The Council on American Islamic Relations said the allegation was that the teacher had remarked, “I do not negotiate with terrorists,” when the Palestinian American student asked for a seat change.
Recent U.S. incidents involving children include the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian American girl in Texas and the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois.
Other incidents include the stabbing of a Palestinian American man in Texas, the beating of a Muslim man in New York, a violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters in California and the shooting of three Palestinian American students in Vermont.
Then the teacher goes and gets help.
It is never okay for a teacher to insult a student and I have no idea why you and others don’t realize that. Teachers always get disciplined for that if it is found out.
In the scenario I outlined, it’s not an insult. It’s just a common turn of phrase.
For it to even possibly be an insult the teacher would have to know the students ethnic background. It wouldn’t be reasonable to construe it as an insult if the student wasn’t Arab. And a person’s ethnic background isn’t always apparent.
No one is arguing that it’s okay for teachers to insult students. Literally no one has taken that position in this conversation. People have asserted that point many times, but you keep circling back to it, so I’ll emphasize. Of course it’s not okay for teachers to insult students. Literally no one is arguing that, and you’re not listening.
I’m just saying a lot of common words and phrases can be loaded in certain circumstances. If I tell a child that’s hoarding toys, “now now, let’s not be greedy, we need to share with our friends, okay,” that’s fine. If it turns out that kid is Jewish though, it could taken very poorly.
Hell, a kid could tell me about their weekend plans, and I could say, “wow, that’s crazy,” not knowing their mom is in an institution, and the headline could read, “teacher tells student they are mentally unwell, just like their institutionalized mother.” Expecting someone to perfectly avoid all potentially charged language is impossible.
And I’m not saying that the person in the article is blameless. I’m saying the article has very very little in the way of detail, and I’m leary of joining a pitchfork weilding mob over what could have been a simple, though deeply unfortunate, choice of words.
I have no idea why you think it is ever okay to call any student a terrorist for any reason, but I sure as hell hope you aren’t a teacher.
I mean, clearly it’s sometimes okay to call a kid a terrorist.
What if a highschool decides to do a stage production of The Hurt Locker, and one kid has to play a terrorist. Can the drama teacher call them “the terrorist” when blocking a scene?
What if a kid brings a gun to school and says, “I’m holding this school hostage as an act of terrorism!” Could a teacher refer to them as a terrorist then?
What if a kid’s first name is terrorist? Terrorist Jones they call him. Is a teacher not allowed to refer to them by their name?
It’s clearly okay to sometimes call a kid a terrorist. We’re just quibbling over when it’s okay to call a kid a terrorist.
Do you think one of those times is when a child wants to change seats?
Also, what child’s name is Terrorist? Be serious.
Dang, the closest I could find in the NYC white pages was “Terrarese,” which like, sounds pretty close, but not quite there, lol. Some people’s parents give out some wild names, lol. I wouldn’t be shocked if there was a Terrorist Jones out there somewhere. But you’re right, that was largely tongue-in-cheek (which isn’t a racial epithet against people with big cheeks, and I’m sorry if you happen to have big cheeks and feel insulted).
But, to answer your question, no. Again, if the kid was like, “Mrs Marples, can I change seats,” and the teacher responded with, “screw you, you little terrorist,” then that’s clearly wildly out of line. But there are reasonable times to use the phrase “I don’t negotiate with terrorists” that aren’t racially charged. If I say that to a buddy (ethnically white American) who’s being a dick, I’m not some raging racist who hates Arab people. I used a reasonably common phrase, in the zeitgeist, at a time where it made sense to do so. And I’m not saying that’s definitely what happened here. I’m saying it could be the case, and I’m willing to give reasonable doubt until I see an article that’s more than 3 sentences long with less detail than was in the headline.
Oh for fuck’s sake, you keep talking about saying this to a friend. Teachers and students are not friends. Teachers have power over students. Calling one of them a terrorist when they just want to change seats is so far beyond the pale. It’s not even a racism thing. If she had said “assholes” instead of "terrorists,* I am sure you would not approve. I have no idea why you are defending this teacher.
The issue with your counter example is that there’s plenty of times a teacher might use the word terrorist in a classroom. Any history lesson covering the past half century for example. There are precious few times a teacher should be actively swearing in a classroom, in any context.
But if it’s a power dynamic thing, I’d be equally fine saying “I don’t negotiate with terrorists” to a subordinate at work if they were being a particular kind of dick, same as I would with a buddy. Because it’s a normal phrase people say.
I would like you to find one other example of a teacher saying that to a student. Go for it.