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enhanced_deficit
12-17-2015, 08:27 PM
A day after this news:

All Los Angeles Unified schools closed by 'credible threat' of violence (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?486735-All-Los-Angeles-Unified-schools-closed-by-credible-threat-of-violence&)


this news making headlines today. Will this be called a terrorist threat or a regular threat?



Virginia geography teacher under fire for lesson on Islam asking students to write in Arabic that 'There is no other God by Allah'; schools forced to close after threats

Thursday, December 17, 2015, 6:13 PM

http://assets.newsinc.com/whsv_logo_hiresj_75x27_120710.png?t=1450273440 Community Concern Over Homework Assignment
WHSV - Harrisonburg, VA


http://content-img.newsinc.com/jpg/1564/30072207/28874011.jpg?t=1450273440






A Virginia geography teacher is under attack for teaching her students about Islam by asking them to wear hijabs and to copy a piece of Arabic text that meant "There is no other God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger."
Riverheads High School teacher Cheri Laporte could lose her job after some say her lesson on multicultarism was an attempt at religious indoctrination.
“A lot of people got really upset and I refused to do the paper,” ninth grader Laurel Truxell told WVIR—TV (http://www.nbc29.com/story/30761141/parents-in-augusta-county-concerned-about-islamic-indoctrination).
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2468710.1450364260%21/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_635/article-allah1-1217.jpg WHSV
School officials say that the students were unaware of the meaning of the Arabic calligraphy during the lesson. But media covereage on the issue and subsequent public interest "locally and from outside the area" led to "volumnious phone calls" and emails to Augusta County schools, many of which prompted "concerns regarding the tone and content of those communications," the school board said.

The district decided to close school Friday, and cancel extracurricular activities Thursday night through the weekend. The district defended the assignment but admitted that a less controversial phrase would be used in future assignments.


"As we have emphasized, no lesson was designed to promote a religious viewpoint of change any student's religious belief," the statement read. "Although students will continue to learn about world religions as required by the state Board of Education and the Commonwealth's Standards of Learning, a different, non-religious sample of Arabic calligraphy will be used in the future."
Kimberly Herndon, a parent whose child was given the assignment, posted an outraged Facebook post after she learned of the lesson and it got picked up by conservative media outlets.


“When I saw the Arabic language, immediately I had a bad feeling come over me," Herndon said (http://www.nbc29.com/story/30761141/parents-in-augusta-county-concerned-about-islamic-indoctrination).

Herndon said she was “led by the Lord” to organize a meeting Tuesday night at a local church to call for the termination of the teacher and asked for “security on the grounds to make sure no one gets out of hand.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/virginia-community-teacher-fired-lesson-islam-article-1.2468683

enhanced_deficit
12-18-2015, 11:53 AM
10,000 students in VA will get a day off on Friday due to this apparent Arabic mixup and abundance of caution.


Furor over Arabic assignment leads Virginia school district to close Friday

Comments 2820
By Emma Brown and Moriah Balingit December 18 at 12:25 PM

A Virginia school system has decided to close schools Friday after a high school geography assignment on world religions led to allegations of Islamic indoctrination and a slew of angry emails and phone calls.
Augusta County School District officials said that there had been no specific threat of harm to students. But in a statement (http://www.augusta.k12.va.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=518) posted on the school district’s website, officials said they were concerned about the “tone and content of these communications.”

“We regret having to take this action, but we are doing so based on the recommendations of law enforcement and the Augusta County School Board out of an abundance of caution,” the statement says.

[University moves to fire professor who says Sandy Hook massacre is a hoax — and allegedly harassed parents of victims (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/12/17/professor-who-says-sandy-hook-massacre-is-a-hoax-and-allegedly-harassed-parents-of-victims-gets-fired/?tid=pm_local_pop_b)]

The school district serves about 10,000 students in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley west of Charlottesville, Va., about 150 miles from Washington, D.C.
A geography teacher at the district’s Riverheads High near Staunton, Va., gave an assignment asking students to try their hand at calligraphy by copying a statement in Arabic, according to the Staunton News Leader (http://www.newsleader.com/story/news/local/2015/12/15/augusta-county-riverheads-high-school-teacher-world-geography-islam-angry-parents/77374858/).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2015/12/17/furor-over-arabic-assignment-leads-virginia-school-district-to-close-friday/

fisharmor
12-18-2015, 11:57 AM
Unfortunately for everyone in the USA, the closure is not permanent.

morfeeis
12-18-2015, 01:01 PM
the level of pissed i would be at that teacher could not be expressed calmly had my child been in that class.