Loading ...North Carolina teacher allegedly bullied, assaulted 5-year-old Muslim student because of his religion
BY CHRIS SOMMERFELDT
The New York Daily News
An elementary school teacher in North Carolina repeatedly assaulted a 5-year-old Muslim student, while encouraging the boy’s classmates to bully him, a leading civil rights group claims.
Alma Simpson, a kindergarten teacher at David Cox Road Elementary School in Charlotte, started harassing the young student at the beginning of the school year and on multiple occasions called him a “bad Muslim boy” before his classmates, according to a letter from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The Daily News is withholding the student’s name to protect his identity.
“During the first two months of the school year, (the student) was subjected to relentless bullying and harassment not only by his classmates, but by Ms. Simpson,” CAIR staff attorney Maha Sayed wrote in the letter obtained by The News and sent to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg board of education on Wednesday.
The worst incident, Sayed claims in the letter, occurred on Nov. 16 when Simpson grabbed the boy by the neck and started choking him.
“(Another teacher) then separated the two and began consoling (the boy) who was crying and extremely shaken,” Sayed stated.
Simpson allegedly also made the Muslim student carry a heavy backpack throughout entire school days, as his schoolmates would laugh and mock him. The bag would be loaded with heavy textbooks and headphones, which caused the boy to develop serious back pains, according to the letter.
The disturbing allegations come as the FBI reports that hate crimes against Muslim-Americans spiked by 67% last year. Furthermore, since Donald Trump was elected, the country has seen a staggering rise in anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant attacks.
Sayed claimed that the boy’s mother contacted school officials earlier this year and requested that her son be transferred to a different class. But on Oct. 12, the boy was reportedly moved back to Simpson’s class “without cause or explanation.”
“Ms. Simpson clearly exhibited a disturbing pattern of discriminatory and hostile conduct towards both (the boy) and his mother,” Sayed said. “The school’s failure to sufficiently investigate and monitor Ms. Simpson’s ongoing behavior, of which they were aware, ultimately resulted in her alleged assault and battery of the kindergarten student.”
The boy’s mother filed a report with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department after he came home from school and told her of the choking incident, Sayed said, adding that her organization demands that the school board launches an “immediate and thorough investigation” into Simpson’s alleged misconduct.
Sayed also said the boy’s family requests that he be transferred to “a safe kindergarten classroom free from discrimination.”
A spokeswoman with the school board confirmed Wednesday that officials are aware of the situation and said that they are investigating.