Young Muslim students attend a parade

The ACLU has filed an official complaint against an Arizona public charter school after a sixth grade teacher from the Academy of Excellence in Phoenix repeatedly viciously harassed a Muslim student who is a refugee from Somalia. From Medium.com:

On one occasion, A.A.’s teacher showed a video to the class about 9/11 terrorists and then said to A.A. in front of the entire class, “That’s going to be you,” suggesting that he was destined to become a terrorist himself. Another time, when A.A. raised his hand to answer a question, his teacher snapped at him — “All you Muslims think you are so smart” — in front of the entire class. Then, referring to the fact that A.A. and his family were resettled in the United States on refugee visas, the teacher started ranting about Donald Trump, telling A.A.: “I can’t wait until Trump is elected. He’s going to deport all you Muslims. Muslims shouldn’t be given visas. They’ll probably take away your visa and deport you. You’re going to be the next terrorist, I bet.”

According to the complaint, students took the teacher’s cues and mercilessly taunted the student. And the worst part? The school has repeatedly sided with the teacher:

And in January of this year — just a few days after the most recent complaint to the school, this time about the teacher’s rant over A.A.’s visa — school officials falsely claimed that A.A. had broken school rules by opening an emergency window on the school bus. They went on to effectively expel him, along with his younger sister, F.A., a second-grader, from the school.

It is probably for the best that both students were removed from the school. Let’s hope this action by the ACLU forces the school to remove the teacher and perhaps even the administrators who stood by this blatant discrimination.