US teacher told student offended by Israeli flag he would ‘slit her throat’, police say
Georgia teacher arrested after allegedly saying he would cut student’s head off after she objected to his Israeli flag
A schoolteacher in the US state of Georgia was arrested after allegedly threatening to behead a student who expressed taking offense over his Israeli flag, according to authorities.
Benjamin Reese’s arrest at the middle school named after the town of Warner Robins occurred on after a student approached and told him she was offended by the Israeli flag hanging in his classroom, the local news station WMAZ reported, citing a police account of the case.
Reese, a seventh-grade social studies teacher, allegedly replied that he was a Jew and had relatives who lived in Israel. The student said “Israelis killing Palestinians” made the flag offensive, which prompted Reese to accuse her of being antisemitic.
TIL it's antisemitic when you object to the wholesale slaughter of unarmed civilians.
That isn't even the problem here, IMO. The teacher is entitled to that very stupid opinion. I had, and I'm sure you had, plenty of teachers with very stupid opinions. In general, that's allowed.
What they are not allowed to do is threaten a student.
When stupid opinions lead to threatening to cut off a child's head I tend to lose all sympathy.
We're all learning this valuable lesson these days.
Totally natural response in this situation. You are offended, so I should cut your head off. That's normal everyday behavior right there folks, who doesn't threatened to cut their friends heads off from time to time, or their relatives? Its just water cooler talk..Nothing to see here, move along. /s
Pfft I couldn't even guess how many seventh graders I've threatened with a knife to thier throat. It's like a game for them at this point.
Well, cutting a child's head off is only justified if you are a social studies teacher. You definitely know the way to be socially reasonable.
The problem is he was studying American society and saw nothing wrong with it
Very normal Zionist behavior.
Usually they're a bit quieter about their intentions.
Honestly a lot of them, especially in the Israeli government, say it loud and proud.
Wow. You know, as a therapist, I have to deal with hearing political opinions I disagree with (sometimes vehemently) relatively often, so I'm familiar with how aggravating it can be, but it would never even remotely occur to me to threaten one of my patients with physical violence for even the most horrid opinions they expressed. On the contrary, I've always been motivated to engage them with questions that challenge their opinions (although, as a therapist, I often have to resist that impulse, because it's not my place to challenge my patients political opinions). For this teacher to threaten their student for such a comparatively mild political objection suggests they either (a) should never have become a teacher, because they lack the required temperament and/or mindset or (b) had a truly bad trigger moment in which they lost control of themselves, indicating a need for further training and suspension from their job.
Sad that political events in the Middle East are having such effects across the globe. Understandable, but sad nonetheless.
It's definitely a good thing that Americans are engaging in the discourse around the war, considering were the primary funder of it.
Then ppl can't understand why I don't wanna bring a new life to this world... to have a social studies teacher threaten to take my child's life. Yes, fair world.
This contradictions should have the whole education system be reconsidered. Or at least fire the guys who decide to hire and keep every year a psyco like that.
Holy shit, thank goodness that teacher was removed from the classroom and hopefully permanently removed from teaching before they did something REALLY regrettable!
When I worked in technology at a middle school campus, the teachers would sometimes ask me to come into the classroom and teach the students about my family members who died in the Holocaust. I don't know if you've ever met a teenager before, but they sometimes say rude or horrible things without considering the effects their words could have.
The correct response to this kind of stuff is to reach the kids, speak truthfully, and give them credit that they have the ability to grasp such difficult concepts. I would list my family members who died in concentration camps, show interviews with family members who survived, read excerpts from family members who escaped, but I'd never tell a child they were antisemitic because they didn't understand how much their questions sometimes hurt me.
When I'd discuss my family who live in Israel and they'd ask how I feel about the Israeli conflict with Palestine, I'd essentially tell them that if it looks, walks, and quacks like a duck, then it's probably an apartheid state. I'd tell them to not discredit their feelings just because they're young: if something seems wrong or feels wrong about how someone is treating someone else, then it probably really is wrong and you should absolutely say something about it. I would frequently remind kids that history doesn't always repeat itself but it frequently rhymes and would mention that, if you listen carefully, you'll notice that "no one wants to the Palestinians, even other Muslim countries refuse to take them as refugees" almost perfectly rhymes with "die juden sind unser ungluck."
Side note: anyone who tells you that surrounding countries don't want to accept the Palestinians doesn't seem to understand that accepting refugees so that you can bomb an entire country is essentially giving approval to bomb an entire fucking country
Finally, to my Zionist relatives and any other Zionists I know: you are wrong — granting peace and recognizing Palestinians will not lead to your demise. Every single one of my cousins who say that the Palestinians overbreed and will take over the elections might as well get "14/88" tattooed across their foreheads. And if you find yourself in a situation where you're being called an antisemite because you oppose a fucking war and literal genocide without exploring further discussion, I suggest you respond with this quote:
Incredibly profound and succinct quote from a pretty fucking horrible human of an author. Those are instructions for propaganda taken from Mein Kampf.
Average zionist response.
That's my trashy state for you
hingedest Zionist
Well that is a totally sane response. /s
Love all the pearl clutching going on in these threads by kids who scream racist obscenities into their headsets. Comedy gold.
Which kids would those be? Could you point them out to us please and let us know how you know their ages?
Your mom told me to send you down to the store for more lube. Be quick about it, my little blue helper is kicking in.