Posted on 06/10/2007 4:52:45 PM PDT by Alien Syndrome
LONDON, June 9 A British teaching assistant is suing an elementary school in London after being disciplined for refusing to listen to a child read a "Harry Potter" book. Sariya Allen told a tribunal she resigned from her post at Durand Primary School after being suspended for "her obstructive conduct over time," the Daily Mail reported Saturday. Allen claims she was "harassed, humiliated and discriminated" against because of her religious beliefs. Her last alleged act of "obstructive conduct" before resigning in 2006 was refusing to listen to a 7-year-old girl read a "Harry Potter" book because she said it was against her Christian faith. Her employers disciplined her after she told the girl "I don't do witchcraft in any form" and said she would be "cursed" by hearing the novel. She is seeking about $100,000 in damages from her former school for religious discrimination.
"I admit I said to the child that I don't do witchcraft in any form," she said. "I was put in the position that listening to the child reading this book would compromise my religious beliefs."
To me she sounds like a sour tight a$$ who doesn’t understand or much like children and their need to explore their imaginations.
I would guess that she would also ban “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”, “The Hobbit” and any works by Shakespeare.
She reminds me of my first grade teacher Miss Hookway who we not so fondly called “Captain Hook” (behind her back of course). She really resembled Emira Gulch from the Wizzard of Oz (another work of literature this woman would probably ban from her classroom.)
True story, Miss “Captain Hook”, gave us an assignment where we had pictures and words and had to color the pictures and indicate whether the vowels were “hard” or “soft”.
The vowel was the letter “A”. One of the pictures was a glass and the word was “water”.
I completed the assignment and got all the answers right and colored all the pictures except the glass of water.
When I turned it in she told me it wasn’t finished because I didn’t color the water blue. I very politely explained that water isn’t blue, it’s clear.
My reward for being smarter than the teacher was to be kept in from recess. Bi-otch!
When I got home from school, I told my father. He said a very wise thing that has stuck with me these 46 years – “Just because someone is in a position of authority, doesn’t mean that person is always right”.
More to the point: How would religious cons react to a Muslim teacher refusing to let a child read from The Three Little Pigs because it was "against her religion"?
I doubt there'd be much sympathy for the religous nutjob in that instance.
Oh, thanks! Sorry I missed that. That makes the whole incident even sillier. If she's only the assistant, then she should ask to be excused from the room and let the teacher take over. How hard would that be?
I still think the assistant has only herself to blame for the whole problem. She should just grow up and stop being so hypersensitive.
This posting and the thread are one more item for the file on “Why to consider home schooling.”
The best item in the file, however, is still:
Underground History of American Education
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/toc1.htm
For the “picture version”, see:
American Education History Tour
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/historytour/history1.htm
First, there's a guarantee of freedom of speech in the UK? But even if there was, there is no freedom from speech. she was being paid to listen to a seven year old read. She disrupted the learning environment by leaving and I would be as critical of her if she had left because it violated Shara Law.
First, there's a guarantee of freedom of speech in the UK? But even if there was, there is no freedom from speech. she was being paid to listen to a seven year old read. She disrupted the learning environment by leaving and I would be as critical of her if she had left because it violated Shara Law.
Thanks for the heads up! Pinging the list...
LOL
Cheers, rk!
sl
If the Harry Potter novels are so demonically depraved, could someone please explain to me why the children at Hogwarts observe Christian-inspired holidays like Christmas, Easter and Valentine's Day? I've read all six books multiple times and there's not a single mention of any pagan observations other than Halloween.
Yup. No Dancing naked in the moonlight and sex orgies at Beltaine. No driving cattle through smoke from sacred fires at Lammas. Nothing.
Thanks for the “pingus maxima” rk!
Her last act...if teachers in England have the kind of power that teachers here in the US enjoy, I have to wonder what her first fifty obstructive acts were!
I expect we’ll get more of these silly stories in the next two months.
My husband and I are re-reading the books, aloud, in anticipation of the final release. We’ve only started though, not sure we’ll get all the way through...
The way I see it, her beliefs are not rigid--her faith is weak. What exactly is she afraid of? Her faith should be a rock, not quicksand.
What a wonderful way to enjoy some family togetherness!
TS
My sarcasm sensor is on the blink, so I’m not sure if that was really how you felt or if it was a solid attempt at humor.
Actually, the last four of the books that came out, I read with five of my siblings and my mother; we took turns reading aloud and finished in a weekend. It was cheaper than buying 7 copies and faster than waiting for someone else to finish.
I can’t do that this time as I don’t have time or want to spend money flying back for a weekend but the rest of them will be reading aloud as usual.
Since you never read any of the books, you are undoubtedly unaware that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry celebrates Christmas and Easter.
Something my children's schools don't.
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