A teacher in the US has been suspended for five days without pay after she was said to have called a 14-year-old Muslim student, who walked into class wearing a hoodie, a ‘raghead Taliban’.
Maria Valdes, a French teacher from Florida, had an administrative complaint filed against her, which included an allegation that when the teacher called on Deyab-Houssein Wardani, she asked ‘Okay the Taliban, what is the answer?’
It is also alleged that the Cypress Bay High School teacher would refer to him as a ‘terrorista,’ the Spanish for terrorist.
Deyab-Houssein said he was unaware of what the word Taliban meant until he asked his parents.
“I would not expect this from a teacher, teachers are supposed to set an example for their students,” he told the Sun Sentinel.
“It’s very sad that people still think like that, that all Muslims are your average daily terrorist.”
The boy’s father, Youssef Wardani, said the school district should have fired or suspended the teacher for a year.
School district superintendent Robert Runcie apologised to the Wardani family.
“Any situation involving wrongful treatment of our students is something we absolutely don’t tolerate,” he said.
As part of the discipline, Valdes will also undergo diversity training.
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