School to receive religious sensitivity training.
“Just because my son is a Muslim doesn’t mean he is a terrorist,” Abushaaban’s father, Malek, said to KHOU. “He’s an American. He’s as American as anybody else. He was born here… that’s all he knows is how to be an American.”
The young boy said after his teacher made the comment, his classmates started making fun of him.
“They were like, ‘Oh, I see a bomb!’ and they started all laughing and making jokes. I was upset and I felt like I was put in the corner and like everybody was just looking at me,” Abushaaban said.
The Fort Bend Independent School District issued a statement about the event, reading in part:
“The District does not support the teacher’s actions, and when school administrators learned of the incident, they immediately removed the teacher from the classroom and placed her on administrative leave pending completion of the District’s review of this matter.”
The statement also stated the teacher was just trying to “make a point” about stereotypes:
“While the teacher reports her statements were made in the context of trying to make a point about negative stereotypes, District officials do not believe that the teacher exercised the appropriate sensitivity expected of the District’s educators, and do not believe that the statements were made in a manner that is in keeping with the District’s Core Beliefs and Commitments.”
Abushaaban will continue to attend the school.