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The comments were originally made public when the 10-year-old student’s older sisters in February wrote a letter to the editor, published in Delaware’s Cape Gazette, detailing the teacher’s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.
That teacher needs to be fired. She does not need to be teaching anything if she thinks that she can manipulate these little kids and foster hatred and fear that is of no basis..
oh, good grief. We have become such a PC driven society that now a little girl is “badly hurt” over a ridiculous comment. What should have happened is that her mother used this as a lesson to teach her that there are all kinds of people in the world, and that she cannot be hurt by people’s words.
For instance, if a child is very smart, but a schoolmate calls her dumb, does that immediately make her dumb? No. Just because someone says something, does not make it true.
I am not condoning the teacher’s comments, but people say hurtful, stupid things all the time. What the PCness has done is make us a country full of whiny little babies that get their feelings hurt everytime someone says a “hurtful” word.
Grow up!
I am appalled that we have a freedom of speech in America, but let us say what we may believe to someone who takes offense to it and right away we are branded as a biggot or even worse for saying what we think. I thought we HAD a freedom of speech in America. Though I don’t see this comment of the teacher, she still has the right to speak her mind. Am I right or am I just imagining that we can’t do this.? As for a teacher, who is supposed to be telling everything as if it were true, they have been teaching things that aren’t true for years and declaring it to be true because that is the way history books have proclaimed it to be. Well, we know that the history books have made some very real mistakes and no body has done anything about it. Come on America. What right do we really have if we can’t speak our mind on anything we want to, to anyone we want to?
Is this really big news? Granted a teacher needs to be careful about sharing her political views to her class. However, there are teachers who express their contempt for the current president saying things that are not entirely true. Are they under the same scrutiny? I think educators need to be sensitive; I wonder what the ground rules should be?
What if the teacher said I am scared Barack Obama because his church pastor says scary things and Barack Obama continued to attend there for many years? Can a teacher ever really say what they feel when asked?
The article states “Obama is a Christian…”. Who defines what a Christian is? Obama purports to be a member of the United Church of Christ denomination, which Obama says preaches a “social gospel”. According the The Bible, any other Gospel but the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is a false gospel. The Church of Christ is an outgrowth of the Campbell Restoration Movement, which also gave rise to the Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists and Jehova’s Witnesses, also considered cults. So by the Biblical definition of Christianity, Obama is not a true Christian, but a member of a cult.
If her quote is accurate, there is nothing offensive. The teacher said, “……… she is a Republican and that Barack Obama ‘believes in different things and is scary.” NOTHING IN THAT STATEMENT HAS TO DO WITH RELIGION. His socialist statements about confiscation of business profits and government provided health care expense along with statements about voiding the NAFTA treaty (”only campaign rhetoric” yea, and poor judgement which has international implications) are SCARY!
Quit trying to be victims!
Free? I wonder. . . . .
Why apologize for a statement that is probably correct!!!
Why would anyone have to apologize for telling the truth?
Why can’t people say what they think anymore? You can’t have intellectual conversation or debate if you are fearful to say what you think. I am not saying I agree with what the teacher said, however, he or she has a right to their opinion and that is what it is.
Opinion is just opinion, it is not fact, it is as individualistic as you or I. If we cannot express our opinions then you might as well roll over and die. How can you learn if you cannot hear another persons opinion. If we can’t debate or conversate about an opinion, no one learns. We already have a crisis in this country as our children are not going to be able to handle this economy because they don’t have the intelligence to do so, lets stop the trend and allow people their opinions. Political correctness should end!!
I will have my opinion and I will state my opinion. If someone does not like it, tough cookies!