Delaware Teacher Sorry After Mother Complains She Told Class Obama Is a ‘Scary’ Muslim
A Delaware elementary school teacher has apologized to a local mother, her attorney says, after she and her daughters complained that the teacher told her fifth-grade class she would not vote for Barack Obama because he is a Muslim and “is scary.”
Dina Odetalla, who is Muslim, has a 10-year-old daughter in that class, and filed an internal complaint with Lord Baltimore Elementary School after she heard about the Obama comments, attorney Greg Varallo, a partner at the Wilmington firm Richards, Layton & Finger, told FOXNews.com on Wednesday.
Varallo called the remarks “unfortunate,” but said the matter is now “resolved.”
“There was a conference and there was an apology,” Varallo said.
Obama is a Christian and has been fighting rumors about Muslim ties throughout his campaign.
Varallo said an article Wednesday in The (Wilmington) News Journal that reported the state Human Relations Commission is investigating the matter is untrue. Varallo said the commission is actually investigating remarks allegedly made by a teacher at a different school where another one of Odetalla’s daughters attends. He said that case was spurred by remarks about the Prophet Muhammad that his client found offensive to Muslims.
He did not identify the teacher who made the remarks about Obama at Lord Baltimore Elementary School, but said he believes the teacher is still working at the school.
The comments were originally made public when the 10-year-old student’s older sisters in February wrote a letter to the editor, published in Delaware’s Cape Gazette, detailing the teacher’s political comments.
She reportedly made the remarks before a mock Super Tuesday primary on Feb. 5.
“Her teacher told the class that she is a Republican and that Barack Obama ‘believes in different things and is scary,’” the sisters, Fatima and Basima Abdelsalam, wrote in their letter.
Calling her remarks “dangerous and untrue,” they added: “We are American Muslim kids. We love our country … Kids are being taught hatred and fear of Muslims. Our sister was badly hurt by what was said in her classroom.”
The school district has released a statement saying it has conducted a thorough investigation. They too say they’ve resolved the issue after meeting with the mother and the teacher who allegedly made the comments.
A representative from the elementary school could not be reached for comment.
FOXNews.com’s Judson Berger and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
I’m shocked they let her keep her job. If any of my elementary school teachers had made political statements like that, my parents would have called for their heads.
Elementary school is not the place for political indoctrination.
??? I am confused. It is okay for many other teachers to call our President a Murder and Liar and never once have I ever heard one of them been asked to give an apology.
Did Obama treaten her in the name of political correctness?
Probably not, but he has set up a situation where such unimportant points make the news as being important. Unfortunately more to come on this behavior, both by Obama and by those caught saying something that they should not have said.
I agree with the teacher.
Funny, all throughout my Highschool and college years I heard Republicans and Christians bashed… but I never read or heard about appologies… I wonder why this story is so important,…
JEREMIAH WRIGHT.
Doesnt really suprise me, I have alot of professors at Penn State that call him Osama
typical conservative
Is this teacher a Billary super delegate? Sounds like someone they would want in their campaign. They would really be able to use the way she brings up stereotypes and racist remarks. That way Bill Clinton and Ferraro and Rendell dont have to keep doing it…..
Why must everyone be called out for saying anything against Obama yet is’t ok to say all kinds of outlandish things against Bush…or any other republican for that matter?????
Teachers are not perfect but then neither is Obama. At this point I would consider any presidential canididate , “scary,” regardless of their ethnic race. By the way, when will U.S. citizens be receiving a nationally televised apology from Mr. Obama’s preacher?