Here’s another one of those stories that just leaves me shaking my head. A teacher in Gwinnett County, Georgia asked an 8th grade Muslim student if she was carrying a bomb in her backpack. What makes this far worse is that the school administration has confirmed that the story is true but is refusing to do anything to punish the teacher because it was not said with “ill intent.”



Abdirizak Aden, who was born in Somalia, said that on Monday, his 13-year-old daughter, who wears the hijab, was in class when a teacher stopped her and asked what she had in her bookbag. During an interview Friday night, his daughter , who isn’t being identified because of her age, said she remained silent. The unidentified teacher responded by asking her if she had a bomb in her bag… Sloan Roach, spokeswoman, for Gwinnett County Public Schools, confirmed the incident happened. “The remark was not appropriate, but based on their conversation and investigation,” school officials don’t believe it was made with “ill intent,” Roach said. She said it was a regular teacher, not a substitute, who made the remark. The teacher was trying to get the students to put away their backpacks quickly and made the remark to the student that was basically, what do you have in there, a bomb?

What the hell could it even mean to say there was no ill intent? No ill intent to do what? There’s really only two possibilities here. She was either deliberately being a bigot and trying to humiliate the girl, or she’s too clueless to understand that the question would be bigoted and humiliating. And could anyone really believe that second option? The only kind of people who could possibly think that was an appropriate thing to say are people who are, in fact, bigots. No punishment whatsoever. Unreal.